Ignoring multiple irregularities in the ordinance approval process, four Gonzales Council members also disregarded advice from the City Attorney to increase their salary by 60% last night. The ordinance introduced by Councilwoman Terri Lambert during the October 12 meeting said nothing about a $750 Uniform Allowance for herself and four colleagues, adding the provision in time for inclusion on Monday’s agenda. After amending the ordinance to excise the allowance, the majority voted to increase their pay from $1,000 per month to $1,600.
Councilman Eddie Williams was the lone dissenter.
In a chaotic (is there any other kind with this council?), mostly pointless back and forth with City Attorney Allen Davis, Lambert attempted to shift blame for the ordinance snafu. Davis incurred the councilwoman’s ire for opining that the council “can’t move forward to vote on the ordinance as published” because it would violate Louisiana Open Meetings Law.
Ordinance No. 4310 as introduced on October 12
Davis called the addition of the uniform allowance for inclusion on the agenda “a substantive change…it’s a different ordinance” than the one introduced and publicly noticed.
The version submitted for inclusion in Monday’s meeting packet
A second ordinance scheduled for final vote, this one to amend the city’s 2026-27 budget to appropriate funds for the council salary increase was deferred by a unanimous vote. Councilwoman Lambert drafted this one too, leaving requisite sections of the legislation blank until the city’s de facto Finance Director provided requested information Monday morning. City Attorney Allen Davis deemed that “another violation” of the public notice requirement.
So, the council voted itself an annual raise of $7,200 without adjusting the budget to appropriate funding. Not unusual as municipal budgeting rarely takes into account every contingency that arises. Case in point, Gonzales’ budget allocation for legal fees to pay City Attorney Allen Davis for his counsel. Davis having not kowtowed to Councilwoman Lambert’s ordinance drafting demands leading up to Monday’s meeting, Lambert turned on him as the meeting drew to a close.
Just before a motion to adjourn, Lambert interjected:
Since y’all didn’t want to have any discussion, I just want to request that every council member get a copy of Attorney Davis’ contract. His contract was not voted on by the City Council. I think that’s very important.
But not so important as to raise the issue since Davis was engaged a year-and-a-half ago until Lambert did not get her way. The councilwoman continued:
We voted on a resume’. We voted for him to be our City Attorney.
But when all this ordinance stuff went down last week he and I went back and forth over what his duties were. And I want to see what his duties are cuz we didn’t vote on his contract. I just want y’all to be aware of that.
Having acquired all of Allen Davis’ billings pursuant to a Public Records Request, an inordinate percentage of the charges for his services (we think it’s more than 10%) can be attributed to requests by the first term councilwoman.
Allen Davis finds himself in a difficult circumstance, necessarily having to serve two masters, Mayor Tim Riley’s administration and a recalcitrant council member hell bent on gumming up the works. Davis has, so far as we can tell, remained as impartial as possible evidenced by the fact that Riley’s administration has been sporadically frustrated too.
Good for Allen Davis.
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