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Lafayette Woman Back in Court, Sues LPSS Over Public Comment Rules

LAFAYETTE, La. — The Lafayette Parish School Board, Superintendent Francis Touchet and Board President Hannah Mason are named in a lawsuit accusing them of violating Louisiana’s Open Meetings Law during four recent board meetings.

Suzanne Higginbotham, who is representing herself, filed the petition Monday in the 15th Judicial District Court, court records show. She’s asking the court to declare the board’s practices unlawful, block the board from continuing them while the case is pending, and void several actions the board already took.

Higginbotham's Claim: More Open Meetings Violations

Higginbotham’s petition targets board meetings held June 11, July 23, Aug. 13 and Sept. 10. She alleges the board ran afoul of the law in three separate ways: how it grouped routine business onto “consent agendas,” how it structured public comment on those consent items, and how it handled comment before votes on contested motions.

Louisiana law generally requires a chance for public comment before any vote on an agenda item, and the board’s own Policy BCBI spells out the same requirement, according to the petition. Higginbotham argues the board sidestepped that duty by bundling unrelated matters together, by voting twice on substitute motions in June without letting the public weigh in first, and by reverting to an original motion in August without reopening comment after a substitute failed.

What Happened During and After Those Meetings

At the June 11 meeting, board member Amy Trahan offered two substitute motions on a single agenda item. The petition states the board voted on both without giving the public or board members a chance to weigh in first. Both substitutes failed, and the original motion passed 5-4.

The July 23 meeting placed 21 items under a single “Consent Agenda” heading. Two, covering a roughly $3.1 million grant from the Pugh Family Foundation and a change to the teacher incentive pay plan, were pulled for individual discussion. The remaining 19 got one shared three-minute public comment period rather than separate windows for each item, the petition states, and a resident who tried to speak before the vote was not allowed to.

At the Aug. 13 meeting, the board first worked through a separate 11-item consent agenda that drew no public comment and passed without incident. It then took up an insurance item individually. The petition states neither the public nor the board got a chance to comment on the original motion before board member Jeremy Hidalgo offered a substitute, which failed after the public and board did get to weigh in on it.

The board then returned to the original motion, which the petition says was never reopened for further comment, and it passed 5-4. Hidalgo asked whether board members would get a chance to discuss the item further; the petition states Mason denied the request.

The Sept. 10 meeting grouped seven items into a single consent agenda with one collective comment period, the same format used in July and August, according to the filing.

What Higginbotham Is Asking the Court to Do

The lawsuit seeks a court ruling that the board’s consent-agenda and public-comment procedures violated state law, a preliminary injunction blocking the board from continuing those procedures while the case is pending, and a permanent injunction requiring the board to follow the Open Meetings Law afterward. It also asks the court to void the consent-agenda actions taken in July, August and September, and to force Touchet and the board to carry out duties Higginbotham says state law requires of them. A separate part of the suit claims Touchet has never brought the board a school calendar for approval, as his duties as superintendent require.

Higginbotham is separately asking the court to fine Mason personally if it finds she knowingly and willfully took part in a meeting that broke the law, and to award attorney fees and court costs to the extent the law allows.

A History of Fighting LPSS

Higginbotham previously took part in an effort opposing the closure of Comeaux High School, which also raised open-meetings concerns, and had unsuccessfully pushed the district attorney’s office to get involved. Neither the school board nor Touchet’s office had filed a response as of Monday.