Terrebonne economic group still undecided on relationship with regional partner

The Terrebonne Economic Development Authority board will decide at its next meeting whether to resolve issues between the parish and the South Louisiana Economic Council.

Although it is still a regional partner in SLEC along with Lafourche, St. Mary and Assumption parishes, Terrebonne has not contributed funding to SLEC in about a decade.

TEDA board chairman Mike Voisin said the organization has three options: rebuild a relationship with SLEC, do nothing or join another regional economic development group.

“Our economic partners were surprised they didn’t have a relationship with SLEC,” he said. “The parish is not being supported. We don’t give them money. The parish president (Michel Claudet) is considering it if we can resolve these challenges. We’re in an uncomfortable phase of seeing where this is going.”

Part of the issue between the two organizations is that one is a public body and the other is not. TEDA is a government entity created by state law. The parish council appoints members of the board who in turn hire an executive director to run the operations.

SLEC is a non-government, non-profit agency. The other parishes within SLEC have politically appointed economic development leaders.

“TEDA is the only organization focused solely on economic development in SLEC’s geographical outreach,” Voisin said. “The personality of SLEC and the personality of TEDA are different and we haven’t been able to find that consensus common ground. We’re trying to set our direction so that we can have a regional group that we work well with.”

Because of those differences, in August 2008, TEDA approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that was slightly altered from the agreement SLEC has with the other parishes. SLEC has not signed off on the MOU, and the two parties have been at a standstill since.

Voisin said TEDA would like to go a step further and draft a cooperative endeavor agreement between it and SLEC that would clearly define each group’s role in regional economic development.

He would also like to bring in another government agency, the South Central Planning and Development Commission, which serves Terrebonne, Lafourche, Assumption, St. James, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes, to bring transparency to the process.

Preliminary discussions between Voisin, SLEC Executive Director Vic Lafont and SCPDC Chief Executive Officer Kevin Belanger have begun, but no headway has been made.

In an e-mail, Belanger said, “Given the delicate situation, much still needs to be worked out between all parties. I can say that we want to bring as much transparency to this ongoing collaboration, and once all issues are vetted out completely we will be more than happy to comment. Making any comments at this time will only jeopardize the advances that we have made.”

Lafont could not be reached for comment by press time.

The origin of the issue between SLEC and Terrebonne Parish goes back a decade to the administration of former Parish President Barry Bonvillain, according to Voisin and TEDA Executive Director Mike Ferdinand.

On a trip to Washington, D.C. to garner federal highway funding, SLEC and parish officials presented different priorities.

“SLEC was still supporting improvements to the Louisiana Highway 1 corridor to Port Fourchon, and we were looking for a north-south corridor for hurricane evacuation,” Voisin said.

“From what I’ve been told, the parish president (Bonvillain) was upset SLEC wasn’t more aggressively supporting our hurricane evacuation as opposed to the Louisiana Highway 1 corridor,” he added.

Since then, Terrebonne Parish has not paid the $25,000 yearly sum to fund SLEC.

Voisin said there is still a cordial relationship between TEDA and SLEC, but the group has not done much to drive economic development towards Terrebonne Parish.

“We have not had totally negative experiences with SLEC. We’ve just been treated as the stepchild of the region,” Voisin said. “We have 46 percent of the population. We should have a seat at the table to be the driving force.”

Voisin said it is important to have a positive relationship with a regional economic development authority because site selection people talk with the regional group before they go to the parish economic development authority.

By the time TEDA meets again on April 15, Voisin hopes to have a clearer idea of where they and SLEC stand.

“I feel positive in saying we both want to do what’s best for the economic growth of this region,” he said. “But, we have to set these rules of engagement so everybody knows their responsibilities and how we work together.”

Terrebonne Economic Development Authority board members (from left) Graham Douglas, Louis Watkins, Clarence Williams, Don Hingle and Charles Adams tour the new Weatherford facility located on Highway 311 with Weatherford’s Operations Manager Pat Seely. * Photo provided by Terrebonne Economic Development Authority