Washington Parish Council
Regular Meeting – 6:00 PM
Washington Parish Courthouse
Council Chambers
December 14, 2009
Item No. 1 – Call to Order – Chairman Nassauer call the meeting to order.
Item No. 2 – Invocation – Councilman Posey gave the invocation.
Item No. 3 – Pledge to Allegiance – Chairman Nassauer called for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Item No. 4 – Roll Call – Clerk Sharon Lyons called the roll. Present were Kenneth Wheat, Michael Fussell, Charles Nassauer, Andre’s Johnson, Randy Thomas, Greg Route and Aubrey Posey.
Item No. 5 – Approval of Minutes – Councilman Posey offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Johnson to approve the minutes of the November 23, 2009 meeting. All in favor and the motion carried.
Item No. 6 – Adoption of the Finance Report – Councilman Wheat offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Route to adopt the finance report. All in favor and the motion carried unanimously.
Item No. 7 – Introduction of Ordinance 09-508 – An ordinance to adopt Budget adjustment No. 2 of 2009 Annual Operating Budget for Washington Parish Government (Introduced by Ken Wheat)
Chairman Nassauer stated, “The Finance Committee has made a recommendation that we hold this off and introduce it at the next meeting. We have some technical issues we still need to deal with so that will be introduced at the next meeting.”
Item No. 8 – Washington Parish Tourism – Adoption of the 2010 Washington Parish Tourism Budget
Councilman Posey offered a motion to adopt the Washington Parish Tourism Budget for 2010. Councilman Johnson seconded the motion. All in favor and the motion carried.
(See Attachment –A) The document in its entirety is available at the office of Clerk of the Council at 909 Pearl Street, Franklinton, Louisiana.
Item No. 9 – Washington Parish Corner’s Office – Dr. Casama or Kathy Casama to speak.
Chairman Nassauer stated, “We have Dr. Casama the Washington Parish Corner on the agenda, but I have been told due to inclement weather he will not be able to make it tonight.”
Item No. 10 – Public Participation – There were no comments during public participation.
Councilman Thomas offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Johnson to close public participation. All in favor and the motion carried.
Item No. 11 – President Report – President Thomas reported the Board of Directors for the Washington Parish Gas Utility District #2 has recommended the re-appointment of Mr. George “B.B.” McKenzie to the board for another term of four years. Mr. McKenzie’s term will be from 1/01/2010 until 12/31/2014.
Councilman Thomas offered a motion, seconded by Councilman
Fussell to re-appoint Mr. George “B.B.” McKenzie to the Washington Parish Gas
Utility District #2 for the term of four year.
All in favor and the motion carried.
President Thomas report the Washington Parish Gas Utility District #2 has recommended that John Stevens be re-appointed to the Board for another term of four years, also. His term will be from 01/01/2010 until 12/01/2014.
Councilman Posey offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Thomas to re- appoint Mr. John Stevens to the Washington Parish Gas Utility District #2 for the term of four year. All in favor and the motion carried unanimously.
President Thomas announced, “The Washington Parish Government office will closed for the Christmas Holidays on Wednesday, December 23 at 1:00 PM and will reopen on Monday, December 28, 2009 at 8:00 AM. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas.”
President Thomas stated, “I want to turn the program over to Mr. Lucchesi and John to give their reports concerning the rainy weather and the problems it has caused with the roads. It has been really rough on us and the citizens.”
Public Works Director, Leo Lucchesi, stated, “We have had some calls over the week-end with our roads within the flood prone areas. Pearson Road, Mitch Road, and Mitch Road By-Pass were flooded. We called the crews out. Also, Isabel Swamp Road was flooded. We are working on completing the studies that are required by DOTD, which is a four step process.”
Transportation Director John Taylor reported concerning the flooding of Old Columbia and Max Brumfield Road and cautioned people to be observant, especially with more rain in the forecast.
Councilman Fussell said he also wanted to add Dummyline Road to the list as a road that flooded due to recent rains.
Mr. Lucchesi reported he had attended a seminar and LTAP (Local Technical Assistance Program) and the LTRC (Louisiana Transportation Research Center) in partnership with the (LHSC) Louisiana Highway Safety Commission has been working to publicize the 2009 Louisiana law requiring all occupants in a vehicle to wear a seat belt or proper restraint in addition to providing information on the lifesaving benefits of wearing seat belts.
Mr. Lucchesi stated, “Washington Parish Government enforces seat belt use in official vehicles and we are promoting the use of seatbelts by every occupant, in every vehicle, during every trip. We ask that you convey this message to family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers to encourage them to obey the law requiring seatbelts usage.”
Councilman Johnson asks Mr. Lucchesi about an update on Sleepy Hollow?
Mr. Lucchesi said Sleepy Hollow had petitioned for their road to be accepted as a maintenance road. Also Hanson Road Subdivision and Twin Oak Subdivision have applied. They have all been sent documents concerning requirements for acceptance.
President Thomas concluded his report by stating the weather has begun to get dangerous. Mr. Thiebaud, Homeland Security Director, is monitoring it. The parish government has people on call, especially after what has happened in New Orleans. Blinking lights at construction sites will probably be something to be looked at in the future. The Bogue Chitto River is being monitored, also. President Thomas gave an update on Swamp Road. There is a long process the Parish has to go through at this time. The Parish Government was told it would take approximately two years when this project was first talked about. Now, the process is longer. The government’s staff is using every means it has and is working as fast and as close as it can with DOTD to acquire the funds. The Parish President cautioned everyone to be watchful during the rainy weather.
