Lafayette City-Parish Council Approves Clerk Hire, Pay

LAFAYETTE, La. (KPEL) -- In an uneventful meeting that lasted just over 30 minutes, Lafayette City-Parish Council members approved the hiring and pay rate of a new council clerk and passed a number of other ordinances.

The hiring of assistant clerk Veronica Williams, with a pay rate of $84,555, was unanimously approved without discussion. Longtime clerk Norma Dugas is retiring.

All ordinances up for final adoption, in fact, were approved unanimously, and only two of those ordinances received any type of discussion.

Funding for a new fire station 14 received attention from District 4 council member Kenneth Boudreaux and District 9 council member William Theriot. Chief Administrative Officer Dee Stanley explained the $367,475 would come from various capital accounts, mostly leftover unspent money from the construction of fire station 4.

Public Works Director Tom Carroll, acting as director for Traffic & Transportation now that Tony Tramel has retired, had to explain to council members why his department needed $53,307 for the renovation of a compressed natural gas bus maintenance bay.

The rapid-fire meeting started with a proclamation from City-Parish President Joey Durel, who is currently on vacation and was not in attendance, naming the month of April as Fair Housing Month in Lafayette.

Of note as well were the celebrations of two birthdays this week--Durel's on Wednesday and District 1 council member Andy Naquin's on Friday.