Tuesday’s contentious, emotionally-charged meeting of the Sulphur City Council came with a rare show of unity among previously sparring members — at the expense of the city’s mayor.
The council unanimously made a formal request for a Louisiana attorney general opinion on Sulphur Mayor Jacob Stutes’ hiring practices for his chief of staff, a $97,000 position that was, also unanimously, abolished later in the meeting.
Councilmembers James Ledoux, Josh Baden and Danielle Monceaux sponsored the introduction of an ordinance to abolish and defund the city’s chief of staff position. Stutes previously appointed his former campaign manager, Alexis Nabours, to the position that included a $97,000 salary.
Monceaux said the position was created illegally on the day Stutes took office, bypassing human resources review. Baden added the position was neither properly budgeted nor approved by the council.
There are three positions in the mayor’s office proposed within the city budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Those positions include the mayor, administrative assistant and public relations/marketing, and have a combined proposed salary of $176,000.
Stutes defended himself, saying the position fell within the office of the mayor in the city’s organizational chart, and therefore didn’t require council approval. When asked by Baden who approved the position, City Attorney Billy Loftin said he and former finance director Jennifer Thorn, who was in the audience for the duration of the meeting, did.
Councilmember Monceaux noted that there was nothing allocated in the previous year’s budget for such a position.
“If it’s not in the budget, how do we create the position? We would have had to go up for a financial amendment,” Monceaux said, adding that meant it would have had to come before the council to approve.
“Before you vote on this, you might ought to wait for an opinion on the attorney general, so you’re not wrong,” Stutes told the council regarding the vote to abolish the position. The council voted to do so anyway.
The Council did also vote, unanimously, to send a request about the city’s hiring practices for the chief of staff position to the Louisiana Attorney General’s office.
It’s the second such request sent to Louisiana AG Liz Murrill’s office by the council this year.
During an August special meeting, the council voted in favor of sending its first request to the AG for an opinion regarding potential public bid law violations for the construction of a parking lot at the city’s leased property at 501 Willow Avenue.
Questions for Murrill’s office include whether the city bypassed the Home Rule Charter, background checks or drug tests when Nabours was hired, whether favoritism or nepotism occurred, and whether Nabours’ resume was verified.
Reading aloud, Baden requested that the AG’s office also look into “allegations concerning a personal relationship” between Stutes and Nabours that may have influenced “hiring, compensation, benefits or other employment decisions.”
A resident, Charlie Atherton, questioned whether a complaint had been filed with the state ethics board, a separate entity from the attorney general’s office that handles concerns of government ethics.
“I’m of the understanding that in speaking with the ethics board today, that they were well aware of Sulphur’s recent events,” Atherton said. But, he added, “I was told that no one had actually filed an official complaint.”
Baden responded that he had filed “an ethics complaint on multiple occasions,” adding that the Louisiana Board of Ethics will meet December the 3rd to review his complaints.
The council also unanimously deferred authorizing the mayor to sign a contract with FEMA consulting firm Rostan Solution for a public works supervisor, while voting in favor of introducing the renewal of and multiple amendments to a master services agreement with the company.
The company played a tangential role in the city’s lease at 501 Willow Avenue, the former masonic lodge turned city court, marshal’s office and council chambers — and paid for with FEMA funds — that has been surrounded by controversy and questions.
After lengthy discussion, the council voted unanimously to once again defer authorizing Stutes to sign a contract with Rostan Solutions for a public works supervisor that comes with a $90,000 salary, according to Baden.
The contract would make former city employee Mark Lejeune, as an employee of Rostan, a liaison on all things FEMA-related within public works. Sulphur still receives support from the federal agency for some of its public works projects following the 2020-2021 series of hurricanes and other disasters.
Baden also called attention to a clause that would require both Rostan and the designee, which would be the mayor, to keep “proprietary information” secret.
“I would like for it to be deleted due to the fact that the public sits at the top of our organizational chart with the city and may have entitlement to any records that we should have too,” Baden said.
Councilman Danny DiPetta, who has stood on the opposite side from Baden on the Willow Avenue lease issue, did voice concerns over the proposed contract with Rostan as well, pointing out that under the contract, Rostan and the mayor, the designee, could change the scope of services without requiring council approval.
DiPetta warned this broad stroke “could actually change the entire public works department over to Rostan.”
Despite concerns over the public works position, the council did unanimously vote to introduce multiple ordinances that would renew and amend the city’s master services agreement with Rostan.
Public commenters and council members pointed out that the agreement was not attached to the agenda items, leaving the council to vote without viewing the original 2021 contract.
“How do we amend the contract if we didn’t put our eyes on it? And now we shrug our shoulders — just for the record?” asked Sulphur resident Wendy Wingate. “I mean, is that your answer?”
Council members also expressed concern about the amount of money being spent on consulting services.
Still, the introduction of the contract passed 5-0.
In a last show of opposition to the mayor in a meeting full of them, the council then rejected Stutes’ appointment of Kenneth “Mike” Michael Wright as city attorney.
Before the vote, DiPetta explained his opposition to hiring Wright, saying the city “need[s] someone in that position that has more municipal experience versus an individual who is a strict litigator.”
The rejection was decided by a 4-1 vote, with Councilmember Troy Darby as Wright’s sole supporter.
“Are you going to give a reason for the ‘no’ on a qualified person of 52 years in law?” Stutes asked the council.
DiPetta responded that he already gave his reasons before the vote, among them a lack of municipal experience, before alleging that Wright had been professionally sanctioned, after which tensions rose even higher.
“So, who’s city attorney now?” Stutes asked DiPetta . “Since you think it’s your appointment to make, who is city attorney now?”
“That’s not my appointment to make,” DiPetta said.
“You’re right,” Stutes said. “It’s mine.”
Loftin, formerly the city attorney, was appointed as assistant city attorney and reappointed as city prosecutor during the meeting, leaving the city of Sulphur without lead counsel for the time being. Loftin tells The Current he will serve as interim city attorney if no one has any objections.
