Elton Mayor Kesia Lemoine was caught on camera slapping a phone out of the hands of onlooker Heidi Newell, who was filming her fighting with other constituents.
Other meeting attendees held back Lemoine as she tried to follow a woman out of the room while yelling at her.
The woman is heard in the footage yelling at the mayor, “Keep your f-cking hands off of me!” She was then escorted out of the building by police.
“I was videoing like we normally do because of situations and she basically turned around, hit me in the chest and knocked my phone out of my hand,” Newell said, according to a report from the Daily Mail.
The report explained, “Newell, a former town employee, said Lemoine unexpectedly fired her from her job but she continues attending council meetings. She also said the mayor mostly addresses questions or concerns with hostility.”
“It’s time that somebody that is going to do right by the town and be honest about every situation and not go behind people’s back to be in office now,” Newell said.
The meeting was supposed to discuss the town’s budget but quickly spiraled out of control.
Local station KPLC reports:
Tensions began to rise when the meeting moved to the topic of grants. Mayor Lemoine says there are two grants for solar plants and one for road repairs. A councilwoman proceeds to ask if Carl Capone, identified as a grant writer, should be asked about the grants available.
A woman attending the meeting interrupts and says she heard Capone was fired from the grant writer job. Mayor Lemoine replies “We’re talking about the budget, you way off on something else. We are on the budget. You out of order. You say something else, we’re gonna escort you out. We’re talking about the budget.”
The same woman asks how many grant writers are staffed by the town. Mayor Lemoine can be seen rolling her eyes in annoyance. The council begins to ask around if anyone knows if Capone is fired.
Mayor Lemoine says Capone left the department because two people “lied on him.” She points at two council members. Lemoine asks the woman who inquired about Capone’s firing about her motives for attending the meeting.
The arguments continued throughout the meeting and carried into the hallway after it had adjourned.
A petition to recall Lemoine has been given to the Jeff Davis Parish Registrar of Voters. It will be the second attempt to have her removed.
Lemoine told local station KLFY that the video does not show people in the room who were allegedly threatening her family.
“As a mother, I’m a protector and that really made me come out of character,” Lemoine said. “So and I do apologize for my actions because I am the mayor and they hold me to a different standard. But also I am human and I do have feelings.”
The mayor’s son, Marcus Lemoine Jr., was arrested in June for assaulting a man at a car wash. He pleaded “no contest” to the assault last month and was sentenced to six months of supervised probation and a $500 fine.