By Harlan Kirgan Edito
Naming individuals to boards and commissions that form the governing structure of St. Landry Parish is nearly a monthly job for the St. Landry Parish Council.
But the relationship between the council and its appointees has been ill-defined.
The Parish Council decided Wednesday to form a committee to write a policy for boards and commissions.
Ken Marks, a council member from Port Barre, said guidance is needed, noting the individuals wanting to serve on boards and commissions fill out a single page application form that is presented to the council.
“I would like to see a little more organization, a little more responsibility of these members that we are going to approve going forward that they would at least have an opportunity to come in front of us and speak to us about their character and ... why they would like to be on a board...,” Mark said.
A council policy would give the boards and commissions a reference point to what is expected of them, he said.
Among those expectations is how meetings are conducted and reporting back to the council about matters such as finances, he said.
At Nov. 2 Public Works Committee meeting, Nancy Carriere, an Opelousas council member, said Council Clerk Laycie Alfred sends out a request each year for boards to submit their bylaws and update their information.
“... they have not sent any information, and I was just wondering if we could request the secretary or the president could attend the meeting and we could be informed about what is going on with those boards,” Carriere is quoted in the committee meetings.
Alfred, quoted in the minutes, stated, “I just want to clarify, I did receive some from some boards. Some of them I have not received anything back from, I don’t receive minutes or financial. We have 45 boards and I get probably get one-half or that.”
Alfred said she has sent letters to the boards when they don’t respond, when asked by Councilman Coby Clavier if there was a way to “wake them up.”
Alfred’s letter said her letters to non-responsive boards stated the council would take action to reappoint the boards.
“That did not wake them up either,” she stated.
Also on the agenda at the meeting was filling four appointments to the St. Landry Parish Economic Development District board of directors. There were six applicants. Seeking reappointment were Jack Ortego, Hals Beard, Andy Dakin and Joseph Thomas. Graig Leblanc and Jerry Guye III sought a first-time opportunity to serve on the board. Leblanc and Guye were voted in to replace Ortego and Thomas.
Winning seats on the economic board and their vote totals were Beard, eight votes; Dakin, nine votes; Leblanc, 11 votes; and Guye, nine votes.
The council also voted to form a committee to prepare a guide for residents to private roads up to standards that would allow roads to be accepted into the parish road system.