Parish Council talks about reviving personnel board, recharging EVs

The St. Mary Parish Council on June 28 talked about attracting electic vehicle charging stations and about re-energizing a personnel board that has stalled.

The council also praised a woman has spent nearly four decades working with Head Start youngsters.

The five-member personnel board established by the parish charter is to be composed of five members appointed by the council. The charter calls for appointment of a personnel director with power to set personnel rules and pay scales.

The personnel board's purpose is "to hold hearings on dismissals, demotions and other disciplinary matters" and to "perform such other quasi-judicial duties as may be required under the rules. ..."

But council members taking part in a discussion-only agenda item were unsure at the June 28 meeting even about whether the most recently appointed personnel board members were still within their terms, the longest of which is five years.

Councilman the Rev. Craig Mathews argued that it's aproblem.

"I'm not confident that this body has been utilized in the way it was intended," Mathews said.

Among other concerns, he said, is the possibility of discrimination claims that would land the parish government in federal courts.

Other members talked about the effect on employee morale if there is no established procedure for handling grievances other than making complaints to a supervisor.

"This is something that is becoming quite volatile in the workplace," Mathews said.

Councilman Dean Adams of Morgan City agreed that the parish needs the personnel board. The next step is unclear.

Legal adviser Eric Duplantis suggested asking the South Central Planning and Development Commission for a presentation on possible solutions.

Mathews said there are private companies that do nothing but deal with personnel issues. And a possible charter amendment was discussed.

But that would take too long to suit Councilman J Ina of Franklin, who said getting an amendment on the ballot would take until at least next spring.

"We need to have something in place as soon as we can," Ina said.

Councilwoman Dr. Kristi Prejeant Rink of Centerville noted that newly appointed Chief Administrative Officer Jean Paul Bourg is working on a revision of the parish's personnel
manual.

Also at the meeting, the council introduced an ordinance that would require all parish boards and commissions to meet at least once a month. Twenty days must elapse between introduction and a public hearing and passage vote.

Relations between the council and the boards and commissions it oversees have been strained recently. All five members of the Water and Sewer District No. 5 Commission in the Jeanerette area resigned recently, and a dispute over new, higher water and sewer rates led to the resignnation of two members of the Water and Sewer District No. 1 Commission serving Amelia and Siracusaville.

EV charging

Councilman Patrick Hebert of Berwick told the council about plans for publicly available electric vehicle charging stations.

Recreation District No. 5 in Four Corners has already reached an agreement private sector comany Francis Energy to install a charging station at no cost to the parish. That station, the first available to the public in the parish, would be at the West St. Mary Civic Center.

Discussions are underway for another station in the Morgan City-Berwick area.

Francis Energy's website says the company is dedicated to "expanding our EV Network across the country in an effort to offer EV drivers convenient, easy to use and affordable public charging stations."

Hebert argued that the parish may be missing out on tourism dollars without havng the abiility to recharge electric vehicles. EV owners can use their onboard computers to find the nearest charging station.

"Right now, if you're in Houston coming to New Orleans, you'll completely bypass St. Mary Parish," he said.

"It's kind of like driving through the desert. You take the road that has a gas station."

Stopping to recharge can also mean stopping to eat or make other purchases, he said.

"It's an exciting time for St. Mary Parish to be on the cusp of that kind of innovative development in our parish," Mathews said.

Head Start
honor

The council passed a resolution honoring Cathy Eave for her 37 years of working with the St. Mary-Vermilion Community Action Agency's Head Start program in Four Corners. Eave has served as a teacher, aide and CPR instructor.

"There are countless numbers of young people ... who have been touched by her ministry of giving selflessly to the toddler-pre-school-age population in our parish," Mathews said.