Bunkie Council buys vehicles for street, police departments

The Bunkie Street Department will get a new pickup truck and the Police Department will receive three new patrol cars as a result of the Bunkie City Council’s action at its May 9 meeting.

The council approved purchasing a 2019 F-250 for the Street Department for $29,425, to be paid out of the General Fund. The three police cruisers will cost $75,982 and be purchased under a lease/purchase agreement.

REMOVED FROM AGENDA
In another matter, a recommendation by Police Chief Scott Ferguson that part-time patrolman Timothy Gilbert be promoted to a full-time narcotics detective did not happen for the second month in a row.

While the recommendation was rejected at the April 11 meeting on a 3-2 vote, it didn’t even come to a vote at the May 9 meeting. Mayor Bruce Coulon removed that agenda item and an apparently related discussion of an employee’s job performance.

There was a large crowd on hand for the meeting, but it thinned considerably when Coulon announced those items would not be heard at the meeting.

Last month, a sometimes emotional discussion between audience members and aldermen ended with Council members Brenda Sampson, Lem Thomas and Travis Armand voting not to discuss the job performance of an employee and not to promote Gilbert.

The three council members did not provide any details as to why they oppose the promotion, but make veiled references that it is based on information they have that the general public does not.

The City Council met on the promotion in a special meeting on May 15 and unanimously approved Ferguson's recommendation to promote Gilbert.

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