Regular Meeting Minutes
Thursday, November 17, 2022 7:00 P.M.
Members In Attendance: Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. Alderman Simeon Profit Alderman Leola Keys Alderman Wysinger Cleveland
Absent : Alderman Janice Fleming
The Town of Richwood met for a Regular Meeting held November 17, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. at the Richwood Multi-Purpose Center, 2710 Martin Luther King Drive, Richwood, Louisiana to consider the following business:
I. Meeting Called to Order by Mayor Gerald Brown at 7:02p.m.
II. Prayer- was offered by Mr. Clifford Thomas
III. Pledge of Allegiance – recited in unison
IV. Roll Call- Mayor Gerald Brown called roll with the following results:
* The record shall reflect (4) Aldermen present at roll call:
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. Alderman Simeon Profit Alderman Leola Keys Alderman Wysinger Cleveland
Absent at roll call: Alderman Janice Fleming
V. Adoption of Agenda:
It was motioned by Alderman Wysinger Cleveland. and seconded by Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. to amend the agenda to add the Adoption of the September 15, 2022 Regular Meeting Minutes and the September financial Reports.
* The record shall reflect all (4) Aldermen present voted yes to include the Adoption of the September Financial Reports on the November 17, 2022 Agenda.
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. Yes Alderman Simeon Profit Yes Alderman Leola Keys Yes Alderman Wysinger Cleveland Yes
VI. Adoption of the September 15 , 2022 Minutes
It was motioned by Alderman Wysinger Cleveland and seconded by Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. to adopt the February 17, 2022 Regular Meeting Minutes.
* The record shall reflect a vote was taken to adopt the September 15, 2022 Minutes with all (4) Aldermen present voting to adopt the September 15, 2022 Regular Minutes.
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. Yes Alderman Simeon Profit Yes Alderman Leola Keys Yes Alderman Wysinger Cleveland Yes
VII. Adoption of Financial Reports
It was motioned by Alderman and seconded by Alderman Simeon Profit to adopt the Financial Reports.
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. questioned the disbursement showing $ 2600 disbursement for damage to vehicle?
Mayor Gerald Brown- advised this was damage by our Public Works Department to a personal vehicle that occur during mowing on HWY 165 due to debris coming from under the mow.
Alderman Wysinger Cleveland- questioned the multiple payments shown paid to Bank of New York
Fiscal Officer( Ms. Sims)- advised this was due to a mailing situation where a payment was sent to the Bank of New York which they did not have noted as received, the payment was recent, and there after the missing payment was shown as received. It was decided rather than backing the payment out to allow it to remain as the November payment.
* The record shall reflect a vote was taken to adopt the Financial Reports with the following results: All (5) Aldermen voted Yes to Adopt the Financial Reports.
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. Yes Alderman Simeon Profit Yes Alderman Leola Keys Yes Alderman Wysinger Cleveland Yes
VIII. Public Comments as they relate to items on the agenda
Mr. Nathan Brown ( Public Attendee)- questioned, if there was any reason why the budget has not been passed for the last 6 months, and can you pass the budget and come back on sticking points?
Mr. Michael Caster-(Public Attendee)- addressed the Board and stated with the budget not being passed it is stopping a bunch of other things; I don t understand why this keep coming up, put aside your differences and do what the people need you to do.
Ms. Mondarian Douglas ( Public Attendee) addressed the board and commented how awesome it would be to work with the Mayor and have this Town move forward. Is there any reason you can not pass the budget?
Mrs. Valarie Wilson Jackson (Public Attendee)- addressed the Board and stated Richwood has grown and asked if they consider redistricting.
IX. Mayor s Dialogue
Mayor Gerald Brown- addressed the forum and advised he had a couple of point he wanted to share, not the last meeting but the meeting before last, the Police Jury reported our Capital Outlay Request of Police Juror Michael Thompson from District D, his Resolution 22-69 will go to the State in the spring, the House of Representatives convene in the spring, and if that passes in the House and the Senate, what it will mean is that the State will pay 75% of fixing our roads, and the Police Jury and the Town of Richwood would split the 25%; the estimated is anywhere from $600,000 – $ 800,000 in that range; again if we get this capital outlay request approved; Senator Jackson and Representative Moore has already written their letters of support.
The lighting project is scheduled to begin in December and should take approximately 12-14 months to complete.
Mayor Gerald Brown- advised the forum that Officer James graduated the academy today.
Mayor Gerald Brown- advised, he wanted to thank Chief Cleveland he worked out an arrangement with the Sherriff s Department which led to two Tahoes donated to us last week from the Sherriff Department.
Mayor Gerald Brown- commented, to you ladies and gentlemen of the Board, I see that you have seen the audit results and asked if they had had any questions or comments relating to those findings? What you have and what was distributed to you is what will be presented to the Legislative of Auditors. It is a clean audit, which is called unqualified, which is good.
Alderman Leola Keys- indicated in the audit it said independent audit report on page 5 but did not see anything on page 5.
Mayor Gerald Brown stated, this may have been an issue with the print, and I ll look into it.
