It’s deja vu, all over again as Gonzales City Council rejected the 2026-27 General Fund Budget proposed by Mayor Tim Riley on Monday.  No one in the Riley administration was surprised by the outcome, a 3-2 vote against the primary operating budget, the same three members in opposition to the PACE Center Economic Development District budget […]

Freeland Jackson Center, long-awaited and a bit behind, is scheduled for substantial completion in May (fingers crossed). Mayor Tim Riley visited the site last week as finishing touches are being applied. “We’re all very excited for the center’s opening which cannot come soon enough,” the mayor said. “Freeland Jackson Center is going to provide recreational […]

Gonzales City Attorney Allen Davis provided an opinion from Louisiana’s Attorney General after three council members vociferously criticized Mayor Tim Riley during a Budget Workshop this week.  Terri Lambert, Cynthia Gray James and Kirk Boudreaux launched a joint attack against a handful of salary increases, anticipating Monday’s vote on the 2026-27 budget.  “We need to […]

Whether or not to charge James Saizan of Liberty Fence & Supply criminally…it is an ongoing discussion.  Louisiana’s Licensing Board for Contractors investigators insist that Saizan violated Revised Statute 37:2163, Engaging in business of contracting without authority prohibited; penalty (see below) and should be charged.  Those investigators referred the matter to local authorities tasked with making […]

Nicholas Miller, whose tenure on Ascension’s Planning & Zoning Commission stretches back to 2022, was elected to Planning’s Chair in a confused (and confusing) meeting of the body on April 8.  Elevated to the chair by acclimation, his election did not quite jibe with brand new commission bylaws adopted only moments earlier.   The bylaw change […]

“We’re not doing cost of living this year,” Councilwoman Terri Lambert declared on Tuesday during a Special Working Meeting of Gonzales’ City Council, a workshop called by Mayor Tim Riley intended to avert a budget fiasco like the one embarrassing the city in 2025.  “What’s funny?” Lambert challenged a handful of city employees taken aback […]

Five years have elapsed since voters approved the sale of Ascension’s “wastewater utility system…and grant franchises to operate same to National Water Infrastructure (NWI).”  Last week a unanimous Parish Council resolved to execute an agreement with East Ascension Drainage Commission (EAD) to expedite the ” in the planning, acquiring and/or improving public projects, and providing […]