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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.

DEAR ABBY: I am a 29-year-old housewife with a loving husband, a caring mother and equally supportive in-laws. I’m writing because I feel useless. I don’t even have a hobby I’m good at.
Although I like to play music, draw and play with cats, I don’t think I’m good at any of them, despite others telling me otherwise.
My friends and family are better off than I am. My friend is participating in a skating competition, my brother is working toward becoming an electrician, and my husband’s first cousin is an illustrator whose book recently got published.
Because of this, I have developed low self-esteem and argue with those around me.
I can’t afford college because I have no job. I tried applying for a few only to be turned down.
Abby, I haven’t accomplished anything special. All I want is to be good at SOMETHING, but I’m afraid it will blow up in my face. I can’t accept criticism.
I’m at a loss about what to do. I’m ready to give up on everything.
Why should I keep trying when I know I will get the same bad results?
TALENTLESS IN OHIO

DEAR TALENTLESS: There are many kinds of success beyond the monetary or winning prizes. As an unemployed housewife with time on your hands, why not put some of it to use by volunteering in your community?
Many places would be glad to have you. The library, schools, senior centers, veterinarian’s offices or animal rescues would welcome someone.
Please try it. If you do, you may find you have talents you’re unaware of. An added benefit will be that the more you do, the higher your level of self-esteem will become.

DEAR ABBY: My 12-year-old grandson, “Adam,” doesn’t talk to me. He converses with other adults, but when I walk into a room and say hi, he pretends he doesn’t hear me. He does not answer questions that I ask and will sit on the floor rather than at the other end of a large sofa where I am.
He lives pretty far away, so I take small gifts when I visit every two to three months. He does come over with a smile when I am handing them out, but he never comments or says thank you. His younger brother and I get along great, so I do not pressure Adam. When I leave, I give him a quick hug and tell him I love him. The phone is useless.
He’s obviously miserable when my daughter insists he speak with me. I send a short text once a month or so so he knows I care. I don’t feel comfortable mentioning this to his parents, as his dad is pretty hard on him.
Any suggestions?
SAD GRAMMY IN PENNSYLVANIA

DEAR SAD GRAMMY: Yes. Adam’s behavior is rude and disrespectful, but it’s perhaps not his fault.
I am surprised his parents haven’t noticed this. Because you feel his father might be heavy-handed, mention it to his mother and ask her to find out what the problem is with Adam because, clearly, there is one.
***
Good advice for everyone — teens to seniors — is in “The Anger in All of Us and How to Deal With It.” To order, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 to: Dear Abby, Anger Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447.

When Mary A. Gilday submitted her list of preferred Coast Guard assignments in 2012, Morgan City wasn't on it. She didn't know anything about the place.

But Morgan City it was. She served as assistant chief of inspections for Marine Safety Unit Morgan City before moving on.

This year, it was again time to list her preferred assignments. And Morgan City "was No. 1 on my list this time," Gilday said.

On Thursday at Muncipal Auditorium, Cmdr Gilday officially became the 13th commanding officer of Marine Safety Unit Morgan City, with its 65 personnel and responsibilities for vessel and facility inspectons, accident and pollution response, and safety on the commercially important waterways where the Atchafalaya meets the Intracoastal Waterway.

Gilday succeeds Cmdr. Ben Russell, who commanded the unit for three years marked by hurricanes, the COVID pandemic and a series of navigational challenges on the Atchafalaya.

Russell, who was commissioned in 2003 after serving three years as an enlisted man, is assigned to Coast Guard headquarters in Washngton as chief of enlisted personnel management. He leaves with the Coast Guard Meritorious Service Medal, which was presented Thursday by Capt. Loan T. O'Brien, commander of Marine Safety Unit Houma.

"It's been my singular privilege to be here," Russell said after the ceremony. "Morgan City has an exceptional sevice attitude. They just dove in with it."

At the lectern, Russell spoke about the reverance for the American flag here, and the way public meetings begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. He said Patterson has been a good place to live for wife Jennifer and their six children.

"There's something here," Russell said. "There's something unique."

Also at the lectern, Gilday joked about being able to take part in the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival.

"It feels great to be home again ...," Gilday said. "The lessons I learned here transcend professional development."

After the ceremony, she said Russell leaves her "a well-oiled machine. "My job is to keep it a well-oiled machine."

Gilday, daugther of an Air Force veteran and a Taiwanese-American mother, was born on Okinawa and raised in Florida. Her sister Melissa Alma and brother-in-law Victor Alma are also in the Coast Guard
.
Gilday graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 2007 and has a bachelor's degree in government. Her assignments have included senior investigating officer at Houma and tours aboard the cutters Forward and Gallatin.

Marine Safety Unit Morgan City covers 1,500 square miles of transportation system, including 58 miles of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and a portion of the Gulf of Mexico.

The unit performs over 1,500 vessel and facility inspections, 200 marine casualty investigations and enforcement actions, and 100 pollution reports each year.

At a St. Mary Chamber luncheon Wednesday, outgoing state Sen. Bret Allain looked back on his 12 years in the Legislature with pride, especially this year’s SB1, which would phase out Louisiana’s corporate franchise tax.

The franchise levy is the worst sort, Allain told the Chamber audience, because it taxes capital investment in the state. It would go away under SB1, which passed in the Legislature this year.

But about 1 p.m., while Allain was still at the head table at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City, the Governor’s Office emailed a press release. Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed SB1 with a message that was more in sorrow than in anger.

“That’s the most complimentary veto message I think I ever read,” Allain said. “But it’s still a veto.”

Changes pushed by Allain and enacted in 2021 exempted the first $300,000 in capital from the franchise tax and lowered rates. It also established the possibility of further rate reductions if revenue goals, called triggers, were met.

SB1 would have phased out the tax completely, reducing it by 25% in each of four years, again based on revenue triggers.

The Edwards veto message praised Allain’s work on tax reform in 2021 and acknowledged that the franchise tax “is antiquated and should be structurally reformed or repealed.”

But the fiscal impact from the 2021 changes won’t be known until December or early next year, after a new automatic extension for filing 2022 taxes takes effect in November, the governor wrote.

“With many moving and intertwined pieces, it is unwise to create a second franchise tax reduction trigger at this time,” Edwards wrote.

The Legislature would also have to deal with the impact of portable tax credits on corporate income tax revenue, plus the coming end of a 0.45% sales tax, the return of suspended sales tax exemptions and the dedication of some taxes to transportation and revenue stabilization tax funds.

But “I applaud [Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee] Chairman Allan’s efforts in 2021 and this past legislative session in championing necessary reforms to our tax system,” Edwards wrote, “and I invite the next Administration and Legislature to continue moving forward in reforming, modernizing, and improving Louisiana’s tax laws.”

Allain said he disagrees with the governor’s concerns about fiscal uncertainty.

“I think we missed an opportunity,” he said.

Allain also took a hit from the right in the form of a press released by the conservative Louisiana Freedom Caucus.

The release revolves around the vote in this year’s legislative session to raise the state spending cap. Allain, the press release said, went along with a conference report that stripped funding for projects in state Rep. Beryl Amedee’s district after she became one of 19 representatives to vote against lifting the cap. That missing funding included $15 million for road projects and sewage system improvements in Morgan City.

“The irony here,” the press release said, “is that Sen. Allain’s kissing the ring of the governor did not save [SB1] on the very day he had the hubris to condone the punishment of [Amedee].”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Allain said about the press release. “That whole bunch is a little off the wall.”