The Police Chief in Mandeville says the incident on the Causeway where cops let Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price go home without a sobriety test wasn't the first such occurrence.
In April, Price admitted drinking before crashing through a barricade at the Causeway toll plaza. Cops let him get a ride home with no test to see if he was drunk. Similarly, Chief Tom Buell says Mandeville cops let the mayor off the hook with no sobriety test after they suspected he was drunk.
Buell says late in 2006, Price was observed a couple of times by officers apparently drunk and either driving or
attempting to drive. "They dealt with him, actually three times in one night," Buell tells WWL First News. He says the first time an officer saw Price in the parking lot at city hall and "felt he probably had had too much to drink to drive." Buell says the officer offered the mayor a ride home, but the mayor declined and said he would stay at city hall and wouldn't drive.
The chief says, "Two hours later, though one of the officers observed him on Monroe street." Buell says Price was driving erratically. "He actually swerved into the opposing lane and came basically head on into [the path of] one of our units."
Buell says the officers offered to drive the mayor home, but instead took him back to city hall at Price's request. The cops did not conduct any type of sobriety test.
Buell says his officers "should have probably confronted him and dealt with it as a police matter and not taken him to city hall." He says, however, that the officers were faced with arresting the man who signs their paychecks. He accuses the mayor of putting the officers "in a heck of a situation."
Less than two hours later, the chief says, an attendant called from a local gas station reporting the mayor was there and too drunk to drive. Buell says by the time they got there, the mayor was gone. He says they would have taken him to jail if he had been there.
Listen to Buell talking with WWL's Dave Cohen:
The Mayor told WWL First News, "This is another issue for me that's very embarrassing. But, you know, I've got to face it head on.?"
Price admits the incident occurred, but says he doesn't remember much of it. "I was in old Mandeville somewhere and they drove me to city hall." Asked if he was drunk, Price said, "I was drinking."
Should he have been driving that night? "Probably not," said Price.
Does Price have a drinking problem and need help? "We're gonna take a little harder look at it after this," Price said. "I think we're gonna take a real hard look at it."
Should he stop driving public vehicles, as Raphael Goyeneche with the Metro Crime Commission suggests? "I don't know that, I think I'll look at that issue also."
Will we hear about more incidents like this? "I surely hope not," Price responded.
Listen to Mayor Price talking to WWL's Dave Cohen:
Goyeneche says, "It's another indication of some deep rooted, systemic problems in the executive branch of government in the city of Mandeville."
He says that's on top of the public safety issues.
Listen to Goyeneche talking with WWL's Dave Cohen:
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