ST. LANDRY PARISH, La. (KLFY) -- A lawsuit may be in the works after the board chairman of the St. Landry Parish Housing Authority says he was wrongfully terminated by the parish president.

The parish council, however, voted not to reinstate the chairman at the council meeting Wednesday evening.

"To the best of my ability, whenever an issue was brought before the board, beyond a shadow of a doubt, my services were rendered adequately," Willie Haynes III, the now former board chairman, said to the parish council.

A housing commissioner for 31 years, Haynes pleaded with the council to re-appoint him. This came a month after Parish President Jessie Bellard fired him.

"I feel that it is the best interest to appoint another member to take your place," Haynes read, citing the termination letter Bellard wrote.

Bellard said his reasoning for firing Haynes was that he was negligent in his duties as the board chairman. In the end, the parish council agreed.

"I think he made a major mistake. I was willing to correct any mistakes that I may have made, that I was not knowledgeable about," Haynes told News 10 after the council meeting.

Vice President of Commissioners for the Louisiana Housing Council, Greg Johnson, who went to bat for Haynes, says this was never about job performance.

"In my opinion, this is politics at its best, and I feel like it had nothing to do with negligence of duties," Johnson said.

Bellard stuck to his guns, saying Haynes didn't properly do inspections.

"I don't play politics. If anybody knows me, they know that right now. It's a very simple thing. Either they do it or they don't do it, whether you're in politics or not. We don't have time. We don't have the money to waste on politics," Bellard said.

The parish president said now the search begins to fill Haynes' position.

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