ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / October 4, 2000

LAPLACE – Just when St. John the Baptist Parish employees thought it wassafe to look in their pay envelopes, another glitch has slowed the gears of bureaucracy.

Councilman Dale Wolfe wants to know why parish employees with 15 or more years seniority are still not getting their full pay even after the council had passed an ordinance two weeks earlier authorizing the administration to so.

The ordinance said all employees of 15 or more years were to be topped-out at the highest rate of pay on the new wage schedule that had been worked out after nearly 16 years of negotiations.

Several employees had complained to Wolfe, who is head of the Equalization Committee, that they still hadn’t gotten their full pay.

“We made a motion for all employees with 15 years or more to be topped out,” said an angry Wolfe. “Why haven’t they been topped out?”According to St. John Parish Human Resources Director Walter Coleman, theadministration was told it wasn’t legal to give parish employees back pay.

Council attorney, Barry Landry, told Wolfe that the administration has to follow the council’s resolutions, but the way the resolution was worded, it went against the state constitution.

“Article 7-14a prohibits retroactive pay increases,” Landry informed Wolfe.

“Equalization back pay goes against state law.”Also, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Clement reported the employees under the new plan would get two more raises and then they would be topped out.

Wolfe didn’t accept either of the answers.

“Retroactive pay was not mentioned in the resolution,” argued Wolfe. “Andthe council saw fit to start at 13 years. The motion was for 15 years.”Chris Guidry, chief administrative officer, made a peace offering to Wolfe.

“If that is your wish we will ask the civil service board to concur with the resolution,” said Guidry.

“The civil service board should have already received the message from the administration,” responded Wolfe. “The council’s position should be honored,and on the next paycheck they should be topped out.”The next paycheck will be issued Thursday, so Wolfe called for a special meeting of the civil service board for Oct. 1 so that all the necessarypaperwork could be processed and employees with 15 or more years of service to the parish will receive the top pay on their paychecks.

Despite solving the problem, councilman Lester Rainey said that the equalization plan still needs a lot of work.

“When we put the plan through without specifics, I knew there would be problems, ” said Rainey. “We need to take it on an employee-by-employeebasis. There are still too many holes to call it an equalization plan.”In other council business: Duaine Duffy and Job Boucvalt got a resolution passed that would speed up the water system mapping in the parish and work on a plan to decide when a new water source for LaPlace would be started.

“We need to tackle this issue now,” said Duffy. “We have a two-year windowof opportunity on whether we should dig a new well or build a water plant on the river.” Duffy and Boucvalt also got the council to pass a resolution that adopted the master plan for the U.S. Highway 51 park project, including building thenecessary road construction.

Boucvalt told the council the state Department of Transportation and Development is working on plans for a possible new road that would unload Airline Highway traffic from St. Charles Parish unto U.S. 51. Also, Boucvaltgot the council to go ahead with improving the street lighting on East Airline Highway from Main Street to West Fifth Street in old LaPlace.

Mickey Triche of Reserve Telecommunications informed the council that an area of West 10th Street in Reserve has already been wired with optic fiber for cable, internet access and telephone. Triche said wiring for the rest ofthe parish is on schedule. Answering Rainey’s concerns, Triche assured westbank residents they, too, will be wired for cable in the near future.

The Sept. 26 meeting of the parish council was the first live broadcast ofthe proceedings on Channel 55. After a long and sometimes tumultuoussession, Cleveland Farlough commented, “I don’t know if this was a good night to be live on cable.”

Return To News Stories