LAFAYETTE: Meet Kevin

Everybody knows Karen. Karen wants to speak to the manager. Karen knows the rules better than you do. Karen notices what everybody else is doing, identifies the loophole, and — when the rules fail to produce the result Karen wants — suggests changing them yet again.

Lafayette may have found its male counterpart.

Meet Kevin

Kevin Blanchard is the CEO of the Downtown Development Authority, a taxpayer-funded governmental entity created to promote and support Downtown Lafayette. Somewhere along the way, promoting Downtown seems to have evolved into something considerably broader. Kevin has opinions. Lots of them. And increasingly, those opinions come with proposed ordinances, permit restrictions, planning authority, attorneys, consultants, and occasionally a seven-figure price tag.

Your ordinary Karen wants to speak to the manager. Kevin increasingly seems to believe he should be the manager of everything.

Don’t Cross the Border With That Cup

The latest episode involves bars, cigar lounges, and open containers. Blanchard recently wrote Lafayette Consolidated Government seeking changes to Downtown alcohol regulations, including tighter restrictions on open containers and a pause on new bar permits while the city reconsiders how those establishments are regulated. That followed concerns about what Blanchard describes as “loopholes” in the existing permitting structure.

In a recent video, Blanchard walked through one example involving a cigar lounge and adjoining bar on Buchanan Street. Same ownership. Same general location. A wall and a door separate them. According to Blanchard, the city treats them as separate businesses because they have different addresses. The bar may sell alcohol, while the lounge operates under a BYOB permit.

And then things get serious. The customer can apparently leave the bar with a drink and walk toward the lounge. But according to Blanchard’s explanation, the lounge’s permit prohibits open containers from being brought inside.

In other words, somewhere in Downtown Lafayette there is apparently a doorway through which a cup must not pass. And, of course, Kevin has noticed. Kevin would like to speak to someone about it.

When the existing rules allow something Kevin doesn’t like, the answer increasingly seems to be: Change the rules.

Too Many Bars? Change the Permits

Earlier this year, the Lafayette City Council denied a permit for a Downtown daiquiri shop after concerns about the number and concentration of drinking establishments in the area. More recently, Blanchard asked city government to go further, including reconsidering new bar permits, evaluating security resources, and moving the open-container cutoff earlier.

The policy questions may be legitimate. Violence downtown is a genuine concern, as are police resources. The city has every right to examine whether its alcohol regulations are working as intended.

But Kevin’s preferred solution keeps looking strangely familiar. Don’t like the business? Reconsider the permit. Don’t like when people are drinking? Change the hours. Don’t like how the rules interact? Close the “loophole.” Don’t like the cup crossing the doorway? Kevin has prepared a diagram.

Please Invite Kevin

Then there is Johnston Street. Mayor-President Boulet’s administration began assembling stakeholders to discuss improvements along the Johnston Street corridor. The meetings were open to the public. DDA could attend. Kevin could attend. Everyone could attend.

Apparently, that wasn’t quite the same thing as being invited.

So, Kevin Blanchard complained that he did not understand why DDA’s input had been “avoided,” even though he acknowledged he could participate. Then came perhaps the most Kevin sentence of all: “I’m going to have to show up to the meetings like everybody else.”

Yes. Just like everybody else. The horror.

Blanchard also argued the project would be better with DDA involved. DDA certainly has experience with downtown development and may provide useful input. But there is a distinction between having useful input and expecting government to reserve you a special chair.

Sometimes even Kevin has to show up like everybody else, even when his wife would prefer he just pick up his mess in the living room.

From Downtown Development to Downtown Governance

This would all be considerably less interesting if DDA were merely offering suggestions about flower beds and façade grants. But its ambitions have become much larger.

As we previously reported, DDA sought a major role in a proposed redevelopment planning arrangement that would have extended beyond Downtown’s traditional boundaries. The arrangement contemplated nearly $1 million and would have put DDA in a central position to manage consultants and help shape a broader redevelopment plan for the entire city of Lafayette.

Mayor-President Boulet vetoed Lafayette Consolidated Government’s participation. Her veto announcement cited inadequate legal review and the delegation of broad authority to the DDA without sufficient oversight. She also raised concerns about expanding DDA’s work beyond Downtown’s traditional boundaries.

That’s an important distinction. DDA is not the City of Lafayette, the Parish of Lafayette, nor the Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government.

A Karen asks for the manager. Kevin took that a step further by proposing to outsource part of the actual manager’s job to himself.

And If That Doesn’t Work, There’s Always Litigation

Then there is 444 Jefferson. The downtown redevelopment project has already provided one of the clearest examples of how quickly DDA’s posture can change. At one point, Blanchard communicated positively with developer Cliff Guidry. After modifications to the project, Kevin described the changes as movement in the right direction.

Not long afterward, DDA scheduled a special meeting to consider potential litigation over a zoning variance granted for the project.

From “good step in the right direction” to lawyers. That is quite a journey.

But it fits. When persuasion fails, escalate. When the rules don’t produce the preferred outcome, challenge the rules. When a board grants the variance anyway, perhaps it is time to ask for the legal department.

Karen would be proud of Kevin.

Blanchardville Keeps Expanding

We have written before about what we called “Blanchardville” — the steadily expanding universe in which DDA’s interests reach farther beyond its traditional mission and footprint. The authority has pursued broader redevelopment planning, expanded ambassador activity beyond its original service area, weighed in on alcohol permitting, inserted itself into private development disputes, and now expects a role in the city’s transportation planning.

Each action can be defended individually. There is nothing improper about DDA expressing an opinion on a Downtown bar permit, advocating for safer streets, seeking input on a Johnston Street project that affects Downtown, or expanding services when someone else is paying for them.

The question arises from the accumulation. At what point does downtown development become downtown governance? And at what point does the CEO of a development authority stop advising elected officials and begin expecting government to reorganize itself around his preferences?

Kevin Would Like a Word

That is what makes the “Kevin” comparison work. It isn’t because Blanchard complains. People should complain about government. We certainly do. Nor is it because he has strong opinions. Strong opinions are free. Nor is every position he takes necessarily wrong. Some of his concerns may be perfectly valid.

The issue is the recurring instinct toward control. If Kevin doesn’t like the business, reconsider the permit. If Kevin doesn’t like the drinks, reconsider the ordinance. If Kevin doesn’t like the development, reconsider the variance. If Kevin isn’t specifically invited to the planning process, reconsider the process. And if the elected Mayor-President doesn’t want to hand control to DDA, propose a $1 million planning arrangement that gives DDA greater control.

Everybody knows Karen. She wants to speak to the manager.

Lafayette’s Kevin seems to have skipped that step. He’d rather manage the place himself.

###