Lafourche to renegotiate $5M bill

With the Lafourche Parish Council and administration in full agreement, District Attorney Camille Morvant will help negotiate a $5 million bill received earlier this year from U.S. Flood Control for flood tubes.

Morvant extended the offer to negotiate on behalf of the parish at last Tuesday’s council meeting but later withdrew that offer after a chain of letters were exchanged between himself and parish administrators.

The letters accused Morvant of “over-stepping his bounds” and “blind-siding” the administration because he didn’t forewarn them of his plans to address the council. Toward the end of the letter he was also accused of trying to “take over the parish president’s duties,” said Morvant.

According to Parish President Charlotte Randolph, Morvant should have alerted the council as stated in Lafourche’s Home Charter Rule.

“I feel like Mr. Morvant mishandled things last Tuesday because the administration wasn’t informed,” said Randolph. “We were not alerted that the DA was going to address the council and ask to be able to negotiate.”

Morvant said that he wasn’t trying to do anything clandestine, he was simple fulfilling his role as district attorney. “I have a right as a DA n when I see an issue, I can come up here and voice my legal opinion,” he said. “It was never my intent to come here and undermine anybody.”

According to Morvant, last week was an opportune time to address the council regarding the amount the parish owes to U.S. Flood Control.

“This wasn’t anything novel,” he said. The district attorney said he had already expressed concern from a legal standpoint about the legitimacy of the invoice that the parish had received.

What had transpired between Morvant and the administration was a miscommunication followed by questionable procedure, according to Randolph.

The council unanimously passed a resolution to move forward with negotiations with U.S. Flood Control. According to Parish Council Chairman Brent Callais, Morvant agreed late Monday that his office will aid in this procedure.

“If you can be successful in this then certainly, we wish you the best,” Randolph said.