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Washington Parish Council
Regular Meeting – 6:00 p.m.
Council Chamber – Parish Courthouse
July 25, 2005
Minutes
Item No. 1 – Call to order – Chairman Darwin Sharp called the meeting to order.
Item No. 2 – Invocation – Councilman Kenneth Wheat gave the invocation.
Item No. 3 – Roll call – Clerk Sylvia Forbes called the roll. Present were Kenneth Wheat, Clinton Miley, Charles Nassauer, Rodney Brown, Relton Sumrall, Marvin Thomas and Darwin Sharp.
None were absent.
Item No. 4 – Approval of the minutes - Councilman Miley offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Brown to approve the minutes of the July 11, 2005 meeting. All in favor the motion carried.
Item No. 5 – Adoption of the financial report – Councilman Wheat offered a motion to adopt the financial report as presented. Councilman Miley seconded the motion and it carried.
Item No. 6 – Public hearing – Chairman Sharp opened the public hearing on an ordinance to amend the building permit fee requirement for agricultural purposes.
There were no comments during the public hearing.
Councilman Miley offered a motion to close the public hearing. Councilman seconded the motion and it carried.
Councilman Brown offered a motion to adopt Ordinance No. 05-360. Councilman Sumrall seconded the motion and a roll call vote resulted as follows:
YEAS: 7 (Brown, Sumrall, Thomas, Sharp, Wheat, Miley and Nassauer)
NAYS: 0 (None)
ABSENT: 0 (None)
Item No. 7 – Introduction of an ordinance – An ordinance authorizing the Parish President to enter into a contract with the successful bidder for construction of Cells 4 & 5 at the Choctaw Landfill was introduced. The ordinance was laid over for publication and a public hearing to be held on August 8, 2005 at 6:00 p.m.
Item No. 8 – Introduction of an ordinance – An ordinance authorizing the Parish President to enter into a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the State of Louisiana, Division of Administration, Office of State Lands regarding the Pearl River Navigational Canal was introduced. The ordinance was laid over for publication and a public hearing to be held on August 8, 2005 at 6:00 p.m.
Item No. 9 – Senator Ben Nevers – Special recognition – Senator Ben Nevers recognized Darlene Jones who is retiring from the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center as a Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent in Washington Parish. Senator Nevers read and presented Mrs. Jones a resolution adopted by the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana on the occasion of her retirement. Mrs. Jones began her career in 1970 and served the people of Washington Parish for 35 years. Her commitment to service is sincerely appreciated and she will be missed.
Mrs. Jones said she has felt blessed to serve Washington Parish for 35 years. She thanked the council for all their support.
President Taylor said that Ms. Jones had improved the lives of the citizens of Washington Parish through dedicated sincere teaching and her love for the people she served was obvious. President Taylor presented her with a proclamation proclaiming July 25, 2005 as Darlene Jones Day in Washington Parish.
Item No. 10 – John R. Bufkin – Mr. Bufkin was not in attendance
Councilman Brown offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Nassauer to open the agenda for Richard Seal, CPA to present the 2004 audit for the Washington Parish Government. All in favor, the motion carried.
Mr. Seal reported the parish received a clean audit. He explained the format was different because of the requirements of GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board) 34. GASB 34 requires that all infrastructures, including bridges and roads, be included in fixed assets. Pages 1-14 were prepared using GASB 34 guidelines and the rest of the audit report was basically the same format as used in the past.
Mr. Seal also presented the Choctaw Landfill audit. It too was a clean audit.
Chairman Sharp thanked Mr. Seal for the time spent in preparing the audit.
President Taylor urged the council to began giving serious thought to who they would have do the 2005 audit so the parish can engage with the auditor, so he can start working on it before the end of the year.
Chairman Sharp said the council would get back with a recommendation.
