By: Wes Merriott
SOBO Live
Everyone expected fireworks at the January 28, 2025, Bossier City Council Meeting. After all, this was the first regularly-scheduled session following the bombshell January 15th ruling by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal. In that decision, the appellate judges not only ordered the City Council to place the people’s term limits petition on the ballot, but went so far as to note—by footnote, no less—that the Council’s failure to acknowledge the petition could rise to the level of a felony.
So when the Bossier Term Limits Coalition filed into the chambers that day, the mood was tense. Supporters exchanged knowing looks that said: This is the day we find out if the Council will defy a court order. Yet the most telling moment came before the public meeting even started, in a hallway just outside the Council Chambers.
From a vantage point in the lobby, this author overheard Bossier City Attorney Charles Jacobs in a spirited conversation with Councilmen David Montgomery and Don Williams. His booming voice echoed off the walls, impossible for passersby to ignore. Montgomery and Williams asked Jacobs if voting “no” on the term limits measure would expose them to criminal charges in light of the 2nd Circuit’s recent admonition. Jacobs’s response was at once startling and unsurprising: “[Bossier Parish District Attorney] Schuyler Marvin has no appetite for charging public officials.”
This offhand remark carries weight, especially for the hundreds of Bossier residents who have signed a recently-circulated petition demanding that District Attorney Marvin either empanel a grand jury to investigate the Council’s actions or step aside and let the Louisiana Attorney General take the reins. Citizens are rightly asking how a local District Attorney—someone entrusted to enforce laws without bias—can remain impartial if his alleged stance is never to prosecute public officials.
But Jacobs’s advice to the two councilmen went even further: He counseled Montgomery and Williams that they were under no obligation to answer questions from the public or offer any explanation for their votes. Councilman Montgomery, it seems, took that to heart. According to those present, he muttered something along the lines of, “We aren’t in the question-answering ‘bidness’,” punctuated by a crude suggestion about the public having a “circle-jerk” with the Mayor if they wanted answers.
Unsurprisingly, once the actual meeting began, the Council greeted citizens’ questions with near-total silence. Even when confronted about their abrupt refusal to engage, the Council members appeared unruffled—or perhaps emboldened. Indeed, there was an eerie calm in the chamber: no fireworks to be had, just silence.
Is the Council Emboldened—or Just Confident?
This begs the question: is the Council forging ahead with apparent impunity because they believe the District Attorney’s office will protect them? After all, if Charles Jacobs’s words are accurate, why should they worry about the legality of ignoring the City Charter requirements or their own Code of Ordinances if the local DA has “no appetite” for investigating or charging them?
Does DA Marvin’s Alleged Conversation Disqualify Him?
When a public official’s impartiality is brought into question—even just by an offhand remark—it can erode the public’s trust in the legal system as a whole. If DA Marvin did, in fact, give City Attorney Jacobs any indication that he would not prosecute wrongdoing by city officials, it undermines confidence that the District Attorney’s office can objectively evaluate any potential criminal act by these very officials.
Why Readers Should Care
For the average Bossier City resident, this controversy over the term limits petition is about more than who stays in office and for how long. It touches on our civic fabric: the rule of law, accountability for elected leaders, and our right—enshrined in the City Charter—to bring forth a petition and see it properly handled.
When a court of law calls out potential felony behavior and the local District Attorney seems disinclined to investigate, citizens should be alarmed. This is not a partisan issue; it’s about the fundamental principle that no one is above the law.
Where Do We Go From Here?
As more Bossier citizens add their names to the petition calling for a grand jury investigation—or for DA Marvin to recuse himself—one thing is certain: these questions will not fade away quietly. The 2nd Circuit’s order was a milestone, but this is far from the last chapter in the battle over Bossier’s term limits.
Bossier deserves a government that not only follows the letter of the law but does so transparently and with integrity. We owe it to ourselves—and to future generations of Bossier residents—to insist on nothing less.
Wes Merriott is the editor of sobo.live and a longtime observer of local government in Bossier City.