Mayor apologizes for Ku Klux Klan reference
by Jeff Adelson - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

Pearl River Mayor James Lavigne apologized for referencing the Ku Klux Klan while denying a resident the opportunity to speak at a meeting Tuesday night, but he went on to criticize the audience member in a statement released Thursday. In the statement, Lavigne said he wanted to "apologize for using the term 'KKK'" during the meeting but that it would "take a saint" not to be upset by comments made by Tim Marshall, who has been an outspoken critic of Lavigne, Pearl River's government and the board that oversees St. Tammany Parish's 11th Fire Protection District. "I as Mayor and a politician am fair game but to slander our Town is maddening," he wrote. "But I should express my anger in another way." But Marshall said the mayor's comments called for more than an apology. "I think he went to the extreme by making direct threats like that against any citizen," he said. "I think he needs to step down." At the end of Tuesday's meeting of the Pearl River Board of Aldermen, Lavigne refused to allow Marshall to comment about an issue discussed during the meeting. When Marshall continued to try to ask a question about how long members of the fire board would serve, Lavigne told him he would not take questions and added, "I hope the Ku Kluxers get you, too."