Item No. 11 – Public participation – Chairman Sharp said before he recognized anyone under public participation, there were some questions raised at the last meeting he wished to respond to. Some questions have been raised as to what the council member were getting out of the reservoir project. There is no one sitting on the parish council that has anything to gain financially or any other way from the proposed reservoir. There are people who will start false rumors and those things need to be addressed. The rumors have no validity at all. If there is something going on, I would love for the person that said that to come to the council with facts and information showing it. Anytime you are an elected official, you will have some people pleased with what you are doing and some that are against and dissatisfied with what you do. We cannot play both sides of the fence. However, this reservoir is a state funded project, not parish funded and we have no control over it.
Chairman Sharp said, as far as the other issue, Mr. Ferrell has spoken and wants a position on one of our parish boards and that is fine. The Parish President can only recommend to the council that a person serve. That person must get confirmation of four votes from the parish council before he can serve on a board or commission.
Chairman Sharp opened the public participation.
Winfred Pittman said he was the one who brought up the questions that were brought up to me and I thought they needed to be addressed. Mr. Pittman said he has had people tell him what he should and shouldn’t say, but he was going to assert his first amendment right and say it anyway. If it hurts anybody’s feelings, so be it. I believe you seven people have the hardest job in this parish. It is harder than the Parish President or the State Senator for the simple reason that two times a month you have to put up with people like me, and that is a monumental task. You also have to put up with Mr. Taylor, Mr. Nevers and Mr. Ritchie on that side. You are caught in the middle. It takes a lot of courage to sit there and no know when one of us gets up here if we are going to praise you or try to rip you apart. I commend you for the job you have done so far. We have fell short on some things and we need to work together to straighten them out and get back on track.
Mr. Pittman said no one in this parish is against economic development. Economic development is not destruction of our parish, lives and homes of the people that is the tax base. It is taking our existing tax base and building on it. There is no published plan, study or building plan that I have seen and these are the things our councilman should be demanding to see from our reservoir commission. There are hundred of thousands of dollars coming into our parish and going back out of the parish because the engineers are out of the parish. What is this parish getting out of this reservoir? How much tax money? Mr. Pittman said the parish should create an Economic Development Commission from residents of each district, who will all answer to the council, with a desire to build up existing businesses or find ways to bring in new business. These seven people should work to promote Washington Parish and should not be the same people who have served on other committees in the past. New faces mean new ideas. You have failed the people of this parish in the respect to economic development because it seems you have not aggressively pursued it, but relied on associations, outside politicians, local politicians and people who could be perceived as having a self-serving interest for personal gain instead of what is good for this parish. You are not to be held totally responsible, as residents we have to share some of the blame. It is a shame that with all Washington Parish has to offer, that we have been reduced to stealing neighbors property for a lake of dreams.
Mr. Pittman asked if the parish has an economic development plan they could see? The way to turn the parish around is for everyone to come together to development a valid economic plan and submit it to you. For those who want to steal my father’s home and my home, I say to you, the dam isn’t built yet.
Item No. 11 – Parish President’s report – President Taylor said it seems like the Parish Government has been singled out. God looks at the clean hands, not the full ones. Every thing that Toye and Susan Taylor own is at 1044 Cora Williams Road. I don’t real estate, businesses, boats or a camp. I don’t have a fishing license. I am not going to benefit from this. I have a copy of the report on this project to this date in the council office for you to see. Most of the emotional issues are addressed in the report. We are all trying to do the best thing for the majority and for our parish’s future. Today, Senator Nevers and I got a commitment from the commission. We are going to formalize some 10 questions between now and the next meeting, we are going to send them to the Reservoir Commission and they said they would respond. I feel for the innocent people who don’t have the facts. There may be some solutions to the concerns of the people. I represent you, and if I can help you get answers, I will go to bat for you.
President Taylor said the 3 board members for the East Florida Parishes Retirement District needed to be reappointed and asked for council ratification.
Councilman Brown offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Miley to reappoint Alyne Smith, Joe Ball and Larry Dendy to the East Florida Parishes Retirement District. All in favor the motion carried.
