    Search About Us Our Policies Get Our Newsletters Donate

News Culture Events Hub Citizen 

News • Culture • Community | Lafayette

It's on! Get all the Lafayette election info you need right here. Election Guide 2023

NEWS + NOTES

October 5, 2022

Dismissed in 2013, Guillory was

rehired by UL after his election
by Leslie Turk

When Mayor-President Josh Guillory was rehired as an adjunct instructor in 2020, University Police
conducted an initial walk-through with the mayor-president's taxpayer-funded security detail; as it
does for other visiting law enforcement, UP provides the officers with a parking spot while he
teaches. Photo by Leslie Turk

I
n May 2013, UL Lafayette informed Josh Guillory he wouldn’t be coming back to
teach. After he became mayor-president in 2020, and while he actively sought
ways to supplement his income, he got his job back. 

Guillory’s UL position presents several potential conflicts. UL and LCG have business
relationships such that it could benefit the university politically to have a mayor-
president on its payroll. Teaching classes during the workweek could run afoul of
LCG Home Rule Charter requirements that a mayor-president not have employment
that detracts from his official duties. And the constant presence of Lafayette Police
Department officers providing security for him on campus suggests a use of public
resources for private benefit, an issue of concern in the Lafayette City Council’s
nascent investigation of Guillory and his administration.  

Guillory has broadly denied wrongdoing in interviews addressing his outside

employment and use of the dignitary detail but did not respond to requests for
comment. 

His return to teaching came after a rocky split. He had been barred from returning
to his role as an adjunct professor of business law in part because he sent his legal
secretary to administer tests and appeared to have retaliated against students as
his supervisors investigated his conduct, according to a 2013 dismissal letter.  

The letter, obtained by The Current, questions Guillory’s veracity, commitment to

his students and suitability as an instructor, laying out the reasons Guillory, who
had been teaching since 2011, would not be retained by UL’s B.I. Moody College of
Business Administration. 

“Perhaps this decision can be mutually reconsidered in the future when you have
more time to commit to the classes and are prepared to follow appropriate
departmental procedures,” the letter concludes. 

 josh-guillory-r5-13-13-1 Download

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSORS

The letter indicates that a departmental investigation was initiated after an incident
involving Guillory and a student, who felt he “had been singled out [by Guillory]
because of his allegiance to the Alabama football program.” According to the letter,
student witnesses asked that their interviews be postponed until grades were
posted, fearing “consequences from speaking out.” The investigation revealed that
Guillory may have earlier retaliated against his students after they reported him for
canceling class and sending his secretary to administer a test. 

“ The Mayor-President shall not engage in any activity unrelated to City

of Lafayette, Parish of Lafayette, and/or City-Parish Government
business that would interfere with or detract from the performance
of duties as Mayor-President.

— Lafayette Home Rule Charter

“The students indicated that you told the class that someone had turned you in and
after that point you no longer provided study guides for exams,” the supervisor
wrote. “This could have been a coincidence, but it gave the perception that you were
punishing them for your having been reprimanded.” 

Guillory was out for the next seven years. 

By August 2020, however, he was again teaching business law. Although Guillory’s
legal background is in criminal defense and family law, he is qualified to teach the
course because of his terminal degree and legal experience. 

UL and LCG have numerous long-term business relationships, most recently inking
a deal to turn over operations of the Lafayette Science Museum to the university. UL
also has an interest in the mayor-president’s plan to replace the city-owned
Heymann Performing Arts Center, potentially with a new facility on university
property. 

A university spokesman maintains UL President Joe Savoie was not involved in the
decision to give Guillory his old job back. Savoie “did not play any role in the
hiring/rehiring of Mr. Guillory as an adjunct instructor, nor does he play a role in the
hiring of any adjuncts,” Senior Communications Rep Eric Maron tells The Current.
Maron says the university “has not received — nor does it expect — any special
benefit because of Mr. Guillory’s position.”

UL officials maintain University President Joe Savoie played no role in the decision to rehire
Josh Guillory, who was informed in writing in 2013 that he could not return to the university
because he had violated departmental procedures. Savoie and Guillory were photographed
together amid the pandemic in November 2020, less than three months after Guillory got his
old teaching job back.

Maron did not directly address whether the 2013 letter was reviewed before
Guillory was rehired (the university neither acknowledged nor turned over the
letter). Guillory inquired about teaching in 2020, and the university confirms it
tracked down an opportunity for him: His old role with the Department of
Economics and Finance was in need of adjuncts for business law. 

“The [department head] conducted a comprehensive review and interviewed Mr.

Guillory, found him qualified to teach this in-demand course, and hired him,” Maron
says. (Read the university’s full response here.)

After Guillory was re-hired in 2020, UL Police conducted a walk-through at Guillory’s

detail’s request, Maron says, to familiarize them with the building where he would
teach. “UL Police offered a parking spot in the police parking lot for the security
detail, as they do for all visiting law enforcement vehicles, marked or unmarked,
that are on campus,” he continues. The spokesman says it is common for security to
wait outside the class for Guillory while he is teaching. 

