Police jury makes changes to policy on cooperative agreements

The Evangeline Parish Police Jury decided to tighten up its requirements to become involved with cooperative endeavor agreements (CEAs) with municipalities.
During its monthly committee meeting session Monday, October 6, Donald Bergeron, police jury secretary/treasurer, reported that a municipality had asked the parish to enter into a CEA but had not reimbursed the parish after completing work on an earlier CEA involving use of parish heavy machinery and the operator.
Bergeron said he had consulted with the parish’s legal advisors and was told the parish is within its legal right to refuse to enter into new CEAs with entities that had not paid for work completed for a previous CEA.
The jurors reviewed how CEAs have been handled with municipalities that are in their districts. Jurors said some minor jobs, such as clearing brush for up to an hour, are often not charged to municipalities.
Marcus Fontenot, the legal advisor at the meeting, said if a parish drainage system includes a ditch that runs through a municipality, clearing the ditch is the parish’s responsibility.
Chester Granger told the jurors that he is often asked to clear brush or do other tasks without charging for it. “I don’t need any grey areas,” by being responsible for determining if a municipality should be charged for minor projects, he said.
“A five-minute job turns into a two-day job,” sometimes, he said. He said if a CEA must be approved by the police jury, work will be backed up while the approval process is carried out.
Fontenot suggested that the police jury start determining a set price for each project and then charge that same amount to all municipalities.
The jurors agreed that Granger can approve of any CEA involving less than $200. The charges could involve gravel, labor costs involving parish employees and use of parish equipment. “We have to put a line somewhere,” juror Ryan Ardoin, the police jury president, said.
Fontenot said he was asked to research parish ordinances regarding road use permits and found ordinances only specify infractions by pipeline and timber hauling companies. He said other companies, such as contractors, could be damaging roads without being held responsible for repairing the damage.
The parish does have weight limits, and the parish can charge a person with a crime for damaging roads, Fontenot said, but said he will propose more specific language in the ordinance regarding road use permits.
Bergeron said he has become aware of a record keeping problem regarding rental of cylinders used for acetylene and oxygen. He said auditors have informed him of the problems, which apparently has been going on for years.
The parish receives filled cylinders from three companies, but the auditors have told Bergeron those companies are unable to paperwork showing they are owed as much as they say they are.
More than 20 cylinders, and a total of more than $5,000, are at issue. The jurors voted not to pay the amount claimed is owed until the auditors are satisfied that records back up those claims.
The jurors received a report on Section 8 housing by the director, Anna Frank. She said her office is having problems with HUD funding, causing her to use reserve funds to pay expenses.
She said most landowners involved with Section 8 housing are working with her office by accepting lower payments during the funding shortfall. She said in early August, people were added to the waiting list for housing, and the number of people on that list is now 258.
Dr. Tojo Ward, Industrial Development Board director, briefed the jurors on the state’s proposal to name the Evangeline Parish Industrial Park an enterprise development zone. The designation would allow existing or new industries in the park a “significant tax advantage,” but would have no impact on the parish’s taxing authority. The jurors approved of the proposed designation.
Dan Noach, with Pine Prairie Energy, thanked the jurors for their assistance in working with oil drilling companies that are drilling in the vicinity of caverns PPE is using for natural gas storage.
He said 11 caverns have been identified as suitable for future storage, and that PPE is working to preserve their availability. The company has been concerned with the vertical drilling in the area that may affect that availability, because PPE needs to maintain a specific distance from those drilling activities.
The jurors also were briefed by Paul Fuselier, with Acadian Ambulance, who said the current contract with the parish would expire at the end of the year.
He said the company will offer a six-year contract with a three-year option of approval, to replace the existing five-year contract.
Fuselier said Acadian Ambulance has three stationed ambulances in the parish, at Ville Platte, Mamou and Pine Prairie, and others can come from surrounding parishes if necessary. He also said the company can call in medical helicopter transport from Alexandria and Lafayette. Fuselier told the jurors of the other services the company is contracted with the parish to provide.