Shreveport City Council Chairman James Green might need to check his ‘privilege,’ his political privilege that is. During an August 22 city council meeting Green implied that the recent scandal around his unauthorized Council clerk office pay raises was motivated because the employees affected “just happen to be of color.” Green even went so far in his homily that “anybody in America know we that of a color we don't go by the same rules,” as to claim that he was recently pulled over “while driving black.”

In what has quicly spiraled into the largest scandal to rock Northwestern Louisiana in at least a century, the Shreveport City Council voted Tuesday to investigate the unauthorized pay raises issued to the City Council Clerk’s office. The 4-3 vote was decisive after Councilwoman Ursula Bowman reportedly began digging into the issue that many thought was resolved with a mea culpa press conference by Chariman James Green.

According to a Shreveport City Council Administrative Conference Meeting document obtained by American Ground Radio, it appears that an investigation into the ‘Pay-gate’ scandal may be forthcoming despite a resolution calling for it being voted down Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Dr. Alan Jackson joined Stephen Parr and Louis R. Avallone in the American Ground Radio studio for an interview regarding the ‘Pay-gate’ scandal and Chairman James Green’s responsibility for it.

In a public statement punctuated with self-admonishment and prayer, Shreveport City Council Chair James Green offered a public apology for the unauthorized pay raises given to City Council Clerk’s Office staffers and publicly rescinded them with plans for the city to recoup the unauthorized payments from the employees.

Troubling reports have alleged that huge pay raises for Shreveport City Council Clerks have been implemented without City Council vote as required under the Shreveport City Charter, sections 4.12 and 14.09. The increased salaries range from $56,624 to a whopping $100,799 for the February 2023 appointed City Council Clerk Shanerika Flemings. For comparison, city councillors for reference make $15,225.12 per year, Mayor Tom Arceneaux makes $95,999. Your average Shreveport family subsists on median household income of $41,782, the average individual income is $29,862 per the U.S. Census from 2021.

Bourbon Street, New Orleans, 2003

An independent poll for the contentious Louisiana Governor’s race has revealed Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry to possess a “commanding position” over his closest competitor over all of the GOP contenders and even the single Democrat participating in the ‘jungle primary’ that characterizes Louisiana’s unorthodox electoral system.