Councilman Patin: The New Magnum P.I.

So the City Council and the Mayor's Office have been going round and round on the budget lately. They added in some items he didn't like (like paving parking lots in Carencro and Judice), voted out things he wanted (like GPS tracking on public vehicles) and so Joey Durel vetoed some things that the Council wanted (like pay raises for firemen). Walter Pierce of the Independent has all the details of each vetoed item here, and Joey Durel issued a veto statement here, but today, this really takes the cake. In an effort to support Durel's want for GPS tracking devices, Councilman Keith Patin has turned himself into Magnum P.I....literally. Lately Patin has been riding around snapping photos of city workers doing things that he doesn't believe are appropriate and then emailing them to fellow council members to help prove the case for the GPS. Patin admits though that he never asked if the workers were on their lunch breaks or official parish business nor has he reported them to their supervisors. Richard Burgess has all the detais on this new wrinkle in the budget debate here in today's Advocate.