Louisiana mayor halts his village's public meetings
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The Times investigated a tip about alleged wrongdoing and abuse of power in the Village of Clarence.
Lex Talamo/The Times
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CLARENCE, La. — In a likely violation of state law, the mayor of this village in western Louisiana unilaterally canceled all public meetings of the Board of Aldermen “until further notice.”
But in a letter that Mayor Tommy Evans, elected in April 2016, left Wednesday at the village hall, he said he would meet with the board’s three members privately. The village of about 500 people is more than 200 miles northwest of New Orleans and about 150 miles from Louisiana’s capital of Baton Rouge.
I regret to inform you that no monthly council meeting will be held until the Alder-women and the Chief of Police adhere to the rules and regulations set forth by the Lawrason Act and the Open Meeting Law. I will continue attempting to resolve issues by meeting with all of them privately however, all monthly council meetings are cancelled until further notice.
The boldface type is the mayor’s emphasis. Evans did not deliver the letter to board members.
Clarence has three elected aldermen: Irma Anthony, Tamala Chatman and Doris Singleton. In July interviews, all criticized Evans, saying he has barred the board from doing its job under the Lawrason Act, a state law enacted in 1898 that allows for a mayor-alderman form of government in which elected aldermen, or city council members, provide a “system of checks and balances with the mayor.â€
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The mayor has denied the aldermen access to information, rejected their attempts to add items to meeting agendas and — most disconcerting — refused to share information about village finances, Chatman said.
Aldermen don’t know how village money is being spent, she said. She filed a public-records request seeking financial information; it’s now more than a year old and has not been answered.
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“When I see that nobody signed the checks but the mayor, I never did that. Somebody else needs to know what is going  on,†Braxton said. “In my 16 years of being mayor, there were always two signatures on the checks.â€
The village sewer system does not work properly. The village police department has effectively closed, and the mayor has stopped paying the elected police chief while continuing to pay that former officer.
Village resident Aretha McWright started a petition to recall Evans last year, filing 149 signatures out of 144 needed with the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Registrar of Voters local office in Natchitoches. She later learned that 11 of the names didn’t meet requirements.
State law requires 40% of registered voters in the village sign the official form after the chairman of the recall committee registers it with the Secretary of State’s Office.
McWright has submitted a second petition that has not yet been processed. In May, McWright received a letter from the mayor demanding a copy of the first petition and accompanying signatures.
“He said the petition was illegal. He sent me a certified letter saying he wanted everyone’s name on the petition,†McWright said. “He wants to intimidate them. When people were signing the petition, he was telling them they were going to get arrested; they were going to go to jail.â€
One supporter said she’s excited to see what Evan’s four-year term has in store, pointing to a new Family Dollar, whose construction will begin in August, as a sign of progress. Evans said he worked to land the store for more than seven months.
“I just love him,” resident Willie Scott said. “We’ve never had any stores, and he’s just been here for one year. I’m excited.”
At the board’s monthly meeting in July, Evans questioned in open session why a Times reporter was at the meeting. The mayor also told the reporter to stop videotaping the meeting, a challenge that violates Louisiana’s open meetings law.
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The board was to meet again Thursday evening. At 8:31 a.m. CT Thursday, Village Clerk Sue Davis informed The Times that the meeting had been canceled but did not share that the mayor had canceled all future meetings.
Among the provisions in the Lawrason Act: At least one meeting a month at a time, date and place set in an ordinance.
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Chatman said Thursday that she plans to sue.
“He does not have the authority to cancel council meetings,” she said. “That says that the alderwomen and chief of police work only for him. He’s basically suspended us until we adhere to him, and I have a problem with that.”
Follow Lex Talamo on Twitter:Â @LexTalamo
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