Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Hola.
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Welcome to the Parish Circuit. As you enter the episode today, visualize yourself stepping into a room full of fine leather furniture, walls covered with rich mahogany shelves and books.
Sitting at the desk on the far end of the room is my friend David and I with our feet up, cigars in hand, a fine whiskey in the glass.
We're inviting you to come sit down, hang out with us while we talk about the future of Acadiana and St. Landry Parish.
Welcome to another episode of the Parish Circuit. I'm Stuart. I'm here with David. Did you like that, Dave?
[00:00:47] Speaker B: A beautiful visual.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Did you like that introduction?
[00:00:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I loved it.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: It's definitely not what our office looks like at all.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Comes. Comes here and expects to find that amazing scene.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: I'm vision casting. You know, I'm vision casting. That's what we're doing. We're vision casting right now. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, today. So we want. We thought it'd be fun. So we've had Parish President Jesse Bellard on for an episode, and we had Sheriff Bobby Gidreau on for an episode, and they came in and presented their sides of the case as far as
[00:01:22] Speaker B: the funding of.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: The funding of the jail goes. Yeah. And they've had public beef with each other, it seems like, for a little while, going back and forth. Okay. So I thought it would be helpful for us to just kind of sit down now that we've had both of those interviews and say, what did we learn? What did we learn here?
And what seems like a positive trajectory for the parish from this point forward.
Dave, what do you think?
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Well, I think the biggest positive is just hearing both sides of the case in a way that hopefully people can simply listen to and understand a little bit more what at least what they're saying leaders are saying.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: And again, there's still. I think there is still some questions. Right. There's still some questions that need to be asked. There's still some numbers that needed lineup, but I think at least people can have an idea of where the sheriff and the parish president are coming from.
And my hope is that they could, like, sit down or, you know, over the course of a couple of emails, sort this out and figure out, all
[00:02:30] Speaker A: right, let's do this.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Yeah, let's. Let's agree to these terms.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Let's get a. Let's get approval and let's roll.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And see, that's. That's part of what we were trying to communicate in those episodes is like, hey, we want. We're citizens. We pay taxes. We have a business here. We want efficiency in government.
Two departments that have to operate in tandem with each other, that are fighting with each other, is going to cause a poor use of resources, just, by its nature, is going to cause that. Okay?
[00:03:11] Speaker B: And right now, there's. There's a lawsuit right between.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: There's a lawsuit between the two that has costs that go along with it, that costs money. So we got to figure out what the heck is going on with that, too. So my great hope is that through projects like this, we're going to help be able to keep the general public informed of what's going on in a local parish level so that we can continue to move St. Landry Parish forward. There's tremendous opportunity here. This is something that we've talked about in so many episodes. There's tremendous opportunity in Opelousis. There's tremendous opportunity in St. Landry Parish.
But I think it's going to start with us being able to look around and say, hey, we're going to take responsibility for our parish.
And I think that the beginning requirement of that is just being informed and knowing what the heck is going on.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Right.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: That's part of what we're trying to do with the parish circuit. Part of what we're trying to do is to inform people, give them a platform that's easily accessible to where they can learn and get engaged in local civic issues.
So there you go. You know, one of the things that. Speaking of government and efficiency, you know, one of the things that I learned from Sheriff Gidro was the issues that we're having with the docket. So I've known about people, you know, I'm a pastor, so I've known about people in Saint Landry Parish Jail who have been there for years waiting for trial. And Sheriff Gidreau said that one of those people has been there for nine years waiting for his trial. Nine years. And that's directly against the Constitution.
You have a right to a speedy trial. Nine years in jail waiting for trial is not a speedy trial. It's not a speedy trial. Okay?
And so knowing that, my next question is, why? Why on earth is that happening?
And the way that it was framed by the sheriff is that it's an issue with court systems. So one being the judges not having enough availability on their docket for criminal cases.
And then the other side is the public defenders, who, granted, are not paid a lot, but are still letting these things slip. And that's a great piece of information for me, because now I know. Okay, got it.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Where we could hopefully apply some pressure.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: We can apply some pressure. Yeah, that's right. Like we want these cases to roll through. We don't want an overcrowded jail, obviously.
