Bogalusa City Council Meeting - December 17, 2024

Tuesday (December 17, 2024) evening's meeting of the Bogalusa City Council meeting started off with
the election by Council members of a new Council President and Vice-President. District A Councilwoman Gloria Kates was unanimously elected Council President for the coming year and District E Councilman Mark Irvine was unanimously elected Vice-President.

A Resolution to resolve the purposed relocation of Bogalusa City Council Chambers and Council Secretary’s Desk and Office was removed from the Agenda. The issue has been resolved and the locations of  Bogalusa City Council Chambers and Council Secretary’s Desk and Office is unchanged.

A Resolution was added to the Agenda regarding a FAA grant for improvements at the George R. Carr Memorial Airport. The Resolution was approved.

Five Ordinances were introduced. Public Hearings and votes on the Ordinances will be at the January 7, 2024 Council meeting.

• AN ORDINANCE to approve the Planning & Zoning request for Mail Box One to change from A-2 residential to B-1 Business located at 815 Virginia Ave.

• AN ORDINANCE authorizing the City of Bogalusa to donate to the Greater Ebenezer Baptist Church of Bogalusa located at 1104 Poplas Street the 60-70 feet of undeveloped land between Poplas Street and College Street.

• AN ORDINANCE authorizing the demolition of the structure located at 1315 S. Columbia Street for safety reasons. 

• AN ORDINANCE authorizing the City of Bogalusa to enter into a contract with Servcorp International, Inc. for the annual city auction. 

• AN ORDINANCE authorizing the City Attorney to retain Lillian “ Tina” Ratliff to be Assistant City Attorney. 

A Public Hearing was held on an Ordinance to dedicate the remaining balance of the American Rescue Plan Funds to Water & Sewer Infrastructure. The Council voted to approve the Ordinance by a 5-2 vote..

An Ordinance to allocate remaining ARPA Funds and Enacting the Better Bogalusa 2025 was also on the Agenda for a Public Hearing. A Motion was made to consider the Ordinance but failed due to the Motion not receiving a second. However, Mayor Truong, who was in favor of this proposed Ordinance, came to the podium to describe what the Ordinance and his plan contained. Following failure of approval of the Ordinance, the Mayor left the meeting and did not return. Later, in a Facebook post on the City of Bogalusa's FB page, the Mayor is highly critical of the Council for not approving his plan. However, it is apparent that the Council's primary concern was fixing the water and sewer problems, a major and developing issue.

Discussion of both Agenda items begins at 17:30 into the video and mainly centered around whether or not all of the funds would be dedicated to water and sewer infrastructure. 

A number of residents spoke during Public Participation, which begins at 58:00 into video.

There were no additional Administrative Remarks and additional comments by Council Persons followed. Notable are the remarks made by Councilman O'ree, describing previous conflicts with the Mayor and his staff, beginning at 01:35:00