LAFAYETTE, L.a. — Members of Lafayette's City Council are preparing to vote on a resolution that would launch an investigation into the Guillory Administration.
A pair of meetings — the first slated to begin Tuesday night at 5:30 — would look into contracts for drainage projects and whether Guillory's own private side hustles have benefited from his first-term tenure. This all comes after months of issues with drainage projects landing Lafayette Consolidated Government in court on multiple occasions, while also raising questions on the Guillory Administration's due diligence moving forward on projects and following both state and federal laws.
Talk of this potential investigation is part of a pair of meetings and would stem back to when Guillory took office in January of 2020 up until current day.
According to public filings and our media partners at The Advocate, since taking office, Guillory has taught classes at UL, formed two LLCs, and got a license to produce title insurance, along with processing expungements for clients. All these go against the City-Parish Charter which prohibits outside employment that would thereby interfere with official duties.
Guillory recently denied any unethical wrongdoing or conflict of interest when it comes to side hustles like the equipment rental company he and his wife founded last year, WM&N Machineries.
City Council members tell KATC that any resolution coming out of tonight's vote would allow the council to compel witnesses, subpoena documents, and hold people in contempt to investigate the Guillory Administration and any other parties "directly or indirectly involved."
KATC reached out to LCG for comment on the potential investigation. LCG spokesperson Jamie Angelle says, "We are getting a lot of questions about this, it's an investigation, we are not hiding anything, we welcome it and look forward to working with the city council in the future."
Also on the table in the pair of council meetings — a vote on increasing raises for Guillory's top LCG staff as they adopt a budget for the new fiscal year, in which Guillory is proposing more than $200,000 in raises for his department directors next year.
Along with this, city council members are preparing to discuss a plan to increase power, water, and sewer rates for LUS customers over the next few years. The increase would be by three percent in the electricity base rate each year for the next two years, and a yearly increase to water and sewer rates by 8 and 9.5 percent respectively for the next three years. This comes out to a 22-dollar total increase per month by 2025.
Also on the agenda is a city council ordinance that will allocate $100,000 to pay for the investigation.
KATC will keep you updated with the outcome of the council meetings as it becomes available.
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