Hundreds of residents in St. Tammany Parish are looking for a new councilperson to represent their district.
The parish’s registrar’s office confirmed with WDSU Friday that they received notification from the Louisiana State Secretary’s office that a petition has been filed to recall District 3 Councilwoman Martha Cazaubon.
“I feel very strongly and passionately that she’s not representing the people here,” Goodbee resident Donna Beaver said.
The recall petition filed by Goodbee resident Donna Clemons claims Cazaubon “failed to represent constituents’ interest;” it also mentions “policy disagreements.”
“We were quite upset with the 800 homes going into the Goodbee area, and we had asked our councilperson time after time to listen to the voters,” Clemons said, “and she just totally ignored our request.”
At the regular St. Tammany Parish council meeting earlier this month, residents overwhelmingly pleaded with councilmembers to vote down the rezoning ordinance for the Goodbee project. Residents expressed traffic and flooding concerns if the developers were to be approved to build nearly 800 homes in Cazaubon’s district.
However, Cazaubon, who represents constituents in parts of Folsom, Madisonville, and Goodbee, was one of eight council members who voted for the controversial project. Days later, St. Tammany Parish President Mike Cooper vetoed the council’s decision to approve the Goodbee rezoning ordinance.
“I’ve sent out several emails to our council expressing my opinion,” Beaver said. “I did have two council people respond to me, but my councilwoman was not one of them.”
WDSU reached out to Cazaubon multiple times, but she did not respond to any of the attempts.
In July, she put out a post explaining her position in which she said, “I understand the concerns of those who feel I don’t have their best interest at heart.”
She said that while she originally opposed the rezoning plans a year ago, she feels the developer came up with a plan that exceeded the parish’s regulations.
For Clemons, that decision was the final straw; she told WDSU she and a team of volunteers are working to get people to sign the recall petition before the January deadline.
“We are working in the concentrated areas into our subdivision,” Clemons said. “From there, then we’ll start pushing down into the rural area, the backs, the outskirts of Folsom in the Goodbee area.”
So far, she’s collected nearly 500 signatures. In order for it to be accepted by the state, she needs 4,500.
According to Louisiana state law, if the petition gets the required number of signatures by the January deadline, Gov. Jeff Landry will then order an election to recall Cazaubon’s seat.
READ MORE:Petition filed to recall St. Tammany councilwoman Martha Cazaubon
