GONZALES — The Gonzales City Council held a special meeting early Monday morning, April 20th, to discuss the details of a recent crash involving an Entergy truck and a city-issued SUV driven by Gonzales Chief of Staff Wade Petite. It also was to discuss if any disciplinary action is necessary. Petite was issued a summons for a hit-and-run by Gonzales Police that same night after the crash.
The crash happened April 14 around 5:15 p.m. in the City Hall parking lot on S. Irma Blvd. Gonzales Police responded to a reported hit-and-run involving a city-owned vehicle and officers were told Petite was the driver.
Officers later went to Petite’s home that night and issued him a misdemeanor summons for hit-and-run following their investigation.
At Monday’s meeting, the city council initially received a motion and a second to move to an executive session, but Petite told the council he’d prefer to hold the meeting in the public eye. “I insist on having it public,” Petite said.
In the meeting, multiple council members asked Petite if he’d followed the city’s protocol after the April 14th crash, which happened after hours. Petite continued to question members throughout the nearly hour-long meeting asking where the specific protocol was written out. Councilman Kirk Boudreaux said that immediately contacting the employee’s supervisor and immediately going for a drug test has always been the policy employees are to follow.
“Did you contact a supervisor at that time?” Councilwoman Cynthia James questioned Petite during the meeting.
“I contacted Mayor Riley early the next morning,” Petite responded.
He later clarified that he did not contact Mayor Timothy Riley when the crash occurred, because the mayor had been at doctors appointments most of the day and “had a long day,” so Petite made the judgment not to contact him at that time.
The city’s Human Resource Generalist Janet McCrory shared to the council that the handbook does not contain a written time limit that a person must be drug tested. It states that the employee must be drug tested, but the language does not specify a time in which that must be completed.
City of Gonzales policy online states that any on-the-job accident must be reported to a supervisor within 24 hours. The policy also requires employees involved in accidents to undergo immediate substance abuse testing and prohibits them from driving themselves to the test.
Petite drove himself to testing the following morning, and was tested around 9:30 a.m. on April 15.
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McCrory later added that to her knowledge, no employee has been disciplined for any accidents or crashes. However, there is a four-step process for employee discipline, the first of which is a verbal warning.
McCrory said that Petite texted her before 8 a.m. on April 15 to say he needed to meet with her as well as the Mayor. Petite said he contacted the mayor at 6:45 a.m. to discuss meeting about the crash.
McCrory said no disciplinary action was taken before the council’s special meeting on April 20th. Results of the test were not available yet, so after they are available, the mayor and McCrory would discuss any disciplinary action, she said.
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