Terrebonne Booking Log: 05/11/2020
May 12, 2020
Barbara Cipolla
May 13, 2020
During a special meeting this evening, the Terrebonne Parish Recreation District 2/3 Board passed a resolution to put the 10-year 5-mill renewal on the November 3 ballot.
The resolution was unanimously passed by all seven members present: Jeff Teuton, Chris Chiasson, Ryan Page, Shawn Dupre, Martin Majewski, Kevin Guidry and Robbie Liner.
The millage renewal failed at the polls in the October 2019 election.
“I just want to thank you guys for moving forward with us,” said Councilman Darrin Guidry, who attended the virtual meeting. “COVID-19 has been our number one thing that everybody’s been thinking about, and I’m just glad we were able to get this before the deadline because this is the last major election that there is before we run out of money for our millage.”
Guidry also addressed why the 10-year length of the tax was the better option: “I mean we need to start moving forward as recreation and having planning. How can you plan if you have a three-year millage? You can’t do anything. So if we’re going to put on the ballot, put in on the ballot for 10 years. That’s my opinion.”
Council members John Amedée and Jessica Domangue, who were also in attendance, had no objections as well.
According to Chad Luke, the board’s legal counsel, the deadline to turn it into the Secretary of State is June 18, however, it is required it go before the State Bond Commission before May 18. He also noted that these entities did not change their deadlines like others due to the pandemic. He said it still isn’t an issue being passed today.
Luke and a few board members spoke about the cancellation of some regular meetings and distractions due to the coronavirus pandemic, agreeing that was the reason the vote on the resolution was so close to the deadline.
Dupre addressed speculation that the board “dropped the ball” on voting to put the renewal on November’s ballot: “I just want to make sure it’s understood: we’re in the middle of a stay-at-home order from…the governor and we’re in the middle of a global pandemic. There are other stipulations.”
Chiasson added: “If it wouldn’t have been for COVID, we would have had this discussion and this would have been on the agenda at our meeting in April, which would have been in time — no issues.”
