BATON ROUGE - Things got heated during Wednesday's Metro Council meeting when they discussed the controversy surrounding the mayor's BRAVE contracts. Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome was not present for the discussion but was a focus of the conversation. 

"We now have our first female, African-American mayor," Councilman Lamont Cole said. "She is publicly being stoned as a result of trying to do something to help the community and no one has anything to say about that."

Interim chief administrative officer, Dr. James Llorens was present on behalf of Broome's administration. He said that suspended BRAVE contracts could be reinstated as early as next week, when the legislative auditor's investigation is complete.

Some of the council members argued that the scandal surrounding the BRAVE program has been less about transparency and more about race.

"This whole thing has been hateful, it has been evil at its core, and it has been attacked at our mayor," councilwoman Donna Collins-Lewis said. "I don't care what anyone else says it has literally been about her."