At the Shreveport City Council meeting on April 26, chief deputy city attorney Danielle Brown advised the council that the proposed amendment to the Architectural and Engineering Selection Process (Ord. 72 of 2922) had a definition of Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) office .
Her comments were in response to this author questioning at the work session the day before the failure to include a DBE definition.
This author suggested that the proposed amendment should have referred to the city's Fair Share office, since the city does NOT have a designated DBE office.
Shortly after Ms. Brown misinformed the council, this author sent the following email to City Attorney Ron Lattier:
“From: John E. Settle Jr.
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2022 3:47 PM
To: Ronald Lattier
Cc: Whitehorn Henry L.; Condon Kathy; Ewing Danielle Farr
Subject: Ord 72. A and E
Ron
Please ask Ms Brown to send
Me the provision that defines DBE
Seemingly
Just calling Fair Share would suffice
Tks
John”
It was not answered and subsequently an article "Attorney Brown misinforms city council-again" appeared in The inquisitor.
Lattier is a busy guy.
In addition to his duties as city attorney at a salary of $169,500, he is also paid to attend meetings of the Caddo Levee Board and the Red Riverway Commission during the business week. He does NOT take PTO to attend these meetings.
Seemingly Lattier or an underling could have responded to a valid inquiry from a member of the media.
In the absence of the same, neither Lattier nor Brown have any basis to complain about the subsequent news article that landed Brown on the front page of the May 6 issue of The Inquisitor.
As a highly paid department head, Lattier has an obligation to have meaningful media inquiries answered.
His failure to answer the above email speaks poorly of Lattier, the city attorney"s office and the Perkins administration.