Just say no, in triplicate, to BC amendments

The best reason for Bossier Citians to vote down all three charter amendments on Mar. 29 is not so much what they do but what they don’t do.

Two of the three introduce relaxed term limit proposals, that only would permit three consecutive terms for city councilors and the mayor but leave open the chance that an elected official could return to a previous office after at least one term out. Products of a Charter Review Commission whose final membership was comprised of appointees of city councilors hostile to term limits and their appointees, in isolation these offerings are unobjectionable, but they don’t exist in isolation.

Because on May 3, another, more stringent, term limits amendment hits the ballot. This one is three terms lifetime and retroactive, product of a citizen-led petition process and the superior version if the goal is to prevent citizen-politicians from being captured by government.

Monroe school district unable to get it together

As if City of Monroe Schools didn’t have enough problems, apparent thievery at the top is being complemented it would seem from the bottom as well, all the while with the district saddled with minimal, even deteriorating, academic progress.

In the past year, the District has been rocked by allegations that former Superintendent Brent Vidrine on two occasions defrauded it. As part of his contract, he was allowed to buy more service time for retirement, but allegedly he forged documents to show he paid more than he did to receive the benefit. He has been indicted for this, but has paid back some, $20,000, and retired from the District last year even as he seemed to have shorted the district over $48,000 more. Still unresolved is annual extra but unauthorized payments according to his contracts totaling over $141,000 during his decade-long employment.

Possibly this activity was so under the radar that the Monroe City School Board couldn’t discover it during normal due diligence. In last year’s audit, the Board promised closer attention to superintendent reimbursement as a response. But how it has handled reports of spending concerning student activity accounts doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that the current Board can get it right.