President Taylor reported the successful bidder for the construction of cell 4 and 5 at the landfill was Richard Price Contracting Company with a bid of $1,380,767.54. There were two other bidders; Circle Incorporated bid $1,611,111.11 and T. L. Wallace Construction bid $1,611,264.90.
Councilman Nassauer suggested the ordinance introduced authorizing the Parish President to enter into a contract with the successful bidder be amended to include the bidders name.
Councilman Wheat offered a motion to open the agenda to amend the ordinance. Councilman Miley seconded the motion and it carried.
Councilman Nassauer offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Sumrall to amend the ordinance to include Richard Price Contracting Company as the successful bidder. All in favor the motion carried.
President Taylor informed the council that it is time to begin work on the 2006 budget. We anticipate introducing the budget at the October 24th meeting and we need to set public hearings for the November 14th meeting.
Councilman Wheat asked the council to consider changing the September 12th meeting date because of a conflict with his schedule. The council decided to handle that at the next meeting.
Chairman Sharp asked Ms. Jalon Beech to accept all the questions regarding the reservoir and select the 10 most important ones to submit to the council at the next meeting.
Ms. Beech agreed.
Senator Nevers asked to speak. He said he has been in this community all his life. Many of the people who are opposed to the reservoir are friends. I want to go on record as saying I own no property around the reservoir site or no interest in property. Those rumors can be set aside. My only interest is to move Washington Parish forward and do the best I can to bring economic development to the parish for the future of our children and grandchildren. President Taylor, Rep. Ritchie and myself met with Mr. Huey Pierce and Mr. Jenkins this morning and we were told this fall there would be a report released on the impact of the reservoir in Washington Parish. The exact footprint of the reservoir as surveyed will be also be released. There may be some options but we will not know that until the data is received from the engineers. Once the report has been received there will be public meetings to discuss any feasible option that might be available and any landowner affected can present any suggestions. Recent legislation limits land expropriation for the reservoir to the pool of water.
Senator Nevers said he intended no harm to anyone in the parish, but is here to promote the parish as best he can. There is no plan by me to make dollars off this property. Each of you has a representative on the commission and if you have any questions contact the commission.
Senator Nevers also informed the council that the paper work on the Pearl River Navigational Canal should be ready to sign by late August. He thanked all who have been instrumental in the negotiations with the state to keep the canal open.
Item No. 13 – Council discussion – Councilman Miley called for a road committee meeting at 5:00 p.m. on August 8, 2005.
Councilman Nassauer offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Sumrall to open the agenda to consider a resolution. All in favor the motion carried.
Councilman Wheat offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Brown, to adopt a resolution authorizing the Parish President to began negotiations with Sam Fauntleroy for architectural services and with the mayor of the Town of Franklinton for a potential property site. All in favor the motion carried.
Chairman Sharp said he has received a lot of calls about roads needing bush hogging and asked that the public be patient with us. Crews are behind because of the rain.
Mr. Nevels Pittman told President Taylor that this was the first step you have made to help us. We have written letters to the commission with no responses. I appreciate what you and the council has offered to do for us.
President Taylor we hear the question will you be able to flood a cemetery and about us running motorboats over our loved ones. I do not believe that is a legal, moral or ethical way to handle it. He encouraged those with concerns to continue to come to the council meetings and voice concerns.
Councilman Sumrall said he would present a resolution at the next meeting asking the Reservoir Commission to meeting at a time when the public can attend instead of a morning meeting.
Councilman Wheat reminded everyone that bids on the next phase of the road rehabilitation would be opened at 2:00 p.m. on August 2, 2005.
Item No. 14 – Adjourn – Having no further business, the meeting was adjourned on motion by Councilman Brown, seconded by Councilman Sumrall.
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Sylvia Forbes, Clerk of the Council Darwin Sharp, Chairman
Washington Parish Council