East Side Water trial held in Judge Ortego’s courtroom

Randel Brown’s suit against East Side Water System, Inc. once again appeared in Judge Gary Ortego’s Evangeline Parish courtroom on Friday, and this time it was for the trial to begin.
Brown, who is being represented by attorney Jonathan Vidrine, first decided to bring his suit against the private corporation after the water company’s board of seven, who is being represented by attorney Jacob Fusilier, voted to increase the voter turnout required to validate an election.
In previous years, the voter turnout required to elect a board member was 10 percent, but after the March 11th board meeting in 2015 the voter turnout required was changed to 50 percent by a four to three vote.
During the June 17, 2016 trial, Vidrine called the board’s secretary/treasurer John Vidrine to the stand first.
While on the stand, John informed the court that he had voted against changing the 10 pct. requirement to 50 pct.
When asked why by Vidrine, John answered, “Because I felt that 50 pct. was undoable. I felt like this was only being done to keep our board members from being replaced, and I felt that was unfair.”
The next witness that was called to the stand by Vidrine was the board’s president Todd Deville.
While testifying, Deville revealed that when he first became a board member for the East Side Water System, Inc., approximately 13 years ago, the required voter turnout was 50 pct., which is what the articles of incorporation state it must be. At sometime within the 13 years that Deville has served on the board, the board voted to lower the required turnout to 10 pct.
The reason why it had been lowered to 10 pct. according to Deville, was because “very few people would show up to vote.”
The judge revealed that the highest number of voters that he saw when looking through past election information was just over 100. With more than 1,000 East Side Water members, it would take more than 500 voters to reach the required 50 pct. voter turnout.
When asked why the board had chosen to increase the voter turnout, Deville responded, “Because we voted to follow the articles of incorporation.”
After both sides rested, Judge Ortego informed the packed courtroom that he would take sometime to review all of the documents and testimony before rendering a verdict.
The verdict is expected sometime next week.
Following the trial, Vidrine declined to make a comment concerning the matter.
Fusilier however, stated, “We are happy that this was an open and fair trial, and we are positive that the verdict will be in our favor.”