– The St. Martin Parish Consolidated Water District No. 4 board discussed a few future money matters at its June meeting, including billing for public facilities in St. Martinville and pay and benefits for employees who are expected to move from their current positions in the City of St. Martinville and Water District No. 4 waterworks departments to the new consolidated water district.
The St. Martin Parish Government is negotiating for office space in the St. Martinville city limits, but Parish President Pete Delcambre said that he did not want to discuss details until an agreement is reached.
“I can say that it’s been very encouraging and hopefully by a month, at the next meeting, we’ll be able to start fully disclosing where we are” in the process of securing office space for the new water district, Delcambre said.
Regarding the hiring of staff, Delcambre said that people who have done similar projects and have been told the consolidation process is six months behind where it should be in hiring staff.
Delcambre spoke with parish attorney Lee Durio and with Jason Akers, the attorney dealing with the parish’s bonds and with the consolidation project. The intergovernmental agreement being put together includes a section dealing with current employees of the city or parish who will be hired by the consolidated water district.
Delcambre said that Akers saw no problem in bringing in employees and naming their positions while the consolidation process is ongoing.
But Delcambre said that the new water district will have to set salaries and benefits so that employees can decide if they do want to move into the new jobs.
But because combining the billing systems and assets and debts is so complicated, the employees will continue their work in their current jobs until the time comes that the new water district can bring those employees on board.
It would be good for the process of setting job positions over the next month, with the board approving any recommendations it sees fit, Delcambre said.
St. Martinville Mayor Jason Willis said that salaries and benefits should be set before the consolidation process is complete so that employees can decide if they wish to move into the new positions.
Quality
Willis also brought up the issue of billing for public buildings and facilities by the new consolidated district. The city currently is not billed by the city water system for water used in those facilities such as City Hall, parks and other public buildings. Willis asked if the city could be billed for water at cost for those facilities.
Willis wasn’t sure if the city even has water meters at all of those facilities, and it was suggested that while new meters are being installed throughout the new consolidated district, meters could be installed in public facilities in the new district.
City water manager Jonathan Vining said that some new meters have been installed in the city’s public buildings, though he would have to look into whether all of those places have water meters that need to be replaced or if some have to have meters installed for the first time.
Delcambre said he would talk to the two attorneys involved in the process to see what the legal aspects of billing for public entities would be. The bill rates that the board passed were set to include water used by the city of St. Martinville.
If at some point the district is making more money than it anticipates, it could take some steps to provide relief to customers, either municipalities, residential customers or businesses, or all of those, Delcambre said.
Pam Granger of McBade Engineers & Consultants said that however the billing is worked out, it would be a good idea to have meters at all public facilities just so that the water district can account for all water that is being produced. That allows the district to keep track of whether water lost is being actually used or if there is a leak somewhere.
Delcambre said that timetables have moved up on when the project is required to finish spending the federal grant money it received or risk losing that funding. The money initially was to be spent by Dec. 30, later moved up to Sept. 30. That has been changed now to Sept. 1.
“I think we’re going to be very, very, very close to be able to bring this … to the completion point that is acceptable to the (state) water sector board,” Delcambre said.
Parish Director of Administration Raymond Bernard Jr. talked to the board about the pro forma plan being put together for the consolidated water district and said that includes salaries and benefit packages for staff and is reaching out to the Louisiana Rural Water Association for their expertise in various areas including pay packages and human resources.
The board also approved renewing its liability insurance policy, which will a premium increase of about $110 over the previous year’s policy premium.
