RFPs may be the norm for parish

Requests for proposals when acquiring professional services may become mandatory for St. Mary Parish Government.
The parish council Wednesday approved a request by Councilmen Glenn Hidalgo and Kevin Voisin to issue a request for proposal (RFP) for management firms in the operation of Atchafalaya Golf Course at Idlewild in Patterson, not including the restaurant. The council approved that motion.
Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said RFPs are standard forms that are sent out and analyzed upon return for presentation to the council.
Councilman Gabriel Beadle asked LaGrange if the council can add to the details of an RFP. LaGrange said he’d welcome suggestions from the council and the administration would consider them.
Beadle added that RFPs are “great” but that “we want to make sure we don’t single out one entity and we look everywhere to save, every entity to save in the parish, and continuously push requests for proposals because all we’re doing is getting the number to find out where the best price for the best service is out there.” He said every professional service should involve an RFP.
Councilman Craig Mathews asked if the council would take every professional service “on a case-by-case basis” or if a separate ordinance would be needed.
Legal counsel Eric Duplantis said the agenda item under action only applied to its specified parameters.
The council debated RFPs in recent years, Parish President David Hanagriff said, and Duplantis added that state statue limits or exempts some particular circumstances in requests for proposals.
Mathews asked the council to “seriously consider drafting legislation” requiring RFPs where possible and in line with state statute.
Also Wednesday, Hanagriff said a resolution on the agenda would authorize him to execute a contract with the lowest bidder for a new water treatment plant in Glencoe.
Hanagriff said the attended the Water District 5 meeting Tuesday, and while the original scope of that project was about $750,000, the lowest bid came in at $1.1 million. The parish has a grant for the initial amount.
The parish has contributed $150,000, and the commission agreed to fund $300,000, he said.
“This has been needed for a very long time in the Glencoe community,” Mathews added. “It’s a dilapidated, antiquated system that the district inherited.” He said Rep. Sam Jones and Sen. Sam Jones helped secure the grant.
He said that the district’s willingness to allocate the money, rather than keep it in their account, made him “extremely proud.”
The district will seek renewal of its special tax in the Oct. 14 election.
In other business:
—Hanagriff reported that Sen. Bill Cassidy will be visiting the parish sometime next week.
—An ordinance was introduced authorizing issuance of sales tax refunding bonds for solid waste to not exceed $750,000.
—And ordinance was adopted for a 5.72 mill and 0.31 mill tax renewal for the St. Mary Parish Library System, excluding the City of Morgan City which is not a part of the system.
—An ordinance was passed levying a 7.24 mill tax renewal in the unincorporated areas of the parish for local and parochial purposes, and a 3.62 mill renewal within the municipalities to defray costs of the criminal justice system.
—An ordinance for a zoning map amendment was approved.
—Water and Sewer Dist. 4 was approved for its tax renewal in the Oct. 14 election.
—Water and Sewer Dist. 5 was also authorized to present a tax renewal Oct. 14.
—Jason Vining was appointed to the Fire Protect Dist. 7 board in the Bayou Vista area.
—An allocation of $10,000 from the Wards 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 10 tax fund was approved for Franklin High School summer enrichment program, and $7,500 for the same program at Raintree Elementary in Baldwin.
—Gary A. Beadle was appointed to the Wards 5 and 8 joint sewer commission; Councilman Beadle abstained.