Dear Editor,

I’m writing this letter in response to a recent editorial in a Thibodaux-based newspaper.

First of all, I cannot understand [the newspaper] going against changes to the charter when they do not know what the changes are going to be. I am not trying to go back to the police jury form of government.

In this charter there are some gray areas that need to be addressed, and that is what I am planning on doing.

Why was the previous charter changed? It had to do with contracts being issued and signed.

The previous council went to court on this issue and lost in Lafourche Parish’s court, but the appellate court overturned the decision and the council was able to sign the contracts. Therefore, the so-called “council five” was right all along.

That was changed in this charter; now the parish president signs contracts, which must be approved by the council.

In November 2006, a contract was issued for spraying ditches through the parish at a cost of $63,000 without a vote of the council. I guess that this administration does not have to follow the charter.

Before [a newspaper] takes a stand, it should at least wait to see what the changes are.

We are not asking to sign contracts; all we want is to be able to do our job by allowing us to talk to the foremen, employees, engineers and/or architects. Remember, we do not want to give orders, just talk. We are not kids; we are grownups.

Consider too the bladders at a price of $5 million. Nobody knows who ordered them. We have no signed contract. We do not even know how many were used. The best part of all of this is that they were put up after the fact. The sandbags did the job.

It is hard to communicate with the parish president when she is never there.

Mrs. Randolph has gone to Washington more times than all previous parish presidents put together. She also went to the Netherlands, and we are still waiting for the bacon.

Daniel Lorriane

Lafourche Parish Councilman, District 9