The crybaby majority on Monroe’s City Council, fuming it couldn’t get its way, last week decided to take its toys home and put the city in a bad spot.
At its regular meeting, shortly after convening Democrat Councilors Juanita Woods motioned and Rodney McFarland seconded passing over the entire agenda, and they with Verbon Muhammad approved that over the objection of Republican Councilor Gretchen Ezernack, who at least got a chance to ask why. GOP Councilor Doug Harvey was running late and missed everything.
The Democrats remained closed-lipped about their rationale – with McFarland waving off Woods from even speaking to a reporter – until the next day, when they took to social media to complain their act showed displeasure at “disrespect” from independent Mayor Friday Ellis. The group and he have locked horns over many issues since McFarland and Muhammad took office in mid-2024, and from the timing it appeared on this occasion over the city’s new-old fire chief, Timothy Williams.
Days before, he had been reappointed to the job by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry concluding a tortured process going on over two years. Ellis originally appointed now-West Monroe Chief Daniel Overtruf to the post, but the Democrats refused to confirm him saying that he wasn’t qualified enough having scored middling on the civil service exam. Then after some time Ellis appointed Williams, then Bastrop chief, but the Three Bears said that porridge wasn’t right either because while Williams had scored at the top of applicants, they said Bastrop was too small of a department even as Willimas had compiled a lengthy and distinguished record there.
As this unfolded, Monroe GOP state Sen. Stewart Cathey succeeded in passing a bill that if the council of a city roughly the size of Monroe had an extended fire chief vacancy with council disapproval, the governor could appoint a qualified chief. Landry did so, but the Brown Bombers, as styled by some supporters because they are all black, launched a doomed lawsuit and a recall that failed was launched against Ellis.
Williams didn’t take the job while the federal district court had the case, in order to keep the Bastrop gig. After having that laughed out of court on the basis of no standing (and would fail on the merits as state law takes precedence over home rule charters), and the previous exam had gone stale, Williams retook it and Landry again appointed him, in the middle of September a few days before the scheduled meeting. For his part, after suit dismissal Williams offered to meet with the three, none of whom took him up on that.
The day after the truncated gathering, the majority took to social media to make the allegation that Ellis wouldn’t work with them with the appointment being just one thing, and they also filed another and likely frivolous suit seeking to enjoin Landry’s choice. They claimed this neglect despite the fact that most city infrastructure appropriations have gone to the trio’s districts.
However, the real issue is one of patronage and preferments. The majority wants more blacks in city managerial jobs (the more recent exam had a black Monroe candidate score equally as high as Williams) and for blacks to receive more city largesse (exemplified by a recent dispute over the Ellis Administration’s questioning apportionment of money over legal concerns to a special district that would go to black developers). Indeed, McFarland publicly has called Ellis, who is white, “anti-black.”
This is a power move challenging Ellis as a policy-maker – where the group defines Ellis granting them respect, transparency, and communication as kowtowing to their agenda – and has real world negative consequences. The delay means a permit to facilitate a restauranteur in going into business means he can’t open, and the city will lose out on nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in grants and tax credits to renovate the G.B. Cooley House, a tourist attraction on the National Register of Historic Places, unless a special meeting occurs by the end of this week.
But the designed dysfunction by the Democrats precisely is there to foment discord, with the ultimate goal of creating enough chaos around Ellis as mayor to discredit him to the electorate so that it picks a black Democrat of their liking in 2028.
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