Item No. 12 – Council Discussion – Councilman Johnson stated, “I just want to thank administration and our parish workers for helping keep our residents safe during inclusive weather.”
Councilman Route asks, “Do we have in our parish any ordinance concerning the closing hours of the bars in the parish? Do they have to have a certain hour to close? I have not seen it in the paper, yet, but it is my understanding there has been another murder in our Parish this past Saturday in one of the bars in my district.”
Councilman Wheat replied, “Only on the Sunday law -----------Only on the Sunday law out in the parish. Friday nights, Thursday night ------------- the rest of week as long as you want. We have been approached over the years by different Sheriffs, not just previous one, but two are three had come to talk about it, but never anything concrete. There were always some differences about the hours. Our main concern was that the hours that was proposed by them did not match the sister parish next to us. The concern was if you do not do that, any kind of window of opportunity rather it be 30 minutes are an hour, then you give someone time to drive from here to there you then would be encouraging fatalities on the road after drinking. I think if you want to look at something like that, then we need to look at the sister parishes around us and make sure our hours match their hours, so we are not giving somebody an incentive to make a trip.”
Councilman Route stated, “It is sad, because I think this is the second killing at this bar this year. I thought we might need to take a look at it and people are saying to me that we need to close this bar down. That is why I wanted to look at the hours of operation. Also, we would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.”
Councilman Thomas stated, “I would like to reiterate what Councilman Route has stated by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and remind everyone to shop in Washington Parish, as much as possible. Also, I want to send out a Merry Christmas to all those who are serving overseas and here in America as far as our troops and their family who remain back.”
Chairman Nassauer stated, “We all ditto the same words.”
Councilman Wheat stated, “Allow me also to send the same holiday wishes not only to parish government, but throughout the parish as well. As far as the order of business last meeting we had a discussion about our financial processes. What we are in the mist of right now is a transition. We talked about adopting the amended budget for 2009 and also amended budget for 2010. You took care of one of those things, tonight. We wanted to allow some time for that. That certainly fills for each, the time frame that we have. We are working again talking to Kushner LaGraize about that. There should not be any expectation to that--------- what we are doing tonight. That certainly meets the law. One other order of business we talked about is asking Kushner LaGraize to help us with non-attest services outside the budget process to help us get through the budgeting process to get us through the transition. He did prepare a scope of these non-attest services, which I have right here. I ask that we act upon this tonight. This will allow him get into the mainstream of what we are doing here as soon as possible. With that I would like to entertain a motion to allow the Parish President to enter into a professional agreement with Kushner LaGraize LLC for non-attest services for the Washington Parish and for the Choctaw Landfill, also.
Councilman Posey offered a motion to open the agenda to allow for the introduction of a resolution. Councilman Fussell seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.
Chairman Nassauer asks Councilman Wheat to restate the contexts of the resolution.
Councilman Wheat stated, “This is non-attest services under the rules of conduct Interpretation101-3, the code of Professional Conduct AICPA Professional Standards.
They will provide the following:
(See Attachment B- This document can be seen in its entirety at the Office of the Clerk to the Council at 909 Pearl Street, Franklinton, Louisiana)
Councilman Wheat stated, “I will add even a footnote to this. The scope of doing this is also going to set us up with a system that is even more transparent than we have now and also helping assist us in the preparing of future auditing processes. It should lessen the cost of future audits. It is something we need to do.
Chairman Nassauer asks for public input from the audience. There were no comments.
Councilman Fussell offered a motion, seconded by Councilman Posey to close the public participation. All in favor and the motion carried.
Councilman Fussell offered a motion to accept the engagement letter and authorize the President to sign documents. Councilman Posey seconded the motion. All in favor and the motion carried unanimously.
Councilman Fussell stated, “I want to commend Franklinton High for a job well done, and it was unfortunate it turned out the way it did Saturday. We appreciate their hard effort. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe holiday season.”
Councilman Posey stated, “I ditto both things Mike said.”
Chairman Nassauer stated, “I want to say a little more about the safety belt issue, because that is important. According to statics from the State of Louisiana 65% of fatalities in Louisiana were people not wearing seat belts; 35% were wearing them. Statics shows that 45% percent of you are more likely to be killed in auto incident if you did not wear a seat belt. Those are hard numbers. It doesn’t take a lot to buckle up. It is the law. We want to keep everybody safe out there and we want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Also, I want to say, the Demons did a great job. They battled to the very end. They only have six seniors on the team this year, so I am sure they will be back around next year.”
Councilman Route made a statement about cellphones. He said there was a accident involving a driver dropping his cellphone while he was driving and plowed into the back of another driver. He stated that drivers should not be talking on their cellphones while driving, because it is too dangerous.
Councilman Fussell stated he could attest to the need of seatbelts and airbags, because he was a survivor of an accident due to wearing a seatbelt and encouraged everyone to “buckle up”.
Councilman Wheat stated, “Accidents seem to rise this time of the year and we get busy and do not focus on driving safely. I cannot think of a better way to bless your love ones this season than to come home safe.”
Item No. 13 – Adjourn – Having no further business to come before the council, the meeting was adjourned on motion by Councilman Posey, seconded by Councilman Fussell. All in favor and the motion carried.
_____________________________ ____________________________
Sharon Lyons, Clerk to the Council Dr. Charles A. Nassauer, Chairman
Washington Parish Washington Parish Council