The Charter Amendment: For and Against [FULL DEBATE]

The Charter Amendment: For and Against was a two-hour KPEL special featuring both sides of the fiery debate over how to move forward with Lafayette's consolidated government. Lafayette voters will go to the polls to vote on the measure on December 8th. Kevin Blanchard represented the group Fix The Charter and Lafayette resident Andy Hebert spoke out in opposition to the plan.

The words that came up time and time again were "joint", "jointly", and "together". There are many city issues, that under the amended charter, would still have to be approved by the parish as a whole. Critics have said that cuts away at supporters' claim that the amended charter would give the city of Lafayette autonomy. Kevin Blanchard says he understands that concern, but that it's what we're currently doing as a city-parish government anyway.

The video below is hour one. Blanchard and Hebert stated their cases both for and against the charter amendment.

The video below is hour two. Blanchard and Hebert answered questions from KPEL listeners who called into to the live debate.

It seems like both sides want the same final outcome. At this point, It's just a question of how we get there. Fix the Charter contends that this is just the first step that does not fix everything. It's Hebert's opinion that there are too many things we just don't know about until it's in practice.