We want people to have their rights guaranteed them by the Constitution, which one of is a speedy trial. We want to see those things happen. And that's going to be generally helpful for the parish as a whole. I can understand also, though, law enforcement, and in this instance, it's the parish president's office and the sheriff's office looking around and saying, we're just always going to have these lawbreaker. Just something we're going to deal with with forever. And so maybe that doesn't quite motivate them as much to get the. Get the things taken care of, you know, deal with the. Deal with the issues at hand, because it's just always going to be there.
Well, hopefully through this platform we can apply some pressure and bring St. Landry parish along with us to say, hey, let's cut this out, let's wrap this up.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: Absolutely. I was going to say we can have hope that the culture as a whole can change for the better. And having overcrowded jails and prison systems everywhere might not have to be the future for our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren.
I don't know if this episode will air before or after we release our interview with or our talk with Dr. George Grant, but one of the things that stood out to me from that was his quote from Alex Tetcqueville, who was a Frenchman who toured the United States way back, but in his whole time here, he didn't see a single governmental representative in a whole month or two. No police officers, no elected officials, nobody.
And the picture that's being painted is a society that functioned well and peacefully without looking to the government to solve all of its problems, without there being high rates of crime and the streets were probably pretty safe and all these things.
It's possible, is what I'm trying to say. It's possible to imagine and hope for a future that doesn't quite look like the situation we're in right now.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: Yeah, well. And I think that that future is completely attainable.
I think that we are on that trajectory. There's ups and downs along the way.
But look at where we are today as a people as far as like the spread of Christianity around the world.
Look at the cultures and societies that did not have this moral guide that is the Bible and the law of God a thousand years ago, and look at how it's changed the world. We assume so Much of our morality just manifested itself by magic here in the west, when really it all came from Christianity.
And I think it was Benjamin Franklin who was making the comment about how our Constitution is written for a moral people. Was that Benjamin Franklin?
I think it was Benjamin Franklin.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: Well, he. He probably said something very close to that, but I think you're thinking of John Adams.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Ah, yes.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: Okay. Yes. Yeah.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: He's. A Constitution is written. This Constitution is written for a moral people. And if we lose the moral people, the Constitution doesn't work anymore.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: He, in fact, said something along the lines of like, hey, this whole Constitution thing, this representative government, this republic, is not going to work unless we have a moral people.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: And what does he mean by moral, David?
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Well, he's talking about Christians.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, he is.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: Now, look, John Adams had some strange theological beliefs, but he. He very much had.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: But he was in the covenant.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: He very much had a Christian worldview.
And he knew the importance of.
And he knew what he meant by a moral people.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Everybody knew what he meant.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Like, only in our weird secularized age do we look at the word moral in the context that he's saying it in divorce.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: What does he mean?
[00:09:32] Speaker A: What does he mean? Moral based on what? Based on what? Law? That's right. That's right. Yeah. So I found this very helpful.
And it seems like the point of contention between the sheriff's office and the parish president's office specifically has to do with the amount of money per day allocated from the sheriff's department to each inmate. And the sheriff's department is saying that it's to pay for food.
And Jesse Bellard is saying. The parish president's office is saying, no, it's to pay for more than that.
So Jesse wants them to also pay for water and electrical, like the use costs in the building. And he talks about that in his interview with us, talks about fiscal fixed costs versus, like, food, like, variable costs.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Right, right, right.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: Okay. And the sheriff's department's like, no, we're not going to pay for the fixed cost. That's the. That's the parish president's or the parish's responsibility. The parish's expense, not our responsibility.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: They're mandated expenses.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: And I was also encouraged because the sheriff did say, because Jesse's like, let's debate this. I'm open to debate. Anybody who wants to, let's go. And I appreciate that about Jesse a lot. Let me also say, like, Jesse operates like a guy who is not trying to hide anything.
