JOHN E. SETTLE JR.
Editor/Publisher
The Mexican standoff between Bossier Mayor Tommy Chandler and the Bossier City Council led by David Montgomery is far from over.
It all started when Chandler “upset” long-time incumbent Lo Walker. Who knows, maybe before that.
The next logs on the fire were the “upset” defeats of long-time council members Scott Irwin and Tim Larkin by Shane Cheatham and Chris Smith, respectively. Both Cheatham and Smith were big-time Chandler supporters.
Then to add insult to injury to the old Bossier control group, Chandler announced he would name Cheatham as his Chief Administrative Officer (CAO). Cheatham then notified the Secretary of State he would not take the council member position.
At the first meeting of the new Council last month, Montgomery and his puppets took sweet revenge, not once but twice, against Chandler and Cheatham.
Initially, the nomination of Cheatham by Smith as CAO died for lack of a second by a fellow council member. Then the old guard put Irwin back on the council as the interim appointee until the fall election to replace Cheatham.
These actions upset a large number of Chandler/Cheatham supporters, who decided to retaliate going after councilman Don “Bubba” Williams by starting a recall petition. Williams, who is basically joined at the hip with Montgomery, is considered to be the most vulnerable to a recall effort.
Once Williams was notified of the recall petition by Baton Rouge, the Montgomery cabal sprang to action. On a Facebook post, Cheatham alleges that he was offered a city position at $70,000 and a city vehicle by this group if he would stop the recall effort. Cheatham advised Montgomery he would have to be named CAO if he was to squash the recall. To which Montgomery refused the deal.
The next round in the tit-for-tat circus orchestrated by Ringleader Montgomery was at the Tuesday Bossier City Council meeting. The nomination by Chandler of Wade Richy as the public works director was postponed until the Aug. 17 council meeting to allow for further investigation of his credentials. This, after the council, in small groups composed of less than a majority, interviewed Rich on July 26 and 27.
So the standoff continues. And so does the recall effort that reportedly is going to kick off big time very soon.