New rules for parish boards not well received

New rules for boards and commissions of St. Mary Parish Government drew ire from some members of those panels Wednesday.
At the center of the debate were financial and procedural changes to the way these boards and commissions operate.
Stan Robison, a member of the Bayou Vista recreation district, but speaking as a citizen, said he is not against the parish’s efforts to save money. “I do not like the way this was done,” Robison said. “It was not done correctly…not one person, to my knowledge, not one district was called to ask, ‘What do you guys think about this?’ It was, ‘No, we’re going to do it.’”
Robison said the parish intends to take over payroll, accounting and purchasing of the entities, and asked if the parish has enough employees to handle the task.
Councilman Gabriel Beadle objected that “these boards were reached out to, many boards were spoken with, before it was introduced. These issues were discussed with them, and there were plenty of (suggestions) brought up in these meetings.”
Beadle said those discussions led to changes in the ordinance in question. He said four employees would need to be added to the parish administration to handle 26 boards.
Robison said the changes also include a requirement that boards approve budgets, then forward to the parish for subsequent approval or revision, and then returned for another round of approval by the board. Robison said currently the budgets are introduced, approved, published in the official journal, a public hearing, then adoption. “Do you have to advertise in the newspaper?” he asked.
Parish President David Hanagriff said the ordinance as up for adoption that night omits the council’s power to revise a budget. Robison asked again if the budget would be published in the official journal, and Hanagriff said it would not.
Hanagriff said he and Robison discussed the matter in the past.
“Nobody called our district, nobody called the recreation district, nobody from the parish,” Robison said.
Robison said that his family business is not allowed to sell to the board he sits on, and asked Hanagriff if, when the parish takes over purchasing, that would change. Hanagriff said that would be a question for the state ethics board, and Robison said he had done so, and was told the business could then sell to the parish.
The ordinance also states that, when the parish takes over accounting, a fee will be charged to the entities. Robison wanted to know what that fee would be, and Hanagriff said he could not answer that question.
“If you can’t answer this question, how can you vote for this?” Robison asked the council.
Beadle interjected that Robison was “trying to grandstand us,” which drew a loud moan from the audience. Beadle said each individual board would meet with the administration to determine its needs. If the cost of doing the work in-house is less than the cost of the parish taking it, the board could continue on its own.
A parish liaison, Tim Tregle, met with the boards, Councilman Craig Mathews said, “So we could put our heads together to determine what are some more effective ways to streamline services, maybe do a better quality job, not just look at one individual board, because there are several boards in this parish that may not have the same levels of capacity that other boards have.”
Robison said, “He was there for five or 10 minutes and said he was there to try to save the parish money. I understood that, everybody understood. But you are not telling how much money it’s going to save.”
Beadle said every panel is different, and there’s no “cookie cutter” way of assessing all the entities at once.
Lee Dragna, of Morgan City, and chairman of Drainage Dist. 2, said the move “was misrepresented from the first day. I do agree with the ordinance…but what I’m disagreeing with is Tim Tregle came to our meeting and said” he was present just to see how the board’s operate, and that consolidation was being looked at. He said he was not aware of the move until his secretary “saw it on the internet.”
“You can’t misrepresent something and not expect people to be (expletive) off,” he said. “This is not consolidation. This is not even close to consolidation...it was 100 percent represented when that man came to our office.”
Allan Mayon, of Franklin, a concerned citizen, said, “I’d rather have 300 people looking at my business than four people. You’re talking about saving tax money, shut down the golf course, save us $350,000 a year,” which was greeted by applause.
He also advocated shutdown of Fairview Treatment center. “I’m carrying it (Fairview and the golf course) on my back in taxes,” he said.
Fire Chief Clarence Clark, Dist. 11, Four Corners, said he received information about the ordinance at 11 a.m. that morning. He also said that Tregle said he was there to “try to save money…our parish councilman did say that in the near future (consolidation) may happen but he didn’t say it was going to happen now. My concern is, when you asked us to adopt policy, my board has policy, we have procedures. Our policies have been approved by the state fire marshal’s office. If parish government wants us to adopt their policies, do you policies have fire protection (provisions.)”
Clark said as far as purchasing power goes, he once sent a requisition to the parish for a fire apparatus, “I was told we could not buy it because it was not a fire apparatus. Well, it was a brush truck, which fights grass fires. I think this ordinance needs a lot more work done to it.”
When the ordinance came up for adoption, Councilman Glen Hidalgo motioned to table, which failed 6-4 with one absent.
Beadle motioned to adopt, with a second by James Bennett.
Hanagriff reiterated that the ordinance “does not take the board’s money, how to run their operation, who they can hire or can’t hire.”
Beadle said the ordinance, which he sponsored, had been amended after discussion with boards and members. He listed the changes, which the council approved on a vote of 8-2, with James Bennett, Paul Naquin, Gabriel Beadle, Kevin Voisin, Craig Mathews, J Ina, Dale Rogers and Ken Singleton in favor. Glen Hidalgo and Sterling Fryou against and Patrick Hebert absent.
Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said board employees would be covered by insurance which would amount to 100 percent paid for the employee and 72 percent of dependents. Districts could not provide more than that, LaGrange said, under the new ordinance.