Bunkie group seeks to recall mayor, police chief

Organizers of an effort in Bunkie to recall Mayor Bruce Coulon and Police Chief Scotty Ferguson were encouraged by the response they received in their initial meeting Saturday (Sept. 26).

Coco Sampson, one of the organizers, said the decision to call the outdoors meeting at Salem Baptist Church was made only a few days earlier. Over 200 people signed petitions to recall the two elected officials and many more called her Saturday evening and Sunday.

"I went out to homes Sunday to people who were unable to attend the event Saturday," she said. "Several people took copies of the petition to have friends, family and neighbors sign.

"It is a community movement now, not just a group of five or six people," she added.

Coco said she hopes to include Bunkie citizens "of all colors, creeds and persuasions who are dissatisfied with the direction and disposition of our town" since Coulon and Ferguson were elected in July 2018.

She said this is a serious effort, not just meant to raise awareness and then die away.

Ferguson said he is proud of his record as police chief. He said Bunkie is the quietest it has been in many years, gang activity and drug sales have been reduced.

"There's not much to say about this," Ferguson said. "I'm doing my job. I think it is more about personal feelings than about the job I am doing."

Coulon said he has no comments about the threatened recall at this time.

Sampson, who is the daughter of City Councilwoman Brenda Sampson, said the effort will continue "as long as it takes to acquire the requisite 33 1/3 percent of the registered voters' signatures required to trigger the recall election."

Alderwoman Sampson, along with council members Travis Armand and Lem Thomas, have frequently been at odds with Coulon and Ferguson over several issues in the past two years.

'VICIOUS DOG' ISSUE

For the past three months, council members have disagreed with Coulon's refusal to enforce the town's "vicious dog" ordinance on a white woman whose pit bulls and mixed-breed dogs have allegedly attacked people and a small dog over the past few years. The woman is allegedly a friend of Coulon's.

It was pointed out the ordinance has been enforced, including dogs picked up and one euthanized, for two black men who were not in compliance with the ordinance that Coulon wrote when he was an alderman many years ago.

Councilmen said the issue would be resolved. As of last report, nothing has changed in the matter. One councilman said a complaint against this same woman and her dogs was brought to the council several years ago, and nothing was done.

"This is a major issue in the black community," Sampson said. "It still has not been resolved."

While in this case owners of dogs who have allegedly bitten people are not punished under the law, Sampson said there was a recent incident in which a man maced a dog he said was chasing him. The police officer's response "was to give the man a ticket for macing the dog."

EXCHANGED WORDS

Most recently, Brenda Sampson and Ferguson exchanged words after Sampson asked Ferguson for information on the certification of his officers and progress on establishing a tow truck rotation list.

The conversation devolved into Ferguson saying Sampson never communicates with him. He then added that the last time she communicated with him was when he went to see her about a bad check he said she had written.

Sampson said the check was written in 2016 by another daughter, Coco's sister. Brenda Sampson said she found out about it in 2019 and immediately made the check good, even though she had not written it.

The councilwoman continued her comments to describe Ferguson in very unflattering terms.

Coco Sampson said she usually attends the council meetings, but missed that one.

"I know a lot of people who are upset about that because it brought up my sister's former drug addiction and dealt with an issue that had already been handled. The comments were not necessary."

She said her decision to seek a recall is not about the conflict between Ferguson and her mother, but that Ferguson has not lived up to his promises when he campaigned for police chief.

"People voted for him because they thought he would be different from Bobby Corner, the previous police chief," Coco Sampson said. "They see him doing some of the same things."

When Corner was police chief, there was an almost monthly battle between him and council members over providing information about police officers -- including information on their certifications. The council eventually had to take Corner to court to get a judge to order him to provide the council with requested information.

"My reasons are based on his performance," she said. "Do I like him saying bad things about my Mama? No. But she can take care of herself. She doesn't need me as a back-up."

GUICE RESIGNATION

Ferguson has also been criticized, especially in the black community, for allegedly forcing black Assistant Chief Zach Guice to resign.

Guice finished third in the 2018 race for police chief and endorsed Ferguson. Guice was appointed assistant chief, apparently in exchange for that endorsement. He resigned about a year later, claiming he was harassed because he is a disabled veteran and because of his race.

Guice filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the city.

In his resignation letter, Guice wrote that conditions at Bunkie P.D. "impede my overall goal to improve the quality of service to this town with community-oriented policing." He also said actions directed at him "violate my Constitutional rights and are very troubling, to the point that I am offended."

He noted that the disabled veteran license plate on his vehicle "sparked a fire" at the police station. "My service and loyalty to this country and this department should have never been questioned."

FATAL ACCIDENT

There was a brief period of protest after a black male was killed in an ATV accident. It was claimed that Ferguson chased the ATV late at night, the driver made a bad decision and left the road, resulting in a fatal accident.

Ferguson said he never chased the man. He said the man passed him without headlights. He was turning around to follow the ATV when he saw the ATV go off the road into a field. The accident was discovered soon after that.

There has also been complaints about a Bunkie police officer firing into a vehicle that contained two suspects in a non-fatal drive-by shooting that had occurred last year. Another passenger, who was not a suspect in the drive-by shooting, was wounded.

There have also been questions concerning relatively few black officers and police personnel, especially considering about 60 percent of Bunkie's population is African-American.