By Jim Smilie
A resolution regarding the City of Alexandria’s Project RESTOR program to address outstanding utility bills and the execution of more than 60 residential customer utility cutoffs on June 26, a day for which an advisory regarding excessive heat was issued by the National Weather Service, triggered heated debate between residents as well as council members at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Alexandria City Council.
The resolution was the last item on the agenda and was added on Monday by City Council President Lee Rubin. Council members didn’t receive the materials for the resolution until late Monday evening. That prompted District 1 Councilman REDDEX Washington to request a delay. Washington, citing Section 2-23 of the Alexandria Municode, argued the resolution was out of order because it was not filed in a timely manor.
In addition to what he said were possible procedural problems, Washington said he felt he needed more time to review the materials and that the public should have more notice as well. Attorney Trey Gist noted that state guidelines were followed regarding the addition of the item to the agenda by Rubin and that the council could consider the matter or they could vote to delay.
Of note, Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy, who was present at the beginning of the meeting, was not present for any of the debate. Utility Director Michael Marcotte was present but did not address the council or the audience.
Rubin acknowledged the resolution was added late and didn’t oppose a motion to delay. When a vote to delay the matter was held, it was a three-three tie. Council members Washington, Rubin and Johnson voted in favor of delaying the matter until the next meeting while council members Villard, Fowler and Felter opposed the delay. Council member Cynthia Perry was absent from the meeting. Since a majority did not vote in favor of a delay, the matter moved forward.
District 4 Councilwoman Lizzie Felter said she sent a letter on July 28 to the administration asking a series of questions, including how disconnections or cutoffs for past due accounts are determined, if commercial customers were included in the disconnects ordered for June 26, what time the disconnects were conducted, when the heat advisory was issued, were any cutoff ordered after the heat advisory was issued and how many of the customers who were disconnected that day were reconnected.
She read the responses from the administration, which was dated August 7, and written on the letterhead of Director of Finance David Johnson and signed by Johnson as well as Chief Administrative Officer Kay Michiels. Marcotte, along with City Attorney Jonathan Goins were listed as receiving copies of the response.
As Felter read the administration’s responses, she was interrupted numerous times by comments from residents attending the meeting as well as council members. Local resident Cornelius White, who addressed the council earlier regarding a separate matter, frequently offered comments to council members from his seat in the audience, prompting At Large Councilman Jim Villard to tell him repeatedly to “hush.”
Rapides Parish Police Juror Jay Scott was also vocal in his questions about the program. Scott said the public didn’t get all of the details about how Project RESTOR worked and that he knew of at least one resident who received a $400 grant from the program that was not requested and now had to be paid back. He admonished council members to “tell people the truth,” as he returned to his seat.
Felter said the “spirit of the resolution” was to “clarify misinformation” and was “not supposed to divide, it’s supposed to help.”
Resident Jack Henton said it was his opinion that the council needed to let people know sooner and that they didn’t give the public enough time to review the matter before the meeting or even know that the item would be considered. “This was not an emergency. In the future, I would ask that you give information in a more timely fashion,” he said.
Rubin tried to shift the conversation from complaints about how the resolution was filed and specific individual complaints about how Project Restor and the utility disconnects of June 26 were conducted and focus on the actual text of the resolution. “This resolution explains how and why things happened. It doesn’t offer solutions. We will address that with an ordinance in two weeks,” Rubin said.
At Large Councilman Jim Villard agreed, adding, “this doesn’t change anything, it just affirms Project RESTOR and adds information,” he said. District 5 Councilman Chuck Fowler noted the city is “more lenient than any other utility” when it comes to disconnects.
Ultimately, the council voted to approve the resolution with Washington being the only member not to vote in favor of the resolution.
Following the meeting, Rubin said the point of the resolution was to get information about how the process worked ahead of discussion of an ordinance set for debate at the next meeting to revise Section 26-11 of the City of Alexandria Municipal Codes with respect to the termination of utility services during extreme weather conditions.
“The information we put out today was compiled by the people involved,” Rubin said. He said many of the customers who were scheduled for disconnections had not made any payments for more than 120 days and many had very large outstanding balances. “This is a business. People have to pay their bill or get cut off,” Rubin said. “If we followed the PSC guidelines a lot more would be cut off.”
Washington also maintained his position that discussion should have been delayed. “We need to get information out to the people,” he said. “We don’t need to rush. Sometimes you need to let it marinate.”
In other business, the council unanimously approved the appointment of Jamar Gailes and Oday Lavergne to serve as commissioners on the board of the England Authority. They also confirmed the appointment of Brett Bolton to serve on the City of Alexandria Zoning Commission.
The council also approved authorizing the city to co-sponsor the 50th Annual Bayou Classic Roadshow Kickoff. The event, which is scheduled for August 18-20 in Alexandria, will kickoff an 11-city tour to promote the Bayou Classic football game between Grambling State University and Southern. Representatives of both schools were on hand at the meeting and explained the official game ball will be taken to each of the participating cities, which include major cities in Louisiana as well as Houston and Dallas, Texas, and will be signed by each city’s mayor. The ball will ultimately be used to start the game and then be displayed at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.