Catahoula director chosen in 3-2 vote during special meeting
– The St. Martin Parish Consolidated Water District No. 4 board interviewed its two candidates for the new district's ex ecutive director position at a special meeting on Oct. 12, voting 3-2 to hire St. Martin Parish Water District 4 water manager Ronald Daigle.
But water district board member Don “Tuffy” Resweber questioned whether the vote was legitimate based on parliamentary procedure.
Resweber had moved to hire St. Martinville water system manager Jonathan Vining for the position, which was seconded by board member Danny Bulliard.
But the board then held a roll-call vote instead of voting on that motion, with Resweber and Bulliard voting for Vining and Donnie Laviolette, Chuck Latiolais and Kirk Lasseigne voting for Daigle.
“My motion was not even voted on, so I feel that parliamentary procedure was not followed,” Resweber said.
Resweber indicated he would like to see the board vote on the hiring at its next meeting at the end of the month, but acknowledged that was unlikely to change the outcome as no votes would be expected to change.
The general job description given for the position was that the executive director “manages, directs, and coordinates all Water District Personnel and activities to ensure operations, budget, and documentation meet all Local, State, and Federal regulations.” Several people spoke during the public comment segment of the meeting, and all but two named Vining as their suggestion for the board to hire, including Carlene Girouard, a Catahoula resident who spoke at the September Consolidated Water District board meeting about the poor quality of water at her house.
“After listening to the candidates, I feel it is time for a change. We can no longer have this coming into our house,” she said, holding a bottle of water she said was filled from her taps.
“I feel that Jonathan is more than qualified for this job, working for multiple multi-million dollar corporations and keeping the water in St. Martinville, I have been told, is of quality and up to standards.”
Director
St. Martinville Mayor Jason Willis, City Councilmen Brad Horton and George Choplin and city attorney Allan Durand also spoke in favor of hiring Vining.
Willis said Vining knows the system, helped repair and upgrade the system through the consolidation process and customers have no complaints about the system. He also said that Vining is young, whereas Daigle is nearing retirement age.
“You want someone who can be with us for the long haul,” Willis said, adding the district will have to find a new person and have them learn the system once Daigle retires.
St. Martin Parish District 1 Councilman Hoyt Louviere kept his comments brief.
“I think the choice is clear,” he said. “No pun intended.”
Three others also spoke in favor of Vining being hired for the position, citing his knowledge of the water system and his youth as positives.
St. Martin Parish Councilman Chris Tauzin did not make a recommendation but spoke about the reason for the consolidation process that combines the St. Martin Industrial Park system with Catahoula and St. Martinville, largely to improve the quality of water for people in Catahoula, Coteau Holmes and other areas and to improve the water system in St. Martinville.
The parish put up the bulk of money for the process of getting grants from the state for the consolidation, while St. Martinville put up its water system that has a better quality of water from its aquifers than the other two water systems.
“Whoever we’re going to hire today needs to be able to take that system that we invested our money, that water system that’s been put in place, and make sure it’s right,” Tauzin said. “The money we have is not going to fix the whole system. We know that. It’s going to get us to the next level. But we need to make sure that the leader we’re going to pick today, the guy that’s going to be in charge, is somebody that can work with customers, can work with the people. But he has to have a plan.”
The two candidates were the men in charge of the two main water systems that are being consolidated into one new system, the St. Martin Parish Water District 4 (Catahoula area) and St. Martinville city water systems.
Vining listed his work experience in a packet given to board members and included letters of recommendation and a capital improvement plan.
“As executive director my plan is to be transparent with the board and with the public, to make sure that everyone is heard, everyone is treated fairly,” he said. “The buck stops with me. I want to make sure that no one has to call the board, no one has to come to meetings if they have any kind of issues. If they have issues, I’m here to solve them.”
Daigle said he has 45-plus years experience beginning with the LUS, the Lafayette Consolidated Government’s utilities system.
In his first year with the St. Martin Water District 4 system, he resolved all the violations from 2017 forward, satisfying all requirements of the state Department of Health that oversees all the water systems in the state.
