Lawsuit against East Side Water System back in court Feb. 24

On February 24, Randel Brown’s suit against East Side Water System will make its way back into Judge Gary Ortego’s Evangeline Parish courtroom.
Brown’s suit against East Side Water was first heard by Judge Ortego back in August of 2015.
Brown, who is being represented by attorney Jonathan Vidrine, first decided to bring the suit against the water company after the board, who is being represented by Jacob Fusilier, created a new requirement for validating elections. The new policy requires at least 50 percent of individuals receiving water from East Side Water System to vote for the election to be considered valid.
This new policy became concerning to Brown and other citizens, like Roy Fontenot, after realizing that in the most recent election only 21 percent of voters made it to the polls to vote to fill a vacancy on the seven person board. Fontenot said, “If 50 percent of people have to vote, then no election would ever be valid and our current board members would serve for life.”
Another election was set to take place on February 17, 2016 to fill a seat on the board, but unfortunately had to be postponed due to the board’s failure to turn in all of the minutes from East Side Water System’s 2014 and 2015 board meetings to the court. Judge Ortego had ordered Fusilier and his client to turn over these minutes within 15 days of the August hearing.
According to Fontenot, “The board has released the minutes from every meeting except for the one where they accepted the new policy requiring the 50 percent voter turnout for election validation.”
The outcome of this situation cannot be known until Brown’s suit reappears in Judge Ortego’s courtroom next Wednesday.
When asked about the suit, Brown did not want to say too much concerning the issues that have yet to be resolved. Brown said, “We are going to have to just wait and let the court decide what is right.”