DANIEL TYLER GOODEN

HAHNVILLE – Fearful of engineering firms perpetuating their job security by advising the parish to continue more projects, St. Charles Parish council members Terry Authement, Ganesier “Ram” Ramchandran, Barry Minnich and Darnell “Dee” Abadie proposed to limit engineering firms roles in parish projects. Currently engineering firms can serve as project managers and later receive contracts to perform projects that they possibly promoted as project managers. This would be a serious conflict of interest said the council members. Abadie quoted from a state engineering standards, noting that when a public service member is under contract to provide consultation to a government body, that company shall not participate in professional services provided by them or their organization to that governmental body. If a company advises on future projects and it opens more work for them, that’s a violation, we’ve seen it before, said Abadie. Authement noted they were not worried about the credibility of any firm currently working for the parish, but that the council needs to “separate these roles so a project manager is not given the opportunity to take on these projects.” Currently two firms, Shread-Kuyrkendall and Associates Inc. and Hartman Engineering Inc. are employed to oversee projects in the parish. “We have not been informed by firms of any possible conflict of interest,” said Steven Fall, director of public works and waste water. Fall noted that by law the engineering firms must inform their employees of any conflict and with an engineering license taking eight years to receive, most firms would be very careful to avoid any conflict of interest. The resolution failed five to four, with the sponsors of the resolution voting for. Another resolution, revoking program management services with Hartman Engineering failed before the council. Ramchandran sponsored the resolution stating that it was “time to get on with (other projects) rather than lumping projects under one caption.” Hartman Engineering is currently finishing a regional waste water plant project, which has come close to spending it’s $41 million budget. The project is 99 percent finished. The resolution failed as the council voted to allow Hartman to finish the project. Ramchandran, Minnich, Authement and Abadie voted to revoke the firm. In other news The council voted to sign a five year contract at $100 per year for disaster recovery services with DRC Inc. of Mobile, Ala. DRC would perform cleanup services after disasters through a host of sub-contractors. Regional Manager Mark Stafford stated that the company has 1,500 contractors world-wide to perform the services if necessary. The company would only be called in if the parish was declared a disaster area by the governor or President of the United States. Even then, the parish president would have to make the call of whether DRC was needed, said Stafford. DRC would be paid through reimbursement by federal or state money set aside for St. Charles Parish as a disaster area. The council failed two resolutions which requested waivers on required subsurface drainage. The waivers were requested for subdivision projects. The council members stated that they must make a stand supporting the requirement for subsurface drainage, even though the increased cost for the developer may be passed on to the future homeowner.