Mayor Gerald Brown- stated, on December 17th will be the annual Christmas Parade and directly after the parade we will be returning to the Multi-Purpose building where we will continue with other
Alderman Leola Keys- stated, I needed to say something about your dialogue; on the page where you signed, you said proposed budget includes $90,000 for settlement of prior legal matters. Now as I looked at that, I recalled Foster Construction was paid back in September, some $ 35,000, so I am wondering why didn t that just read, $ 90,000 minus $ 35,000 or something ?
Mayor Gerald Brown- advised, when he wrote that we had not made any payments to Foster Construction at that time; that was written some time back in April, which was supposed to be approved in the budget and we had not made that payment at that time, that letter is from 6 months ago.
Alderman Leola Keys- stated, another one of my pet peeves, I look here where you want to give the local schools so much, and as I recall we need to question where the local schools are really located are they really located in Richwood?
Mayor Gerald Brown- answered, we have had this discussion before, and again, this is up to you ladies and gentlemen, if you do not want to contribute anything to the schools our children and families attend, that is up to you, but I thought it would be important to sow some seeds into the children who live in our community and go to these various schools they are zoned for, I am not talking about Carroll and Neville or anywhere like that, but these schools are Shady Grove, Swayze, Richwood Middle, and Richwood High, where our children go to these schools, I thought it would be important.
Alderman Wysinger Cleveland- stated, take care of Richwood first, I am looking at Richwood first, that is what I am looking at consider the Town of Richwood first.
X. Introduction of Amended Ordinance 2022-01 ( An Ordinance amending the Town of Richwood Code of Ordinances to Provide for the enforcement of Certain Traffic Violations by Automated Mean s and Provides for Civil Penalties for Certain Traffic Violations enforced by Automated Means and otherwise providing with Respect Thereto )
* For the record Ordinance is being introduced by Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr.
Alderman Leola Keys stated,
* For the record, this has never been what it was proposed to have been in the first place; automated it has never been that.
XI. Introduction of Ordinance 2022-06 ( An Ordinance Amending the Original Ordinance 1 of the Code Ordinance for the Town of Richwood with respect to the Districting Plan for the Town of Richwood)
Mayor Gerald Brown- inquired had we received anything in writing? We must have this in writing to print this, it is an ordinance we have to print this.
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr.- replied, I will have it to you within 30 minutes.
XII. Ordinance 2022-04 ( An Ordinance Adopting the Town s Expenditures for the Fiscal Year Beginning July 1, 2022 and Ending June 30, 2023)
* The record shall reflect it was motioned by Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. and seconded by Alderman Wysinger Cleveland to table this issue.
Mayor Gerald Brown- inquired of the Board, I thought you were going to submit some amendments to the proposed budget tonight, is that not happening?
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr- stated, I didn t finish it , that is why I asked to table it.
XIII. Residential Garbage Discussion
Alderman Simeon Profit- stated, he is bringing this back to the Board to see if you would have some consideration for trash pickup for the Town of Richwood. There are different people coming in with these heavy trucks and doing damage to our streets. I would like to have this placed on our agenda. I would suggest taking bids for trash pickup for the Town, I think this would help our Town.
Alderman Wysinger Cleveland- stated, I take a motion that we add it for discussion.
Mayor Gerald Brown- stated, we have looked at this before and unless the Board is willing to have this added to the customers water bill there is no sense of going through this process again.
Police Juror Michael Thompson- addressed the forum and commented as it relates to this item talking about the trash, Districts D and F for the parish has an ordinance already in place that every household has to have garbage pickup; some of the constituents which lives in Richwood by this ordinance must have garbage pickup, we are trying to pave some of the roads in our districts, but we can t do that because we have a multiplicity of companies that are on our streets every day. We are trying to, Districts D and F we are looking into having the Parish decide to make every area come to a point where they get a trash provider, having one trash provider, this is my personal opinion, will give the Town of Richwood the opportunity to say we only will have one person to come in to do trash pickup.
It will be pretty much the same policy tagged on to your bill or what not, but everyone should have trash pickup. Having this will help alleviate some of the problems we are having not only in the Town of Richwood but all over the Parish. I believe this is something you can look at in the future for longevity to make sure you take care of the Town s cleanliness; therefore attracting more businesses to the area, this is how the community grows when it is clean and efficient with trash pickups.
XIV. Discussion of Cliff Thomas
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. stated, he asked this item to be placed on the agenda it s been at least years to resolve this, if we resolve this we can move forward, that is my discussion.
Mayor Gerald Brown- advised the Board in January asked for an Attorney General s opinion regarding Mr. Cliff Thomas, I submitted that, and I spoke with the Attorney General and the opinion has been submitted and it is under review.
Alderman Wysinger Cleveland stated, he wanted to take a vote.
Attorney Jay Nolan- stated there is something the District Attorney told me to tell the Board, that is until we receive the Attorney General s opinion that anyone votes to do it, he will investigate for malfeasance in office whether it passes or not.
It was motioned by Alderman Wysinger Cleveland and seconded by Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. to pay Mr. Thomas.
* The record shall reflect a vote was taken with the following results: 3 Votes Yes and 1 vote No to pay Mr. Thomas.
Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. Yes Alderman Simeon Profit No Alderman Leola Keys Yes Alderman Wysinger Cleveland Yes
XV. Adjournment
It was motioned by Alderman Wilbert Reed Jr. and seconded by Alderman Wysinger Cleveland to adjourn @ 8:26 p.m.
