(The Center Square) — The Bossier City Council will have a new look as challengers Debra Ross and Cliff Smith took seats on the city’s legislative body in Saturday’s election.
Jeff Darby, a current council member, lost to Debra Ross, who received 69% or 448 votes for the District 2 seat according to unofficial results.
Donzell Hughes and Cliff Smith were running for the District 3 seat. Smith received 62% of the vote or 706 votes according to unofficial results, securing a place on the council, replacing current District 3 Councilman Don Williams.
Current council member Vince Maggio ran against Ruth Pope Johnston. Maggio received 51% or 833 votes for the District 5 seat according to unofficial results.
Chris Smith, current at-large council member, received 37% or 3,385 votes according to unofficial results, beating Craton Cochran and Lee “Gunny” Jeter for the at-large seat on the council.
Bossier Parish voted on four constitutional amendments, and while these didn’t pass statewide, with a large majority opposing the revisions, most of the amendments received a majority in the parish.
There were 54% of residents according to unofficial results that voted yes on Amendment No. 1 while 56% voted yes on Amendment No. 2 and 55% voted yes on Amendment No. 3.
Votes for Amendment No. 3 revisions were 50-50 according to unofficial results, with 6,532 residents voting yes and 6,572 voting against it. Roughly 13,000 votes came in for each of the four amendment revisions in the parish.
The ballot initiatives needed 60% of the statewide vote to pass to be added to the state’s constitution.
Term limits for the city council were also on the ballot — a topic that has sparked debate in several city council meetings among people in the parish.
Proposition No. 1, which proposed a distinction between at-large council seats, received 55% of votes opposed according to unofficial results. Proposition No. 2, which dealt with council term limits, received 53% votes in favor. Proposition No. 3, addressing mayoral term limits, also received an affirmative majority with 57%.
Both the mayor and city council members will be limited to three terms under the propositions. The city will hold an election in May on whether to decide if those term limits will be retroactive, meaning the active mayor and council members will be prohibited from holding that office again. If that ballot measure is successful, it’ll supersede the ones passed on Saturday.
A slim majority (51%) of residents according to unofficial results voted no on the town of Benton’s 4.9 mill renewal and 56% voted yes on the Northeast Bossier Parish fire protection Proposition of 27.50 mills.
The Secretary of State reported that the unofficial voter turnout showed a range of 13.4% to 23.1%.
