Public Notice
Regular Council Meeting
City of Tallulah
September 11, 2025
A regular meeting of the Mayor and City Council was held on Thursday, September 11, 2025, at 5:30 P.M., in the Council Room Chamber of Tallulah City Hall.
Mayor Yvonne Lewis called the meeting to order, led the Pledge of Allegiance, and gave the invocation.
A roll call of the Council is listed as follows:
Wells Present
Day Present
Harris Present
Houston Present
Scott Present
Motion and second to approve minutes of the August 14, 2025, meeting were made Councilmembers Harris and Day respectively and carried with a favorable 4-1 margin vote. Councilmember Wells expressed his opposition and requested that a copy of the letter that Mayor Lewis sent to the Attorney General’s Office for an opinion be included with the minutes. His contention was that the letter contained inaccuracies.
Councilmember Houston moved for approval of the minutes of August 28, 2025, with second from Councilmember Day. Motion carried with a favorable 4-1 margin vote. Councilmember Wells objected.
At Mayor Lewis’s suggestion, it was decided that not enough time had been allowed for the public to see the City’s budgets between council meetings, and that more time should have been allowed. Therefore, the Council tabled public hearing on the budgets until enough time could be allowed for public review with a public hearing to be moved to September 30, 2025. Motion and second to that effect were made by Councilmembers Day and Harris respectfully and carried. Councilmember Wells objected to the revised schedule and voted, “nay”.
Mayor Lewis in her briefing mentioned and explained issues associated with: high water bills, damaged roads from heavy trucking; city boundary discrepancies; open meetings complaint; and the clerk and not the Mayor should be responsible for producing minutes.
Mayor Lewis presented a proclamation to Freddie (Birdman) Carter for his community service in distributing water to disadvantaged citizens along with recognition to former Mayor Gloria Hayden for her humanitarian activities.
Attest: September 25, 2025
/signed/ Gerald L. Odom, City Clerk
/signed/ Yvonne Lewis, Mayor
August 25, 2025
David J. Smith, Jr.
Office of the Louisiana Attorney General
1885 N 3rd St
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
Dear Mr. Smith:
My name is Yvonne Lewis and I was appointed the interim Mayor for the City of Tallulah on July 17, 2025.
At a recent City Council meeting, I made the following statement when discussing an investigative audit that had been voted on several times prior to my taking office (this statement below is verbatim from an audio recording of the August 14, 2025, Tallulah City Council meeting beginning at approximately the 2:10 time mark):
“One of the things that we’ve heard about, talked about back and forth is an investigative audit. I want to let everybody know how I feel about an investigative audit. We’re audited every year. I don’t think we need to have another one. However, I understand in order for this community to move forward, there’s a lot of distrust and it’s probably going to have to happen. So I spoke with Mr. Scott, I spoke with Ms. Houston and I spoke with Ms Day and they all said the same thing to me. There not against the audit, they are against the cost.”
At this point, I was interrupted by a council member (not one of the three mentioned above) who “cautioned” me that my conversations with the three councilmembers constituted a walking quorum. I explained to the councilmember that I had not polled, nor asked about future voting nor anything close to what they would do in the future with the matter. I simply asked why they had voted against the audit in the past and they all said it was due to cost. The Councilmember further stated that because the issue may come up again for a vote, he strongly felt that a walking quorum had been established.
Because I am a new mayor and I want to have full transparency, I am writing to your office for an opinion on this question:
As a new interim mayor, can I have an individual conversation with councilmembers about an issue they voted against in the past or would that constitute a walking quorum?
I can assure you that it was never my intention to have conversations that would not be shared with the public at some point. In fact, I wanted everyone to be aware of the conversations, which is the reason that I disclosed them in the meeting.
As a new Mayor, it is imperative for me to ensure that I always take accountability for my actions. I look forward to hearing from your office on this matter and will abide by whatever decision is made.
Sincerely, Yvonne Lewis Interim Mayor
Published in the Madison Journal in Tallulah, Louisiana for a total cost of $233.47 on October 9, 2025