I really respect that. Okay. He operates like a guy in my interactions with him and what I've seen with him, seen from him via public platforms like Facebook, he seems to be saying, let's go, let's talk. No problem. Let's debate. I'll debate anybody. And we asked the sheriff, whenever he was here, we were like, hey, would you be willing to debate with Jesse? And the sheriff said, yeah. I mean, he said after the suit is dropped, which I, you know, I guess I can kind of understand that.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Either dropped or concluded or concluded or dealt with.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: But that's at least encouraging. Like, let's get everybody in a room. Let's get everybody talking and get some stuff moving forward.
Let's go. It's about to be an election time for sheriff and parish president again, anyway.
Okay. Let's talk.
Let's get things done.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. And one of the encouraging things I took from the conversation with Sheriff Gidros is, Is his kind of insistence. We came back to it a couple times.
Of accountability.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Accountability within.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: Let's go.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: The government.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: You know, I'm here for it.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Institutions, departments, and then accountability of the government by the people. Yeah, right. And so.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: And we're building the tools for that.
Can I say that yet? Are we allowed to say that yet? The parish circuit. I kind of just said that.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: Dude, what a. This could be a great ad. We are building the tools of accountability for our government.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: We literally are. I mean, we are developers and, you know, app builders by trade, and we're building and developing systems programs, dedicated servers to empower.
Like, we have a server computer set up in one of our closets. Like, this is real. It's already happening.
Built to empower citizens of Saint Landry Parish who want to get engaged with the process to understand exactly what their government is doing.
We're building it now.
Like, the time for St. Landry parish living in the dark is done.
We're done with that crap. We're ready to move forward and build something positive here.
I love that he said, hold us accountable. Amen. Let's do it.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Yep. Let's turn those flock cameras around.
That's what we're doing. Right?
[00:13:17] Speaker A: I like, turn those flock cameras around. Point them the other way. That's right. 100%. Yeah. If we want to talk surveillance.
Oh, we're building some surveillance. It's happening now. So I'm excited to see those things happen. I think it's going to be really helpful for our people. But I was encouraged also, and I'll take this as a point to say a very sincere thank you to Jesse Bellard and Bobby Gidreau, who are we that they would come on our show, volunteer their time to come and talk about the issues that they are dealing with right now and yet they were willing to do it?
[00:13:57] Speaker B: Yeah, they seemed happy to and we're very thankful, 100%.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Like that's, that's kudos to you two gentlemen for coming on and working through this. That speaks to me, that speaks volumes about what you're willing to do for your people, for the citizens in your parish. So we appreciate that a ton. And you know, also just like we're incredibly blessed that the Lord has done what he has done with this lil pod over the short amount of time that we've been working on it.
And I'm very excited to see what happens in the future. So stay tuned team. We're going to be launching some really cool stuff in the next month or so, so pay attention.
Keep an eye on the Facebook.
If you haven't tossed this to your friends yet, toss it to your friends.
There's big things coming. Parishcircuit.com theparishcircuit.com and keep an eye.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Hey, and if gonna throw in our request for some supporters here.
Seriously, if you've found anything we've done valuable. If you've enjoyed listening to some of our podcast episodes, if you've read some of our articles, appreciate having a local kind of biblically rooted news source, look, toss us a few bucks, put some
[00:15:23] Speaker A: money in the coffers subscriber.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: If you go on the website, you can do that. There's an option to, you know, give a subscription or you could give a one time donation. Anything is helpful. So thank you.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Absolutely guys, thank you all so much for listening to another episode of the Parish Circuit. You can go to the parishcircuit.com check out our articles, blogs, podcasts, you know, story, all the things. If you would like to be a contributor to the Parish Circuit.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: There we go.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: I'm only debuting this here. I'm not putting on the socials. So the people who listen are the people who are gonna catch it.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: I like it.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: Okay, so you can go to the parish circuit.com tips theparishcircuit.com tips and if you know of things going on in our parish, you can fill out that little form and it'll help us pursue some more information. St. Landry, Parish, Acadiana, all these areas.
Thank you all so much for listening. Let's build an army. We'll see you next time.
