TERREBONNE FORMS NEW COMMITTEE

Galliano man charged with first-degree rape of a toddler
July 26, 2017
Honore Muntz
July 27, 2017
Galliano man charged with first-degree rape of a toddler
July 26, 2017
Honore Muntz
July 27, 2017

The Terrebonne Parish government is forming a steering committee to re-examine its beleaguered recreation districts.

The Recreation Steering Committee met for the first time yesterday. Committee members include a number of parish and state officials, including four Terrebonne Parish Council members, Reps. Tanner Magee and Jerome Zeringue, Parish Attorney Julius Hebert, Assessor Loney Grabert, Hank Babin from the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce and two members from the public. The committee will be looking at rec district spending and procedures as well as millage collection for each one.

Parish council members discussed at length their grievances with rec districts at the July 12 council meeting. During the discussion, they described a recreation system where some parts of a district are underserviced and underrepresented and even touched on possible instances of graft by rec boards, with Recreation District 11 particularly drawing the ire of the council.


Council Member John Navy, who expressed concerns Terrebonne taxpayers were not getting proper bang for their buck, introduced the discussion on rec districts. Navy said any rec district boards mismanaging money will have to answer to the taxpayers. Navy said he wants to see better representation in rec districts and more consistent services across the entire parish. As an example, Navy said one district charges $15 for swimming lessons while another charges $50.

Council Member Arlanda Williams said the new steering committee would be looking at how much oversight it can exert over rec districts, who are autonomous tax-collecting entities. According to Williams, the parish council requested the districts turn in their budgets for council review. Although the council could not re-write the budget, the process could alert council members to rec district spending and allow them to attend rec district meetings and lobby for projects. One line of action could be the consolidation of recreation districts. However, council members including Williams have

said they do not support that option, as consolidation could result in even worse representation among the many different rec districts. Williams said the first step of the committee will be to examine the districts’ millage rates and determine if any, some of which have been the same for 30 years, need to be adjusted.


“Before we can say what this rec district is doing that this rec district is not doing, we have to look at how the millages are designed for each one of them and if there are any differences,” Williams said.

At the council meeting, Williams and Navy showed their frustrations with Rec. 11’s lack of repairs on old gyms sorely in need of renovations in their council districts. Navy pointed to the Mechanicville Gym, which has an array of problems, including broken doors with no locks and even possible asbestos in the gym. Navy said Rec. 11 needed to go beyond fixing the doors and completely renovate Mechanicville, comparing the gym’s condition to those of the East and West Houma gyms. According to Navy, Rec. 11 had done temporary, superficial work at Mechanicville in the past.

“It needs to be repaired, and all they’ve done in the past at some of these facilities is paint it and think it’s okay,” