By Kimberly Hopson
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – The St. John the Baptist Parish School Board addressed a cease and desist
order issued by the
State of Louisiana Licensing Board for Contractors during their Thursday evening meeting at Emily C. Watkins.
According to the order, which was was served on Wednesday, the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board Disaster Management Recovery Services project is in violation of Louisiana Revised Statute 37:2150 through 2192, because Hammerman and Gainer, the company chosen to receive the disaster recovery contract, is required to have a general contractors license.
The order directed the project to cease all “activity, conduct, or practice”  which  includes  all  bidding,  contracting,  or  performing  any  and  all  residential  home improvement  projects  currently  being  undertaken  in  excess  of  $1,500,  new  residential  building projects  in  excess  of  $75,000,  commercial  projects  in  excess  of  $50,000,  and  any  hazardous material or mold remediation  in excess of $1.”
During a special session in June, the School Board addressed an official protest by ousted contractor CSRS. CSRS alleged that although Hammerman and Gainer had won the contract, the company had failed to submit proof of insurance, was not a licensed architect and was unable to serve as a “professional of record.” The protest went on to say that HGI could not legally provide construction project management because it was not licensed by the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors.
The board moved to dismiss CSRS’s protest at the suggestion of board member Albert Burl, a motion that passed almost unanimously with nine yeas and two absent.
Orenthal Jasmin, the board’s attorney, explained the situation, stating that the school board is currently in contract with three entities: Hammerman and Gainer, The Luster Group and Chasm Architects, to complete the work on East St. John and Lake Pontchartrain Elementary. Jasmin said he and the board’s legal advisors used a sample proposal from GOHSEP to draw up an agreement but ran into problems while addressing HGI’s lack of licensing.
“At that point some issues began to present themselves as it pertains to HGI requiring a general contractors license. I contacted the general contractors licensing board after receiving an opinion that had been submitted to CSRS, which stated that the program manager section of this contract requires a general contractor’s license. They communicated to me that as long as HGI does not have any oversight over the portions of the contract that require a general contractor’s license, everything should be OK,” he said.
He went on to say that they specifically worded the contract to make sure the company would not have oversight over the portions of the work that required the license, as he was told. According to Jasmin, he was unaware that the licensing board had a special set of rules that stipulate that all entities in a joint business venture must have the license to make it a legally binding joint business venture.
After a lengthy executive session meeting, the board announced that it had agreed to comply with the order. Board members then made a motion to have Hammerman and Gainer turn over all documentation pertaining to the two schools by the day’s end on Friday. The motion passed unopposed.
If the school district does not discontinue activity, the penalty could be a steep $1,000 and/or up to 10 percent of the total contracts being performed. Representatives of Hammerman and Gainer were not present at the meeting.
In other news, the board also introduced the new band director for Emily C. Watkins during the meeting. Howard Gauley was recently hired in conjunction with the VH1 Save the Music Foundation program.
The new director showed some of the brand new instruments the school had received from the program that morning, praising the quality of the instruments.
A representative from VH1’s Save the Music Foundation, Chiho Okuizumi, attended a board meeting in May to discuss the possibility of the school system participating in the program. Okuizumi said the foundation would give approximately $30,000 worth of musical instruments to a pre-selected school in the district. The school would have the option of choosing between several different instrument packages, such as band instruments, string instruments, keyboard or mariachi. Okuizumi also said the school would be required to hire a music educator at some point during the process to properly utilize the new tools.