While the big story coming from this week’s meeting of the Bossier City Council was how five of its members disgraced themselves, another intriguing story emerged over whether the city’s moribund Charter Review Commission operated legally.
The final reading of an ordinance to disband the Commission failed when only Republicans Chris Smith and Brian Hammons voted in support, while Republicans David Montgomery, Jeff Free, and Vince Maggio, plus Democrat Bubba Williams and no party Jeff Darby voted against. In the cases of Williams and Free, they reversed their votes from the first reading two weeks earlier; the others against had been absent.
Montgomery led the charge against, arguing that, even as the Charter didn’t address whether the Council could rescind a Commission once constituted, the intent was that the Council wasn’t to interfere with Commission operations until its termination voluntary or by its 18-month life, and rescinding did interfere because it could influence a panel to make proposals favored by councilors, under the threat of dissolution if it didn’t. City Attorney Charles Jacobs confessed it was a gray area that didn’t have a clear-cut resolution.