It was disrespectful, disappointing, out of order, disgusting, and it set a bad precedent. And it should not be repeated.
The rules for addressing the city council are very clear.
At regular meetings citizens can ONLY address the council on items listed on the agenda. At work sessions and regular meetings speakers are limited to three minutes UNLESS time is extended by motion and affirmative vote. At all meetings, comments are to be directed to the council—NOT third parties.
At all meetings, questions can be posed by a speaker, but questions are NOT to be answered by the council members or any other officials at the horseshoe.
At work sessions and regular council meetings the vice-chair of the council, Ursula Bowman, is to regulate speaker time and cut off speakers who exceed the three minutes.
At the meeting yesterday, Sept. 8, a lady, who obviously was a friend of council chair Tabatha Taylor, went on a rant accusing Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux of ignoring her neighborhood, and starting directing questions to the mayor. Her complaints were not attributable to any agenda item.
Unfortunately, and for some inexplicable reason, Bowman did NOT enforce the rules on agenda items, council rules on to whom direct comments, and that questions were not to be answered.
To make matters worse none of the other council members called for a point of order to require the speaker rules to be enforced. (Gary Brooks was not at the meeting.)
It was a sad day for good government at Shreveport City Hall.
