Councilmembers angry being left out of city planning decision

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – It was a heated city council meeting Monday as multiple council members expressed how upset they were about being left out of a city planning decision.

Council members spent nearly an hour telling Mayor Tom Arceneaux how angry they were being left out of the neighborhood selection process for the Block by Block Blight initiative.

Telling the mayor that while they support efforts to revitalize neighborhoods, they believe they should have been given a say in the process instead of just a citizens committee selected by the mayor.

Councilmembers said they only learned about the initiative during a press conference last Monday, along with the public, and had to answer many questions from their constituents, for which they did not have answers.

“All of our districts are different. The best person to speak to is that council person or the people who live in that district,” said Councilwoman Ursula Bowman, District G.

“In my district I don’t have no say about what’s going on. That’s crazy. I don’t understand that,” Councilman James Green, District F.

“The big concern I have is that we really didn’t have that much input as the public seems to think and I was getting calls as well asking what about this? What about that? And, I didn’t know what to tell them. I said, you’re going to have to reach out to the mayor’s office,” said Councilman Grayson Boucher, District D.

Mayor Arceneaux responded to the council members’ comments by apologizing and telling them this is just the start of the process.

“It has always been my goal and desire to include council members in the process of developing a long term plan to reduce blight and use the resources made available through Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership. To the extent that my announcement last week caused discomfort or made you feel left out or slighted, I apologize. That was not my intent. I regret any offense I caused,” Arceneaux said.

Arceneaux said his press conference signaled the outline of the first step of many to still come and told the council members this is the beginning of conversations to reduce blight and their collaboration is key.