MAYOR STRUGGLES WITH “DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL”
PONCHATOULA, Louisiana — After a lifetime of dealing with the very sensitive issue, Mayor Bob Zabbia is having to sort out his personal struggle with Ponchatoula City Hall’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
“Growing up I knew I was different than the rest of the kids,” Zabbia revealed to HAN in his first interview since making his Italian descent public last week. “My parents avoided my questions about the feelings I was having. Why do I feel different? Am I some sort of a freak that no one really knows how to react around?”
Zabbia finally admitted to “being of Italian background” in a written statement issued Friday evening, after mounting pressure from questions and rumors that had been circulating around Berrytown.
Paul’s Cafe, a morning hot-spot of community activists and public leaders, was buzzing this week about the fair mayor’s situation.
David Dufreche-Perrin, a childhood friend of Zabbia, told HAN, “Bobby was always a shy and introverted kid. He had some funny ideas about the games we should play at Ponchatoula Beach, but we figured ‘what the hell, we’re all friends.’”
The debate has emerged on whether the “don’t ask” policy will continue to be the hiring policy for Italians in City Hall, but an anonymous government employee reminded residents via the “fantasy politics” section of an online message board Tuesday, “The Mayor was not hired by city hall, he was elected. It’s my political fantasy that any policy change in this area leaves him unaffected.”
Meanwhile, Maureen Dufreche-Perrin-Pevey, self-appointed president of Ponchatoula’s “Keep’em Out Koalition,” says that Zabbia may pay the ultimate price at the ballot box in 2012. ”He has fooled us for the last time. I cant believe all these years we believed he was French.”
1 year ago