Joey Durel Concerned About Lawsuit Settlement

It was all over the news last week that Lafayette Consolidated Government agreed to settle on a case involving a waste transfer station that was blocked by the City-Parish Council. City Parish President Joey Durel called in to the Afternoon Drive Home to talk about the aftermath and mentioned that he was against the vote from the start.

In looking back, he said that was one of the reasons that he did not sign the legislation that was passed. Durel said that he knew it could be trouble. In dealing with the aftermath, Durel said that the place where the money came from is probably the lowest impact area of the budget, so,

I don't think anybody will ever feel it. The disappointment for me is we had hoped to go to the voters in the next few months and have it rededicated and have them vote on that money going somewhere else.

As to why he did not use the veto power that he has, Durel said,

We knew the city was going to get sued...had I vetoed it, we would have had another council meeting to discuss this issue...All we would have done was to give the other side's attorneys more ammunition, so we didn't want to risk that.

Durel said that one of the things that this situation has taught him was that we need to have a comprehensive plan for the city and parish.

If we're going to build a community for the future, we should plan...The waste transfer station probably is as good of a thing to hold up as an example as anything. A good comprehensive plan, conceivably might have...prevented this issue from happening.

Durel commented that while the waste transfer station cost us $3.4 million and we have nothing to show for it, the plan would cost $1.2 million and we would have a plan laid out for the future of the city and parish.

Durel said that he hopes for this plan to be the "people's plan" so that it would outlive just his administration and be carried out in the future.

Listen to the entire conversation with City Parish President Joey Durel below: