Breach forces council to act

Ordinance pulled after public catches wind of proposal

Plans to stop the televising of parish committee meetings got pulled from the agenda after the preliminary draft of the proposal was sent out to several residents in the parish.

St. Charles Parish Council Chairman Dennis Nuss, with the support of the  rest of the council members, stopped the measure after he was bombarded with phone calls and emails from residents complaining about the idea.

“I’m surprised how fast the word got out,” Nuss said. “The text wasn’t even finalized yet and someone was able to send this out to several people in the parish. I’m not sure what we’re going to do about this as a council, but something must be done.”

Nuss says that Parish President V.J. St. Pierre is looking into how the ordinance got released from the council office before it was actually finalized.  “I spoke to Mr. St. Pierre on Friday and we’re both very concerned that the paperwork circulated before anything was finalized,” he said. “We will never try to hide anything, but there may be occasions in the future when council members or the administration are working on matters of a confidential nature.  I’d hate to see those types of things get out before there has been time to prepare the documentation completely.”

Nuss says the idea to stop televising the committee meetings was a group decision and he didn’t write the ordinance himself.

“I’ve heard that I wanted to stop airing meetings all together and that’s just not the case,” he said. “The rumors started spreading late Friday afternoon and I received several phone calls at home from people stating they weren’t happy about this.”

The proposed ordinance, which caused the uproar with some residents, was a request to rescind televising parish council committee meetings.

Nuss says the administration felt like some people didn’t feel comfortable airing their grievances during the committee  meetings because the cameras were on them. He also said the purpose of not televising the committee meetings  was  to give the public a chance to be in a more relaxed environment.

“We can’t please everyone, but the people were upset about it so we pulled it,” he said. “Originally, there seemed to be a consensus among the council to place the resolution on the agenda.”

The committee meetings aired on Cox Cable Channel 6, Tuesday, Jan. 22 and Thursday, Jan. 24.