ECAA board appointments questioned at meeting

At an Evangeline Community Action Agency meeting on Thursday Arthur Sampson addressed the entity’s board concerning the way board members have been nominated and appointed over the years.
The ECAA board is made up of individuals that represent three different sectors, which include: the poor, private groups and interests, and the public sector. According to the ECAA bylaws, each sector should be represented by “at least one third of the governing body.”
With the bylaws in hand, Sampson said, “The State law says that when there is a vacancy on the board for the low income sector you are suppose to have a meeting with low income people in the community and they choose who they want to represent them. Then they submit that to the community action board.”
When it comes to appointing the board members that are representing the private and public sectors, a similar democratic process, according to Sampson, is supposed to take place.
Sampson said, “At y’all’s last meeting y’all appointed Mrs. Betsy (Jackson) to the board. From my understanding, before Mrs. Betsy was appointed there should have been an announcement in the community and to the organization that she represents. If she represents the Bar Association that’s fine, but did the Bar Association meet to elect her.”
With many questions unanswered as to how the ECAA had been operating for the last few decades under the organization’s former executive director Gervis LaFleur, Sampson informed the board that he is working to see if things have been done properly.
Sampson said, “I have requested the minutes of the meetings where these board members were selected to show that there was proper selection. So far though, I haven’t gotten anything. To go back, there might be a chance that the board was not done properly.”
If this is so, the steps that will need to be taken to right this wrong are unknown at this time.
The other issue addressed at the meeting concerned the number of board members the ECAA has currently.
According to attorney Betsy Jackson, the ECAA’s original articles of incorporation “indicate to have not less than four but no more than 15 board members.”
Currently the board is operating with 18 members, which is in line with State law because according to the State the ECAA board should have no less than 15 or no more than 31 board members.
Their articles, which were written in 1965, however were amended in 1966 to say that the board “should consist of a number to provide adequate representation of all segments of the parish population.”
Because there was no number specified, Jackson said, “I would still say that in the absence of a particular number, you would revert back to the original articles.”
Although no action was taken on how to address this issue, Jackson suggested that the board downsize.
Jackson said, “What I am suggesting is that we bring the board in line with the legal structure of the articles of incorporation because this is the governing document currently as it is for this board, which indicates no more than 15.”