BATON ROUGE - Two East Baton Rouge metro council members got personal with each other recently in the latest example of dysfunction among that government body. In an email exchange, Councilwoman Chauna Banks chastised a city-parish employee for releasing public records indicating when she would be out of town.

Councilman Chandler Loupe came to the employee's defense and at one point brought up Bank's 2015 ethics complaint accusing her of spending campaign funds for personal needs.

Banks responded by saying Loupe's son would not be paralyzed if he had not tried to buy drugs in 2012. Loupe's then 15-year-old son was shot in a drug deal turned robbery.

Thursday Banks seemed to regret the email saying she had taken the "low road" in the exchange.

"I was flooded by all the abuse I had taken for four years and my civility was not working," she said.

Loupe has yet to respond but the personal attacks are the latest example of dysfunction among metro council members. Many blame lingering tensions on the series of tragic events in 2016 including the flood, the police massacre, and the Alton Sterling shooting.