Two applicants, an attorney and an investment advisor with two master’s degrees who sits on the board of Temple Shalom, apparently aren’t sufficient options for a seat on the Lafayette Public Library board.
The Parish Council voted 3-2 Tuesday to re-advertise for volunteers to fill a vacancy on the library board because they didn’t think two were enough to choose from.
In recent years, the council has received more than two applicants for seats on the library board, which has taken on issues like banning books and videos and forbidding book displays for special populations like Pride Month and Black History Month.
Most of their appointments have been people who are right-leaning Christian conservatives, including pastors, some who were less qualified than applicants passed over like people with library and teaching experience.
The current seat will be vacated Nov. 30 by Erasto Padron, who works in cyber security and has missed several meetings this year and chose not to apply for re-appointment.
Padron was appointed in October of 2022 to fill the unexpired term of Landon Boudreaux who resigned due to work conflicts. The Parish Council at that meeting chose Padron from 10 applicants, including two former university professors and a school librarian.
On Tuesday, Councilman Bryan Tabor led the move to re-open the application process to replace Padron.
The two applications received by Tuesday’s meeting were from Rebekah Huggins and Steven Lazarus.
Huggins is a Lafayette resident and has been an attorney at The Glenn Armentor Law Corporation in Lafayette since 1996. She earned her law degree in 1993 from LSU and has been active in various law-related organizations in the area.
Lazarus, also a Lafayette resident, is the founder of Portfolio Options Perspectives. He was deputy director of Medicaid Managed Care with the Louisiana Department of Health from 2016-2017 and has master’s degrees in healthcare management and finance. Lazarus also serves on the boards of The Extra Mile and Temple Shalom.
“This appointment has had the same application process, the same application time as all the others,” said Melanie Brevis, a library watchdog and founder of Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship. “It seems rather suspicious and not really above board to delay this just because you don’t see somebody that you like.”
Parish Council Chairman Abraham “AB” Rubin agreed, saying the council has never changed the appointment procedure.
Rubin and Councilman Donald Richard voted not to delay the appointment Tuesday.
Councilmen Tabor, Kenneth Stansbury and John Guilbeau voted to re-advertise for new applicants.