Caddo Parish Employee Vaccine Mandate Is Headed to Committee

Despite a vote against a vaccine mandate for Caddo Parish employees, the issue is not dead. There was some political maneuvering and this issue is now headed to a committee for more discussion.

The Commission voted the proposal down on a 7-5 vote. But Commissioner Steven Jackson voted with winning side(voting against the vaccine mandate resolution). But that means he is on the prevailing side. By Robert's Rules of Order, only someone from the winning side can ask that a matter be reconsidered. And that's exactly what Jackson did. He also got John Paul Young to agree with him and bring the matter back up.

They asked the panel to send the matter to the Pandemic Committee rather than defeat it. And that's exactly what happened. Commissioner Jackson along with Young, Stormy Gage-Watts, Lyndon Johnson, Ken Epperson, Lynn Cawthorne and Roy Burrell voted to send the matter to the committee.

Commissioners Jim Taliaferro, John Atkins, Mario Chavez, Todd Hopkins and Ed Lazarus voted against sending the measure to the committee. They wanted the issue to go away. Commissioner Chavez tells us this was quite the political maneuver by Jackson to keep this matter alive.

He says every politician should learn how to play the political game. He says "if new politicians are not watching, they are going to get left behind. It was brilliant."

Chavez says this reconsideration came after all the TV reporters had packed up and left the meeting. So many of them did not know it actually came back up later in the meeting.

Chavez says this mandate resolution will now be heard in the pandemic committee and it is likely to be back before the Commission in a couple of weeks. Several amendments have been added to this measure. If it is approved, Caddo Parish employees would have a choice: they can either get vaccinated or they will have to submit to weekly COVID testing.

But the Pandemic Committee is likely to make other changes to this measure.

Chavez says the Republicans on the Caddo Commission got played in this political maneuver.

Commissioner Roy Burrell proposed the original resolution calling for the vaccine mandate. Click here to hear his comments.