REX MONCRIEF

One of my mentors in life once told me, “In most things in life, there is no black or white nor right or wrong, only infinite shades of gray.” I doubt he was the original author of that quote, but there is a lot of truth to that statement. In the world of politics, especially in the Bossier area, there are definitely some shades of gray.

Last year, local attorney Lyn Lawrence crashed a Bossier Parish District Attorney vehicle in Red Chute Bayou in the middle of the night. Not only that, but he left the scene and did not report the crash.

To make matters more interesting, the sheriff’s deputies found beer cans at the scene, and Lt. Wolff reported that District Attorney Schuyler Marvin stated, “It was a good chance that Lawrence was probably going to have been drunk.” In the end, Lawrence received a $100 ticket, and his personal insurance covered about $18,000 of the vehicle. KTBS has some great reporting and video on the subject.

Recently, the town of Plain Dealing in north Bossier Parish elected a new mayor and aldermen for their town council. The Bossier Watch FB Live show that I created with Duke Lowrie started receiving both anonymous information and public comments about some ongoing drama and possible skeletons in the political closets of those in charge of the town.

We were encouraged to attend one of the meetings, and Tuesday night’s meeting did not disappoint.

The mayor was sick at the last moment and did not attend the meeting. The recently resigned town clerk addressed the board with accusations of secret video recordings and basically a mayor running rampant while the police chief, and husband of the mayor, brought the specter of the Labor Board and lawsuits to the aldermen’s front door.

There were clearly two factions at the meeting, with half the town supporting the absent mayor and the other half clearly not happy with her.

In Bossier City, Mayor-elect Tommy Chandler has now appointed Shane Cheatham as Chief Administrative Officer. Even though Shane was just elected to the District 1 City Council seat, he accepted the position. From various reports, it appears that Tommy is running into some flak from the Lo Walker administration and wants to surround himself with people he can trust.

The first question is, whom will the Bossier City Council appoint to replace Shane’s vacant seat? The next question is, will Bossier City now see a mayor and administration that are more than just figureheads?

Around Bossier Parish there has always been a lot of gray area in politics. Generally, this has involved what is known as the “good old boys” and their network of political allies with plenty of twists and turns. What we might be experiencing with the recent elections and happenings in Bossier City is the beginning of the end of the good old boys. The freshly reported information about Lyn Lawrence and District Attorney Schuyler Marvin could help lead to that end also.

As far as Plain Dealing, those folks are not part of the network. They are just a hot mess of drama and lots of shades gray that they can hopefully clean up.

THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE April 16 ISSUE OF FOCUS SB - THE INQUISITOR.