It’s interesting that three of the members want to revisit the issue so soon after the last public hearing, which was more like a public flaying of the guys who proposed the idea by everyone from ministers to a woman who said she would rather pick cotton on her knees than see bingo in town. What will be more interesting is what they actually do during the meeting — after all, three council members is enough to pass an ordinance.

Edit: After a lot of hemming and hawing and a good deal of public outrage at the meeting, none of the town council members could bring themselves to introduce the motion that would have allowed bingo in. Not only was the meeting a waste of time, but it effectively killed bingo indefinitely.

So, what’s new?

Meanwhile, Natchez city engineer David Gardner said things are go, and that the city had hired an engineer to keep an eye on things. (see here) 

But Blain and the police jury agree on one thing. Both of their suits name engineer Bryant Hammett, who the jury hired to inspect the roads during construction and sign off on them once they were completed, as a defendent.

About a year and a quarter ago, a couple of entrepreneurs came to town with a suggestion that the town allow them to open a charity bingo parlor or three. If you’re not familiar with Louisiana’s charity bingo parlor system, the parlors have to give so much of their income to local charities, so much to the town and then they get to keep whatever profit is left over after all the rest of the wealth is redistributed. There was also some funny business in the 2007 proposed Ferriday ordinance about how two separate locations can be considered one location if they’re within a certain distance of each other, a clever if dubiously ethical way to sneak multiple halls into town while being able to say that the ordinance only allowed two locations to open in town, period. When the issue was brought to a vote, the town council voted not to allow it. A similar move was attempted with police jury, with similar results. 

But with a new mayor comes new hope, at least in the minds of bingo parlor owners.

The Ferriday town council had a special meeting Tuesday to take care of some housecleaning issues and to have a public hearing about the bingo. The public, or at least the public present, was not pleased with the idea. Tuesday’s meeting was only a public hearing, and so no official action was taken. If the bingo hall is to go in, it will have to be rushed in, thanks to new legislation signed by Gov. Bobby Jindal that pretty much requires the hall to be in place by Aug. 15 if it is going to go in at all.

The problem with all of this is that it doesn’t have to go to a public vote. There is no call for a referendum, and legally, no requirement for public input beyond Tuesday’s meeting. The town council can decide on the issue one way or the other; whether or not that will happen is still up in the air.

It works like this: If there is a major felony in Ferriday, the CPSO and the VPD can send investigators to the scene to, presumably, help investigate. The same is true of crimes in Vidalia and the unincorporated areas of the parish.

What makes all of this interesting is that it is reportedly  Sheriff Randy Maxwell’s brainchild. For those who love conspiracy theories, this is Maxwell’s crowning moment — he now has his hands in the other two major law enforcement departments in the parish (I assume that the Ridgecrest and Clayton PD aren’t contributing any investigators, unless Ridgecrest chief Heath Edwards — who moonlights full-time at the VPD — is eventually assigned as a Vidalia investigator). In some circles, it is common thought that Vidalia Chief Tapper Hendricks is a Maxwell puppet, and now — if the theories are true — Maxwell can yank the Ferriday chain as well.

But a part of the agreement is that in Vidalia, Hendricks has authority over all of the members of the task force present and in Ferriday Hedrick will call the shots over the investigators who are called in, and the chiefs can tell the CPSO investigators and those from the other agency to leave if they feel they are not needed.

The SO already lends a hand in pretty much every murder or major robbery in the municipalities, so aside from the fact that police officers from other departments will be present in either Vidalia or Ferriday, little will change in practice.