City’s hesitancy to name ‘blight court’ officials raises citizens’ ire

The seeming reluctance of the city administration to appoint an Administrative Hearing Officer and attorney to handle all matters related to blight took center stage during Wednesday night’s city council committee meetings.
After it sent a pair of condemnation recommendations to the full council for consideration, the Public Safety Committee heard from four citizens, three of whom asked directly about the delayed appointments. The fourth complained about the proliferation of wrecked automobiles parked outside a local wrecker service.
The most vocal of the speakers was Rich Hughes, a member of Citizens Against Blight, a local volunteer organization dedicated to identifying blighted structures in Crowley.
Hughes pointed out that the city council, nine months ago, adopted an ordinance calling for the establishment of a “blight court” to deal with code enforcement. “It’s a law,” he said. “You need to do something about it.”
Hughes said the movement “met with resistance from the get-go” and continues to be stalled.
“The problem du jour, I’m told, is that this is going to cost the city $200,000 to implement,” he said.
Asked where he heard that figure, Hughes declined to answer.
He claimed that at least four state municipalities – Opelousas, Lake Charles, Bogalusa and Monroe – use a system similar to that outlined by the Crowley ordinance and “each of them have realized a positive cash flow” as a result.
But Mayor Tim Monceaux was not so sure.
“There’s an enormous cost, the exact amount we don’t know” associated with the establishment and implementation of the blight court, he said. “When I get that number and an exact date I will give it to (the council).”
Monceaux added that he had personally contacted the mayors of three municipalities – all in the New Orleans area – that he had previously been told used a similar system “and none of them, not one, operate with an Administrative Hearing Officer.”
Also speaking regarding the blight court were Mary Augustine Cole and Evangelist Wheeler.
Cole urged the appointment of the hearing officer and attorney because “I have the right to reside in a neighborhood free of blight.”
She called the failure to expedite the appointments “a bane on the city of Crowley.”
Wheeler echoed Cole’s concerns, asking what could be done to speed up the process.
Brad Core, committee chair, said the next move is up to the mayor.
“We (the city council) have done all we can and it’s now out of our hands and in the hands of the mayor and administration,” he said.
Vernon “Step” Martin echoed that sentiment, explaining that the council, as the “legislative branch” of local government, had adopted the ordinance and now it was up to the mayor, the “executive branch,” to enact it.
Also addressing the committee was Troy Evans, who lives at the corner of North Avenue L and Front Street.
Evans said “wrecked and trash vehicles,” some of which he said are parked on city property along the road near the John N. John Overpass, make it impossible for two cars to pass. He also claimed that wreckers from the nearby wrecker service often unload cars in the roadway, blocking traffic in front of his home.
Evans was assured that the city Code Enforcement Office would be notified of the alleged infractions and Police Chief Jimmy Broussard told him to call the police station when the road is being blocked “and I will instruct the officers to clear the roadway.”
In other action, the committee recommended approval of liquor licenses for A&J’s Convenience Store at 803 W. Hutchinson, Asian Buffet at 2108 N. Parkerson Ave., I Mart Stores (Valero Corner Store) at 1764 N. Parkerson Ave., and Pizza Hut at 1900 N. Parkerson Ave.
Those recommendations will be considered by the full council when it meets in regular session at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 12.