MANDEVILLE, LA – After Mayor Eddie Price crashed his luxury city SUV into a toll-booth barrier after being intoxicated, the Mandeville City Council is reviewing the policy governing the operation of city vehicles. It has stopped short of launching a full-fledged investigation into Price’s actions, according to the Times Picayune newspaper.
Council members say they will probably refrain from sanctioning Price, even though he did not report the accident or submit to a drug test, as required by city policy. Price said he did neither because he was unaware of the rules.
Council members said they most likely will revise the policy to explicitly include elected officials, such as the mayor, to clarify what drivers should do in the event of an accident and to add more punitive measures.
The push for a revised vehicle policy still means that the mayor’s actions that April night -- which he has termed “embarrassing” and which have threatened his once-bright political future -- will be revisited as the council codifies rules such as reporting an accident and driving while intoxicated.
