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Stalemate over redistricting in St. Gabriel continues after council meeting
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ST. GABRIEL - For years, residents in St. Gabriel say they have been pushing to have districts for the city councilmembers instead of at-large seats, so they know who they can communicate their concerns to.
Tuesday night, they almost had it.
The St. Gabriel City Council currently has five members who serve the entire city, but some residents say they want to see each councilman represent a district within the city.
"People who run at large don't necessarily know what's happening in Sunshine or in Carville, so you need to represent an area in which you live," resident Grace Marcell said.
But others believe that for a city the size of St. Gabriel, districts are not necessary.
"We know them all personally, and they will take your call. I feel they all represent me," resident Arend Vangemmert said.
Residents like Susan Landry say they want to have a council member in their district that they can call about issues.
"Is that fair to them for one person to get all the calls or two people to get all the calls? I want somebody that I can meet with on a regular basis, not a monthly council meeting where we get three minutes to talk, that's not enough for them to understand our concerns," Landry said.
The council had the opportunity to change that on Tuesday as several proposed maps aimed at dividing the city of St. Gabriel into four districts were voted on.
"We all run at large, because apparently we're not going to get what we need here," councilman William Cushenberry said.
None of the proposed maps received the four votes needed for a redistricting map to take effect.
"The human side of anything is that we all want to win. We all want to have that moment where we've accomplished, and I think that the accomplishment became bigger than the goal for the city, and we have to get back to the goals for the city," Councilman Hoza Redditt said.
After all of the maps failed, St. Gabriel Mayor Lionel Johnson pushed to hold a meeting on Thursday to consider another map that had not been introduced yet, but again, it failed to receive a second.
"It's probably been the closest we ever been in the city's history, and we could have made history tonight, but we came short," councilman Randall Johnson said.
Johnson says the next step is trying to get the redistricting on the ballot for the next election so voters can decide for themselves.
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