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Last townhall hosted by two likely no votes

Posted at 10:22 PM, Jul 23, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-23 23:22:24-04

The debate over the potential Lafayette City-Parish split is still underway.The council is considering a proposal to amend the home rule charter and create two separate councils. One for the city and one for the parish. Some residents at the last town hall meeting voiced their concerns about why they don’t believe it is a good idea."It was dropped on us. Bruce Conque stood here when I made that comment and told me we have been working on this since 2011," one crowd member said. "I went to the hairdresser last week. I went and got my nails done last week. I went to the doctor today. Nobody that I’ve talked to knows anything about it," said a woman attending the meeting. Other disputed the concerns about time and transparency."I’ve heard a lot of people say they don’t know anything about this. You can attend council meetings, you can watch them live on AOC, you can re-watch them later. I just want to make it clear that in my opinion this has not been done in the dark, it been a lot of conversation and I am excited to see so many people here," a crowd member said. As for the councilman, KATC asked why they were opposed to the split. "Well, one of the biggest reasons why I was opposed to it in the very beginning is because I wasn’t allowed elaborate on the maps or have anything to do with this form of government. Myself, councilman Theriot and Councilman Pat Lewis were not among the people who helped form this new form of changing of government," Bellard said."There are also a number of issues that deal with the charter changing. From what I understand there is supposed to be additional amendments to the charter and map that I am still not aware of," Theriot said. The vote is scheduled for Tuesday night’s agenda, but there is a proposal to defer it by two weeks.