Shreveport City Council member James Green likes to quote a saying from his mom that “when you start out right, then you end up right.”

The opposite of that saying would be “If you start out wrong, then you end up wrong,” which certainly describes a series of council events/non-events on Tuesday, Dec. 28.

First out of the box was the hastily called swearing-in ceremony for newly appointed council member Alan Jackson that was set by council president Tabatha Taylor.

Several council members received less than an hour’s notice of the 12:15 p.m. event. The media had less than 30 minutes’ notice.

Unlike the swearing in ceremony for Taylor in 2020, Jackson was only accompanied by his wife, and he did not make a public statement. Nor did he comment on his appointment during the council meeting a few hours later.

Then the council meeting, which was scheduled to start at 3 p.m. like all other council meetings, was delayed for approximately 15 minutes.

Although Taylor did come out and state that the meeting would be delayed, she did not provide a reason for the delay after the meeting started.

Unlike other meetings, no council members came to their seats before the meeting started as they arrived in the chambers.

All four of the council members who attended the meeting (Taylor, James Green, Alan Jackson and Jerry Bowman Jr.) walked out together. Thus, it appeared to those in the chambers and viewing online that a quorum had been achieved in the back room with plotting on the agenda votes.

By text to her council phone, Taylor was asked to explain the short notice on the swearing-in ceremony and the delay in the commencement of the council meeting. Although she was advised no response would be published, there was no response to the text inquiries.

Lastly, three council members who had voted for the first responder pay raise that was defeated at the last council meeting were not in attendance.

Grayson Boucher had been exposed to COVID, was awaiting COVID test results and was feeling ill. John Nickelson had the same challenges. Levette Fuller reported she felt fine but was not risking COVID exposure.

There was no explanation by Taylor or any council person on the absence of these three members at the meeting.

All in all, the optics for the Shreveport City Council on Tuesday were not good, especially after the six council members had deadlocked both on the vote to replace Flurry and the vote for first responder pay raises only. This apparent split puts more scrutiny on the role that Alan Jackson, the new appointee to the council, will have on future critical council votes.