ABBEVILLE, La. (KLFY)-- Abbeville Mayor Roslyn White held her first Coffee Talks with Mayor &
Guest at the Southern Spread Thursday morning.

“Since I was elected to mayor, it's been my goal to try to have some kind of social event where we're able to visit with the community and answer questions in not such a formal setting and kind of talk bout what's going on and hear concerns,” White said. “It’s taken two years to get to that point because as a new mayor, you do kind of step into the fire. But finally, my team, we kind of all got our feet on the ground and they were able to put this together, knowing that was my goal two years ago.”

White said she hopes for casual conversations with the community.

“In a city of 11,000, it’s kind of hard to dedicate time to every single person who wants to meet with you. So this is a better environment, I think that allows me to reach more people than on an individual basis,” White said.

Chief Mike Hardy was the first guest for the coffee talks.

Residents asked about the developments within the police department and how he plans to use technology to reduce crime. The chief explained how working with the city council he was able to get the starting salary changed to $40,000 which is competitive with other agencies in law enforcement such as Lafayette, and Youngsville.

“It’s a very difficult department for the chief to run; for us to manage but we try to work together,” White said.

The police department also just got some used vehicles in good shape to have a better fleet on the roads.

Hardy said when he started he was missing 15 officers, and now he needs three more officers.

“We’re continuing to put people on but it’s to get the force all up to post certificates where everybody can handle the calls. As you see more officers on the road, you’re going to notice crime [is going down]. It’s going to be quieter, it’s going to be a lot less complaints because they see police officers all the time. I'm a big believer in if you can be proactive and have officers out there just at the sight of an officer, less likely you're going to have a crime out there,” Hardy said.

In addition to using cameras in the neighborhoods and getting help from citizens, he said they can solve crime.

White suggested putting together a list of all residents with cameras to help tackle crime.

“If you have a camera and you're against crime," White said. "Let's put it in that list. If something happens, they’ll get a call. We can look and see where there are local cameras around there to kind of put together a timeline and either prevent or solve a crime when it happens."

There was also discussion about the judicial system and how city officials speak to the District Attorney’s Office to make them aware of what’s going on locally when dealing with juveniles. In addition, to the issue of not having juvenile facilities in Acadiana and getting one created. Also, there was talk about the difference between the law for minors and adults.

An unplanned guest but very informative was the State Representative of District 31, Troy Hebert. He explained the process within legislation about insurance rates.

“Now that we're out of the legislature and back in our districts to come here and just let them know the work that's been done in this last session to try to work to create a better environment, to bring more insurance companies to the state of Louisiana because, without competition, we won't see our rates come down,” Hebert said. “We need a free market to bring competition and I think what we did in this last session was we created an environment that will attract more insurance companies to come in. Therefore, they can mitigate the risk better and then we will cross our fingers that we get the insurance rates down.”

“The mayor's willingness to do these types of open forums in a very casual setting allows people to come, and feel comfortable to ask questions. I think it's important to come to these coffee talks and just to hear what people have to say inside the community," he added.

“It was an excellent experience," EJ Vincent, one of the attendees said. "Both she [the mayor] and the chief, as well as the local legislature, provided a wonderful opportunity to exchange information.”

Vincent added all his concerns and issues were addressed particularly in the area of insurance, which he feels is a big issue in Louisiana. He also explained how the police department is planning to reduce crime.

The coffee talks will be held once a month. The location and the venue will change.

“We want to give a little love to all of our businesses and the community, and the guests will change. I look forward to hearing from the public about what they would like us to discuss at the next one so we can kind of invite the right guests. I guess it'll happen indefinitely until people stop showing up,” White said.

Overall the mayor said the event had a great turnout.

“I think we got some good ideas out of the public, but we also were able to better educate people about the things that we do that they don't see daily because just a lot of times we're in the office or in meetings trying to fix the problems and people don't get to see that. So this was an opportunity to share that information with them. I hope that everybody brings in one extra person next time and our crowd doubles,” she said.

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