The mayor has said he did nothing wrong in the incident prompted by a traffic accident in December and has no intention of giving up the post.
When a trio of officers arrived at the scene, one of those involved in the accident had called Goldsby, mayor here for almost 30 years.
Goldsby asked to speak to them and they refused, citing departmental policy, according to Chief Jerry Trabona.
The mayor then called the police dispatcher, and such calls are automatically recorded.
The chief has refused to make the taped conversation public, but a New Orleans TV station published an alleged copy on its wehsite.
“You tell one of those S.O.B.’s that they will talk to me or their budget will be so cut it’s pitiful, because I don’t like that,” Goldsby said on the recording.
Goldsby also says, “You tell them that if they would like their salary to keep going, you know what I am trying to say is that I do not appreciate that.”
The mayor has said he did not know the officers who refused to take his call were at an accident scene, and that they took the right action.
“What happened is an old, old friend called me,” Goldsby told the Morning Advocate on Wednesday. “I didn’t think there was anything to it, and I didn’t realize it was an accident.”
Herbert C. Freilere, 67, of Amite was charged with DWI at the accident scene by State Police.
Goldsby said he called the dispatcher to get a message to the officers that they needed to speak with him.
After that, Goldsby said, he called Chief Trabona, who checked and let Goldsby know the officers were investigating an accident.
“Once I found out it was an accident, I dropped out of it,” Goldsby said. “I admit I was out of line when I talked to the dispatcher,” the mayor told the Morning Advocate.
Goldsby apologized to Trabona the day after the incident, he said.
One of the officers wrote a City Council member that the mayor began to threaten him and the others.
The mayor says that’s not so, that they didn’t even talk to him.
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