Holding Central’s City Council Accountable – Part 1

Commentary by Dave Freneaux

    It looks to me that our Central City Council, in particular Council Members Messina, LoBue & Washington, may have cost the taxpayers $11,506 at last night’s Council meeting.  Mind you, this is just an estimate, but I will explain the math below.  The issue is that the Council was asked to spend $35,000 to fund a study and flood mapping of the Beaver Bayou area which is likely to reduce flood insurance premiums for as many as 1,650 homes in Central and save these homeowners $300,000 or more each year.  Council Members Wayne Messina, Ralph Washington and Tony LoBue, rather than approving the funding, voted to defer any decision until the next Council meeting in two weeks.  Council Members Louis DeJohn and Aaron Moak voted against the deferral, stating that the potential savings to the taxpayers should be approved immediately.

For those of you that just want the highlights:

1)      1) They say they need more time to study the issue – They have known about this since June 4^th.

2)      2) They say $35,000 is a lot of money – The City of Central has over $6 million of our unspent tax dollars sitting in the bank.

3)      3) $11,500 the additional flood insurance premiums Central’s citizens will likely pay for having delayed this decision for 14 days.

4)      4) I will go out on a limb and predict that the Council will decide to fund this study at their next meeting in two weeks, after finally having actually studied the matter.

Now for those of you who like the details:

    Messina, Washington & LoBue deferred the issue to give themselves more time to study the issue.  On June 4^th, over three months ago, Ms. Kathi Cowen, a Central citizen and a Certified Floodplain Manager, asked all five Council Members to consider funding this study and offered to meet with any of them at their convenence.  Council Member Moak immediately began working with Ms. Cowen on the matter.  Council Member DeJohn, in the midst of working to improve Central’s sewerage infrastructure, urged Moak to handle the issue.  Ms. Cowen, throughout this process, has continued to be available to meet with any interested Council Member.

    The ordinance to fund this study was introduced at the August 14^th City Council meeting, meaning that Messina, LoBue & Washington had the full ordinance in their possession to consider for four weeks.  Yet, despite knowing about the issue for three months, having repeated offers to meet to discuss the issue, and having full knowledge of the ordinance itself for almost a month, they somehow still need two more weeks to study it.  Two weeks that will likely, down the road, mean that the citizens of Central will pay an additional $11,500 in flood insurance premiums as the price tag for their delay.

    While $35,000 for a study is certainly a lot of money, it is a small sum compared to the $6 million surplus the City is sitting on.  This is money collected in taxes over the last 6 years that never got spent and is not needed to run the city this year, and this year that number is budgeted to grow to over $7 million.  Consider as well that on June 12^th, just two months ago, and after being made aware of the need to do the floodplain study, Council Members Messina, Washington & LoBue voted to approve spending $20,000 to cut the grass on State and Parish roadways in Central.  The State and Parish are responsible to maintain these roadsides, not the City of Central.  Remember also that just the past year the City Council approved the purchase of three “Welcome to Central” signs for $19,000.  I think the signs are very nice and I like having nicely mowed roadways, but if we can spend $39,000 for these things, can’t we spare $35,000 to possibly save the people of Central many hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in flood insurance premiums?

    Speaking of all that money, depending on the results of the proposed study, some or many of the 1,650 homeowners in the studied area could see flood insurance premiums drop by $400 to $1,200 per year.  Obviously that math indicates a potential savings of up to $2 million per year, but the more likely result is that many flood insurance rates would be lowered and not eliminated, resulting in a savings of closer to $300,000 PER YEAR, for a one time investment of $35,000 by our City Council.  None of this is guaranteed, but if the study is NOT done flood insurance premiums will NOT be reduced, and that IS a guarantee.  The $11,500 cost of delaying this decision represents 14 days of that likely annual $300,000 savings.

    So what happens now?  Presumably Messina, Washington & LoBue actually DO study the issue between now and the September 25^th Council Meeting.  Remember, we pay each of our Council Members $9,600 per year, not just to attend meetings, but to spend time preparing for issues just like this one.  I don’t get paid to research city matters but I have met several times with my fellow citizen Ms. Cowen and with Council Member Moak regarding this issue.  They have done their homework and this is a well thought out and thoroughly researched issue with a reasonable chance of a very good result for the citizens of Central.  I am confident that Messina, LoBue and Washington will now come to that same conclusion and approve this study on September 25^th.  I only wish they had done their homework sometime in the three months BEFORE Tuesday night’s vote rather than delaying the process as they have done.

    I am, as you may be able to sense in this commentary, concerned about a number of decisions our City Council is making…or not making.  I will continue this commentary in next week’s Central Speaks.