St. Landry Council Considers Veto Overrides at Contentious Meeting

At a special meeting Wednesday night, the St. Landry Parish Council voted to consider overriding a number of vetoes handed down by Parish President Bill Fontenot.

The meeting was often contentious, and Fontenot found himself on the defensive with a calculated, critical and aggressive line of questioning from councilwoman Pam Gautreau.  After the meeting, Fontenot made it clear he was disheartened with the discourse and the tone of some council members, namely Gautreau.

"All they seem to want to do those three or four is talk about the past and butt heads with the president's office, it's very non-productive," said Fontenot.

For her part, Gautreau says she is speaking on behalf of her constituents.  

"There is not a personal issue here," she said.  "This is about when we get behind these chairs we are council members, we do not represent ourselves in these chairs we represent the people of our district, there are 5,000 people sitting right here, when I speak."

Fontenot recently vetoed five ordinances passed by the council, but only two of those ordinances received the nine council votes required to proceed with an override. 

The first, is ordinance no. 2012-007, which calls for the levying of a 4% administrative fee on all gross proceeds collected from the slot machine revenue.  Fontenot's issue with the ordinance is that it calls for said fees to be dedicated solely to road materials, but not salaries.