Says council members agreed, but changed their minds after taking office
St. Charles Parish President V.J. St. Pierre says he’s responsible for the ordinance requesting that committee meetings no longer be televised on Cox Channel 6.
“Dennis took a lot of heat for that, but it was my idea,” St. Pierre said. “I was bombarded with emails and so was he.”
St. Pierre says the rough draft of the ordinance was sent out to the council members and it wasn’t meant for the public to see; it was still a work in progress.
“We spoke with the council secretary, and before sending out anything, she’ll put something on the ordinance, like a header, that says rough draft, so council members will know it’s not the final approved document and it’s still up for discussion,” St. Pierre said.
St. Pierre says he got the idea not to televise committee meetings from the way the St. Charles Parish School Board conducts its meeting.
“The school board has committee meetings that are private and if there’s a disagreement you never know about it because it’s not televised,” he said. “I think that’s a good idea. Initially in orientation, the council members agreed with me, but everyone’s entitled to their opinion and I guess things change once you take office.”
St. Pierre says the purpose of restoring the council committee meetings was to ensure that whatever issues were needed to be discussed are discussed then. That way, the council meeting wouldn’t last so long.
“When we come together as a council in the committee meetings, grievances can be aired and we can work through a lot of issues instead of waiting until the day of the council meetings and trying to resolve everything right then and there,” St. Pierre said.
St. Pierre says during committee meetings a lot of issues are discussed and council members sometimes disagree.
“There’s an appropriate place for that,” he said. “Like the school board, we’d like to air our grievances in private and then come together at the council meetings and not be divided on issues.”
Be the first to comment