Rayne mayor condemns social media accusers

Mayor Charles “Chuck” Robichaux said he will not be intimidated by the organizers of a couple of social media sites who have consistently accused his administration of wrong-doing and have flooded city hall with requests for public records.
Near the end of Monday night’s city council meeting, Robichaux condemned those initiating what he called “erroneous and aggravating public records requests” that he said take office staff away from their regular duties and cost the taxpayers of Rayne thousands of dollars.
“There are two people,” he said, specifically calling out Dexter Harmon of Rayne and Theresa Richard of Crowley, who he described as “phony people with an agenda of hate and divide.”
The two operate the Facebook sites “Eyes on Rayne” and “Eyes Wide Open.”
“I was elected in 2015 to serve this city,” Robichaux said. “At that time I pledged to be a full-time mayor and I pledge to provide services to people that deserve services.
“As long as I’m in office I will serve — every day, every week, every hour — the same way. No one will change this, I don’t give a damn who it is.”
Harmon had been present in the council chambers prior to the start of the meeting, but declined an invitation by Robichaux to “have a seat,” saying that he was “just passing through.”
Before he left, he dropped an envelope on the media desk. Inside was a note advising this reporter to “start looking at these pages on Facebook to get a Head Start (sic) on what’s taken place in Rayne.”
“I don’t hate Dexter Harmon,” Robichaux said. “But I hate what he’s doing to this community.
“And as for Theresa Richard, all she does is harass communities. She doesn’t have a job. She just goes around harassing communities. She wants to trip them up so she can sue.”
To emphasize his point regarding the public records requests, Robichaux introduced Joy Rabalais, attorney with the Lafayette firm of Borne, Wilkes and Rabalais.
The mayor explained that all public records requests must go through the proper legal channels to ensure that no personal information regarding city employees is released but that the information being requested is provided.
“I do this for several small towns and they all get public records requests,” Rabalais said. “But Rayne has a disproportionate amount.
“In a 10-month period through June 27, there have been 15 requests for public records filed in Rayne, and there have been four more filed since that date, including two today. They’re rapid-fire.,” she said.
“That’s not including the complaints filed with the district attorney’s office concerning alleged open meeting violations,” she added.
Rabalais said the fees for processing the requests to date totals “over $22,000.”
“And as for the complaints to the D.A., they have to be defended,” she said, later adding that “all complaints” to the district attorney’s office regarding violations of the open meetings laws have been deemed “unfounded.”
Rabalais then turned to the latest accusations to surface on the social media sites, that Robichaux had used city funds to purchase culverts for a house he is currently renovating on Second Street.
Rabalais said she had investigated the accusations and presented affidavits from a contractor/salesman and from the manager of Doug Ashy Building Materials in Rayne disproving the allegations.
According to the sworn statements, the culvert pipe was ordered by Peggy King on May 26, to be delivered to the Rayne City Barn the following morning.
It is common practice for culverts to be stored at the City Barn since the installation is routinely handled by city employees “when time allows.”
That same afternoon (May 26), the mayor called the store to say that the purchase was “a personal purchase, and not a city purchase.”
A credit memo was entered the following morning by the store manager and the invoice was properly billed to Robichaux’s construction company.
“At no point in time did anyone with the city of Rayne, nor the mayor ever imply that the purchase of the culvert pipe was for the city of Rayne, nor that the purchase should be charged to the city of Rayne,” Melancon said in his affidavit.
“As such, no invoice was submitted to the city of Rayne for payment, because there was no purchase order submitted by the city of Rayne for any culvert pipe on May 26.”
Rabalais concluded, “It was a bookkeeping error, plain and simple.”
Robichaux said he feels the attacks are aimed at him specifically.
“They (Harmon and Richard) are trying to break me down and discourage me, but it won’t happen. I’m a year and a half into (this term) and I’m telling you right now that I’m running again in two and a half years,” he said, drawing a round of cheers and applause from the capacity audience. “That’s how much they’ve discouraged me.”
Turning briefly back to the public records requests and the time and money spent responding, Robichaux said, “We have to react and act on the requests because it’s law. But next time you see these characters, say, ‘Thank you for wasting our tax dollars’.”