Mayor-President-Elect Josh Guillory says he's been looking at all aspects of Lafayette Consolidated Government and thinks that some changes are necessary. He plans to name new leaders for Public Works, Community Development and, to the surprise of many, The Lafayette Police Department.
Guillory has not given a clear reason as to why he asked Chief Toby Aguillard to resign but did say, "that's not an insult of the incumbent, that's not a personal attack. Politically people would tell me you know, don't do this but my job is not to make decisions based on politics, my job is to make decisions based on how will my community be better."
According to state law the Police Chief can not be fired without approval from Lafayette's Municipal Police and Fire Civil Service Board. Chief Aguillard told The Daily Advertiser that he has no plans to resign.
"Usually when we need to make a change it starts at the top", Guillory says about what he's calling a pledge to improve transparency, efficiency and accountability in LCG operations. "We're looking at everything, we're looking at contracts, we're looking at personnel, but really i'm looking at performance and with these changes that i'm considering, it starts at the top", he adds.
Public Works has been led by Mark Dubroc since 2017, with 30 years experience as an engineer. He won't lead the department under the Guillory administration. Guillory explains, "we're gonna break Public Works up and we're gonna break it up into three divisions."
He says the split will allow for more focus on the most urgent needs, "I want a department focused solely on drainage, my number one issue. With that comes accountability, with that comes a department head that I can go to and say hey we need this to happen and I have one person that's not civil service that is dedicated to the administrators initiatives of improving drainage in our community."
Guillory has not released any of the specifics of the changes he is planning to make for any of the three departments, but insists his motives are purely to benefit the residents of Lafayette, "this is not politics you know, this is about making Lafayette better, my job is to make sure that every department is doing the best that we can"
Guillory will be sworn in on January 6th.
