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Metro Council removes item to discuss firing Parish Attorney Andy Dotson
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BATON ROUGE- During the Metro Council meeting Oct. 25, it appeared Parish Attorney Andy Dotson's job could be in jeopardy over misinformation regarding the legality behind the mayor's proposed Stormwater Utility Fee.
The mayor's office placed blame on the parish attorney's office, saying they were misinformed about Non-Disclosure Agreements that were branded as being mandatory from the EPA. Metro Council member Cleve Dunn says he also felt misinformed.
"From evaluating all the information within the City Parish Government, I feel that we were misled," Dunn said.
Two weeks ago, it seemed like Dunn wanted to consider firing Dotson, adding an emergency item to the agenda.
On Wednesday, a new item that would look into getting rid of Dotson again was removed.
Dunn says both the mayor's office and the parish attorney's office held blame in the NDA confusion, but Bob Abbott announcing his retirement was enough to ease his frustration.
"If that wouldn't have been announced, I would still be moving forward with my item. Since the Parish Attorney has now taken responsibility for their role in this situation, I removed my item that would evaluate if we would have Andy Dotson, Parish Attorney removed from his position," Dunn said.
Dunn says that Kelvin Hill's recent resignation was the proper step from the mayor's office. He believes Hill and Abbott were the two main people at fault.
"Those two were at the forefront of this issue. They knew what was going on, they both had the opportunity to bring clarity to the narrative that was being created but that never happened," Dunn said.
WBRZ reached out to other Council Members to see if they agreed with the item being removed.
Most of them said yes.
Dwight Hudson told WBRZ the item could be added back in the future "once we have completed reviewing the items from the public records requests."
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