Contractors’ performance called into question by Lafourche Parish Council

Major talk at the Lafourche Parish Council meeting last Tuesday centered around professionalism of companies that sign contracts with the council.

When resolutions came before the council to increase its contract length with Gen-Con, Inc., for three separate library sites, councilmen Mark Atzenhoffer and Michael Delatte offered spirited pleas, asking fellow councilman to vote down the extension of the contracts.

Beverly Arabie, director of the Lafourche Parish Public Library System, also asked for the extensions to be voted down because punch list items for the libraries had not been completed.

“I think you need to vote against this because a lot of our punch list items haven’t been completed,” she explained. “This is going to give us some leverage to try and force Gen-Con to complete some of these items.”

The three change orders called for a 23-day extension for the Raceland Library project, a 13-day extension for the Bayou Blue Library project and a 65-day extension for the Ward 6 Library project.

All three change orders were voted down.

According to Delatte, the projects, which began in August 2005, were to be completed within 310 days. However, throughout the projects, delays arose that councilmen say they were not updated on.

“Somewhere along the line, and I did see a letter from Gen-Con, I think they received from Mr. (Jay) Caillouet, giving them an additional 92-day extension,” said Delatte. “But I don’t know if he had the authority to do that without coming to the council. Without notifying us … he just adds 92 days.”

Delatte added that the 92-day extension eventually turned into a 157-day extension. “That’s a big problem,” he said.

Atzenhoffer said a 3 ?-month delay took place from May 10 to Aug. 26 because of difficulty in getting bricks. “I’m no rocket scientist,” he said, “but that’s a couple of months. It’s not unheard of for someone to come to this council and say, ‘We’re at a stoppage, this is the reason, and I need a resolution requesting that the clock be stopped until we get this resolved.’

“That’s nine months ago,” Atzenhoffer said of the brick delay. “Coming to this council nine months later and saying we couldn’t do any work from May 10 to Aug. 26 … that’s not acceptable.”

Both councilmen said better communication is a must.

“We have a communication problem,” said Delatte. “We need our engineers and our architects to come in front of this council and give us some detailed reports of what’s going on, when it’s going on, where it’s going on and how it’s going on. And we’re not getting that. If you’re rained out three days in a month, that architect should be able to point (that out). Don’t give me about, maybe, because or possibly. That’s not good answers. You’re getting paid for facts and figures. Give them to us.”

Atzenhoffer added, “I don’t have a problem with these people. I have a problem with these actions. The actions are not right. They’re not good business and they’re not good government.”