Maron also confirms that the perk of free, on-campus parking Guillory’s security
receives is one not afforded anyone else. Everyone pays to park on campus, even
full-time professors — who tell The Current they pay $100 per semester. Adjuncts
are eligible to purchase in the perimeter lots but only until they run out, he says.

Guillory’s security figures into the City Council’s two-pronged investigation into his
administration, including the mayor-president’s use of public resources. 

“It’s something that I’m very concerned about,” City Councilman Glenn Lazard says.
“And something that probably warrants further investigation.”

On Sept. 20, the City Council voted to spend up to $100,000 on an inquiry initially
prompted by drainage projects, but which has been expanded to include public
expenditures “benefiting the mayor-president.”

Guillory’s deployment of Lafayette Police officers as full-time security takes officers

away from the short-staffed department and contrasts sharply with his
predecessors. The LPD security detail, historically called the dignitary detail, was
used sparingly in prior administrations, according to multiple high-ranking former
LCG and police department officials.

In the past, the detail played a limited role, mostly coordinating with the security
teams of visiting dignitaries like top state and federal officials, says retired Maj.
George Alfred. 

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSORS

“I never asked for it, ever,” says former M-P Joey Durel. “But [Chief] Jim Craft had
them bring me to the Cajundome for the State of the Parish every year. … I always
figured it was to give them a little practice.”

In an interview with KLFY-TV10’s Darla Montgomery in August (27-minute mark),

Guillory defended the use of officers for his security, implying that risk assessments
conducted by the Lafayette Police Department, Lafayette City Marshal and the
Sheriff’s Department are what warrant the security detail.

“I don’t dictate what they do. They assess the risk. I may ask a few questions,
especially if they are hanging outside my house, like ‘Do you have to be here?’”
Guillory told Montgomery. “I don’t wake up every day saying, ‘Can I have a police
officer by me?’’’

The sheriff’s office has not performed such an assessment, spokesman John Mowell
confirms. Nor did the Lafayette PD under ousted Chief Thomas Glover Sr. 

Since returning to UL, Guillory has earned $15,800 from the university, primarily
teaching a single class each semester. The paperwork Guillory fills out for the UL
position lists him as a part-time adjunct instructor spending 20 percent of his time
at UL for each class he teaches.

Over the past several months, The Current has documented the mayor-president’s
efforts to supplement his $122,000 government salary, a full-time position, by
teaching and continuing to practice law, obtaining a title insurance license, and
forming at least three LLCs and making some effort to obscure his connection to
them. Lafayette’s Home Rule Charter prohibits the mayor-president from doing any
side work that interferes with his position. For the past three semesters, Guillory
has taught at UL in the morning during what would be considered regular business
hours at LCG.

In their ranging interview with Montgomery, Josh Guillory and his wife denied their
attempts to bolster their household income was improper. 

As of this fall, Jamie Guillory, who formed a heavy equipment business with her
husband last year just as LCG was awarding millions in lucrative drainage work, is
also an adjunct instructor at UL. Jamie, whom the university says has a master’s
degree in counselor education, is teaching three classes of a course designed to
help first-year students navigate the university experience. 

“There was no security walk-through for Ms. Guillory,” Maron says.

SHARE:     

 Posted on October 5, 2022  News + Notes

 Josh Guillory, Lafayette, Local Government, Louisiana, Politics, UL Lafayette

ABOUT LESLIE TURK

A founding editor of both The Independent and ABiz and senior editor at The Times of Acadiana
in the 1990s, Leslie Turk is an award-winning investigative reporter who has worked in the
newspaper business in Lafayette for more than three decades. In 2007 and again in 2017 she
received the Louisiana Press Association's highest honor, the Freedom of Information Award. Her
work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Acadiana Advocate, The Daily Advertiser,
Baton Rouge Business Report, Louisiana Illuminator and Gambit. Contact her at (337) 207-4312
or leslie@thecurrentla.com.

 MORE ARTICLES

L E A V E A CO M M E N T

Commenting is reserved for donors. Make a Donation »

Already donated? Log In »

NEWS + NOTES

September 1 August 31 August 30

Council Preview: ‘Like heat-COVID’: COLUMN: LCG’s

$9.5M to move City Months of extreme budget process is a
Court; Sunday heat wear on physical, bad deal for the city
morning beer sales mental health
City residents are disenfranchised by
Lafayette’s City Council is set to vote Providers warn the duration of this a budget-making process that
Tuesday on setting aside $9.5 million summer’s record-breaking heatwave prevents the City Council from
to buy a new building for City Court, is exacerbating health problems and fulfilling the duties we elected them
while both councils will look at poses a heightened risk all on its to perform.
allowing Sunday morning beer sales. own.
Read More »
Read More » Read More »

View all News + Notes »

The Latest Stay Updated About Support Us Search

News + Notes Newsletters Mission Sign In Site Map

Arts + Culture Social Editorial Policies Perks Privacy Policy

Solution Hub RSS Our Donors Code of Conduct

Local Voices Jobs

Lafayette 101 Podcast Contact

©2023 The Current