Bossier City Councilmembers again reject term limits election; File appeal, delaying judge's ruling
The five councilmembers opposing term limits file an appeal.
Three Bossier City Council members are still standing firm against bringing term limits before voters.
In a fourth effort to add a resolution putting term limits on the December ballot, Vince Maggio, Jeffery Darby, and David Montgomery, Jr. voted no.
For the first time, Don Williams joined Brian Hammons and Chris Smith in voting yes for the measure.
Councilmember Jeff Free did not attend the meeting.
A unanimous vote would have been required to add the resolution to the council's agenda.
District Judge Parker Self ruled Monday that the City of Bossier City and the City Council of Bossier City must “perform its nondiscretionary/mandatory duty of calling an election to submit to voters the proposed propositions which would serve to amend the City Charter as proposed in this petition.”
Maggio, Darby and Montgomery defied that court order at today's meeting.
“Five Bossier city councilmen were, up to this point, wasting your tax dollars and now fighting the right of the people to decide what kind of term limits they want,” said Bossier Term Limits Coalition spokesman David Crockett. “This is clearly just a way that some of the city council are delaying because they want to hold power.”
Cassie Rogers, another Coalition member who brought the suit against the council, said the action was an example of “fraud, waste, and abuse.”
“It was deemed by a judge in the court of law that the arguments that were rendered by the five councilmen who are fighting us tooth and nail — that there was no reason for the fight,” Rogers added. “In a historical moment in Bossier City, they awarded the citizens the power to put something on the ballot because you refused to, even though the charter tells you you must.”
According to court records, all five council members who originally opposed a term limits election have filed a suspensive appeal. This delays the execution of Judge Self’s judgment until the appeal is decided.
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