Citizens meeting barred from Gonzales restaurant after boycott threatened

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oycotting of businesses has long been employed as political speech in America’s raucous free market capitalist system. How, and where, consumers spend their discretionary dollars is among the most powerful tools to affect social change and Ascension Parish just witnessed democracy in action. A citizens group was barred from convening at Kamal’s Kafe in Gonzales when a separate group threatened to withhold its patronage.

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n response to a public records request filed by the 9NEWS Investigators, Ascension Parish confirmed Wednesday morning that Brandon Berthelot was terminated on August 8 for “violation of Ascension Parish policy.”

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In response to two different public records requests by the 9News Investigators, the parish produced multiple documents last week related to Brandon Berthelot’s hiring and his time as a parish employee. The parish custodian of public records said the parish was not legally obligated to post the job opening for Director of Recreation and did not do so. Parish records show Berthelot was hired as “Director of Recreation” on January 11, 2016 at a starting salary of $60,000. But his job title was changed to “Recreation Supervisor” on April 25, 2016 and his salary lowered to $45,000, parish records show.

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