By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – The St. John the Baptist Parish Council on Tuesday named a firm to handle the parish’s redistricting and also announced the completion of various public works projects.

Although the measure was split down the middle, the council voted 5-3 in favor of South Central Planning and Development of Houma to redraw boundaries within the parish. The firm will be paid an amount not to succeed $30,000.

The council was prepared to go with South Central Planning at a previous council meeting two weeks ago, but the owner of a rival firm in the running for the contract came before the council claiming his firm was unfairly treated by the parish’s selection committee.

Cedric Floyd of Data Center told the council at the last meeting that his firm was better qualified to perform the redistricting work. He said his firm, which was involved in the successful challenges to both the council’s and parish school board’s redistricting plan eight years ago, had drawn the districts under which the current council had been elected.

Floyd added his firm could do the work at a rate of $25,000 and said he felt a parish evaluation committee gave his proposal unreasonably low scores given his company’s track record. A third firm, Redistricting LLC, was also in the running but did not challenge the results of the evaluation committee.

At the last meeting Floyd said South Central Planning in the previous redistricting did not devise a plan that complied with civil rights laws designed to ensure African-American representation for elected bodies in states with a pattern of past racial discrimination. Louisiana is one of several southern states that must comply with the law.

South Central Planning CEO Kevin Belanger told the council Tuesday that the challenge over the previous district lines stemmed from unwillingness by previous council members to split a neighborhood. He added that no law exists keeping his firm from participation because of past performance.

“This firm has been a part of three other reapportionments in this region,” Belanger said. “There is a wealth of quality experience in this firm.”

Belanger also noted South Central Planning is a public agency that answers to a board of directors that includes the presidents of the six parishes in the planning district. He said any excess revenue generated by this contract will be put back into programs for all member parishes.

The council had proposed a motion Tuesday to replace South Central Planning with Data Center, but that measure failed in a 4-4 split vote along racial lines. Council members Raydel Morris, Charles Julien, Haston Lewis and Ronnie Smith voted in favor while Danny Millet, Steve Lee, Jaclyn Hotard and Darnel Usry voted against the motion. Cheryl Millet, who is white, was not present at the meeting.

In the 5-3 vote in favor of South Central Planning, Hotard, Lee, Usry, Danny Millet and Julien voted in favor while Lewis, Morris and Smith voted against.

In other action, the council approved the substantial completion of the Balsam Street drainage improvement project, indicating that the process of cleaning the drains and adding culverts and grates in that area is nearing completion. The total cost of the Balsam Street project was about $72,000.

Once the project is fully complete, water should flow easily into the Haydel Canal and into Lake Maurepas, eliminating the flooding problems in that area.

The parish also announced the installation of three new generators at the Ruddock Nano Filtration Station as well as at a pair of pump stations at the Ruddock water well. Enclosures were also built above flood level to elevate the generators.

These generators will provide an alternate source of power should the parish need it during a storm. The generators will allow the Nano Filtration System to continue to operate during power outages. This project was funded through the 2009 bond issue at a cost of $359,000.