Baton Rouge Paramedic Association President Janice Willard (right) and Vice President Allison Sharp (left).
Today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature represents our seventh (7th) feature entailing East Baton Rouge Parish (EBRP) Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ controversial proposal to combine EBRP EMS with the Baton Rouge Fire Department or spinoffs thereof.
We’re using the word “combine” rather than “merge” because EMS folk and their attorney, Robert Aguiluz, himself a former paramedic, strongly object to calling the combination a “merger” and instead adamantly argue that what Edwards is proposing is an outright “takeover” of EMS, which Aguiluz has argued via litigation against the city is illegal.
Specifically, we are presenting segment two of a couple of young ladies who have agreed to appear on Sound Off Louisiana and counter arguments which have been advanced by others in other Sound Off Louisiana features. Our guests for today’s segment of this series are once again Baton Rouge EMS Paramedic Association President Janice Willard and Vice President Allison Sharp:
Willard & Sharp provide their takes on Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ proposal for the Baton Rouge Fire Department to “take over” EBRP EMS and rebuff points made by others entailing same.
Here’s a table of all prior EMS features, and we plan to simply continue adding to the table as more individual features are published on this hot topic!
As clearly referenced near the end of the feature, we’re looking forward to publishing segment three (3) with these two young ladies from EMS, and we thank both of them for their insightful and informative presentation as exhibited in the above video.
Here’s Guillotte’s comment on LSP’s trustworthiness and transparency as it pertains to its leadership (LSP Col. Robert Hodges):
I completely agree. LSP is anything but transparent under this administration. When I retired I was denied the ability to purchase my weapons, although troopers who retired after being arrested were allowed to do so, and was refused a retirement ID. No reason given other than, “the colonel denied it.” If you stood up against this administration for what was right or for your personnel, you became a target. I learned this first hand. I look forward to sharing my experience.
Six (6) days after we published the article, on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, Guillotte visited with us to share what his life became like after LSP Col. Robert Hodges was sworn in as Colonel of LSP:
10/28/25: Guillotte describes what his life became like after the swearing in of LSP Col. Robert Hodges into office.
Here are links for support documents referenced by Guillotte in the above video:
==> Guillotte’s promotional summary which he provided to us with an indication that a table we were producing focusing on then-Col. Lamar Davis’ promotions would be more revealing to incorporate such promotional summaries into the table (which we did based on his guidance).
As mentioned on the video with Guillotte above, we have consolidated two Internal Affairs interviews conducted with Guillotte about email correspondence with Burns (one on May 16, 2025 and the other on June 26, 2025). Here is the video of those combined interviews:
5/16/25 & 6/26/25 IA questioning of Guillotte regarding email correspondence with Sound Off Louisiana‘s Robert Burns.
As noted on the first video above, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns was honored to be invited to Guillotte’s retirement party in Morgan City on August 16, 2025.
That party was very well attended, and it was very obvious that a very large number of colleagues, former colleagues, other law enforcement officials, and friends have strong admiration and respect for Guillotte.
We have intentionally refrained from making commentary on either of the videos above and, as Burns stated on the feature video above, he tried to interject himself as little as possible in order that the floor belong, to the maximum extent possible, to retired LSP Captain Heath Guillotte. Obviously, as always, we welcome comments on this feature for anyone who may wish to express them.
Guillotte visited with Sound Off Louisiana’s Burns for hours both before and after the October 22, 2025 feature video shown above. Guillotte appears to be very relaxed and content in life, and he showed us a camp and furnishings he’s built himself from sinker cypress.
Seeing his obvious pride in that accomplishment makes evident to us the fact that his talents extend far beyond having served for 27-1/2 years at LSP and rising to a Command Officer and, in our humble opinion, being a first-rate LSP Captain!
We have been honored to have known him, and we look forward to continuing our communication lines with him and wish him nothing but the very best in his retirement years.
Baton Rouge government watchdog Leslie Davis states to WAFB (Channel 9 in Baton Rouge)’s Liam Combs on September 30, 2025 her opposition to EBRP Mayor President’s THRIVE initiative scheduled for a vote on November 15, 2025 because it includes a tax increase. Photo courtesy of WAFB (Channel 9) in Baton Rouge.
Voters began receiving a mailer in yesterday’s (Wednesday, October 29, 2025) mail which touts EBRP Mayor-President’s THRIVE vote scheduled for November 15, 2025, with early voting beginning this Saturday, November 1, 2015.
Sound Off Louisiana’s Robert Burns attended the September 29, 2025 meeting of the Baton Rouge Press Club at which EBRP Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ representatives, Councilwoman Jen Racca and the Mayor’s Office Director, Mason Batts, outlined the plan and fielded questions on it.
Regrettably, Burns inadvertently formatted the memory card on his camera believing he had transferred all of its files onto his hard drive, only to discover that the files for that meeting had not been transferred prior to formatting.
Baton Rouge government watchdogs Ernie Lewis, Pennie Landry, and Leslie Davis all grilled Batts about whether THRIVE represents a tax increase. Again, improvising, let’s present the “quick and dirty one word answer of ‘yes’” by taking an excerpt from WAFB’s Liam Combs’ coverage of the meeting. Here is the excerpt:
9/30/25: After Leslie Davis, Ernie Lewis, and Pennie Landry succeed at the meeting in obtaining an admission that the THRIVE vote does include a tax increase, Davis expresses her opposition to the plan “for that reason.”
At a subsequent meeting, October 13, 2025, the proposed new LSU arena was the topic of discussion, and we’ll be presenting that meeting with more in-depth coverage in coming weeks because we triple-checked our computer this time, and the video files pertaining to it are in fact there.
We apologize to our site visitors because we strongly prefer to present video coverage of the meetings wherein the individual posing the question at the meeting is on video as well as the guest’s answer being on video.
Unfortunately, due to a first-in-ten-year botched file transfer on our parts, we weren’t able to do that for this particular meeting. We also thank the folk at WAFB for being able to bail us out!
Early voting begins Saturday, November 1, 2025, so go let your sentiments be known whatever they may be.
I completely agree. LSP is anything but transparent under this administration. When I retired I was denied the ability to purchase my weapons, although troopers who retired after being arrested were allowed to do so, and was refused a retirement ID. No reason given other than, “the colonel denied it.” If you stood up against this administration for what was right or for your personnel, you became a target. I learned this first hand. I look forward to sharing my experience.