At its next meeting, the Bossier City Council will begin facing the consequences of getting along and going along with the old Bossier way, but will have a chance as well to begin its repudiation, focused upon happenings in newly-reelected Republican Vince Maggio’s district.
City elections occurred as news broke about a questionable deal the city made with two property owners in Maggio’s district. At the Council meeting days before the election, Republican Councilor Brian Hammons queried as to why the city was giving each a new parking lot.
As this space previously had noted, the answer City Attorney Charles Jacobs gave, that supposedly the owners had threatened lawsuits over alleged damage from construction of the nearby Walter O. Bigby Carriageway, when investigated lacked credibility. Instead, available evidence suggested that public dollars were being spent to aid the private business of a friend since childhood of GOP Councilor David Montgomery, a conclusion also forwarded in a post at the news and entertainment web site SOBO.live. That media outlet put in a public records request to obtain exact documentation of the incident.
Hammons wanted to know who gave authorization to spend such funds, since the Council never did and the two jobs each look to run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not having prior Council approval would be possible only if each were below the $250,000 limit in the state’s public bid law that mandatorily applies to local governments. The law also prevents splitting projects into parts to circumvent the requirement. As it seems unlikely that each project would cost less than that, Jacobs and the other member of the city’s Legal Department Assistant City Attorney Richard Ray may have broken the law one way or the other to initiate these projects without Council approval.
That question likely will come up in an executive session on the agenda for the meeting, and as part of that to what extent Republican Mayor Tommy Chandler knew of these activities. Additionally, as Hammons had warned when Jacobs announced no meaningful due diligence had bene performed investigating the alleged suits (one owner involved had characterized his participation more as an invitation), by this course of action the city opened itself up to other actual suits, and another has appeared to be subject of the session. The owner whose property sits closest to the Carriageway, local publisher John Settle, with expert data in hand informed the city he would sue unless accommodated.
Thus, the old Bossier way of using public resources with an eye towards who you know rather than any overall public interest may end up costing taxpayers extra into the millions of dollars, depending upon what happens next. But an arguably worse example of it also may surface at the meeting on a different matter.
Also on the agenda, the Council will vet a request for a liquor license to serve at the new Chasin’ Aces golf entertainment complex. Over a year ago the city approved the sale of property to the outfit, some of which is outside of the city but most of which is in Maggio’s district.
Whether securing that approval – which would have been imperiled without Maggio’s assent – in the past or with the upcoming licensure vote on tap, at least one of the two principals behind the limited liability corporation actively, if not aggressively, supported Maggio in his reelection campaign – even though neither principal live in Bossier City. Described in documents as the manager, Randy Rogers the weekend before the election was spotted by a campaign worker for Maggio’s opponent Ruth Pope Johnston aiding in canvassing for Maggio. The worker also described, providing as evidence video footage shot from his phone, an intimidation attempt made by Rogers to suppress canvassing for Johnston.
While Rogers, like any citizen, has a constitutional right to express candidate preferences, the incident raises questions about whether a transactional relationship exists between him and Maggio and whether that influenced Maggio’s past approval vote and/or his upcoming vote potentially on whether to award a license to the corporation. If Maggio conveyed that he expected Rogers to campaign on his behalf in order for express favorable opinions and votes for any or all aspects of the project, this could violate ethics law concerning abuse of office.
At the very least, before Tuesday’s votes Maggio should recuse himself voluntarily on this vote to prevent any appearance that there is a “pay-to-play” arrangement between the two. Better, he should address the public prior to the vote to confirm that although Rogers actively participated in his campaign, there is no quid-pro-quo relationship between the two regarding matters involving Chasin’ Aces dealt with by the Council.
That would send the right message repudiating the Bossier way and demonstrating an appropriate level of transparency to city government dealings, especially welcome in light of the public dollars/private lots fiasco. With this, Maggio has a chance to set a great tone as well as, on an individual level, begin to reassure the over the 49 percent of the voters in his district who opposed his reelection.
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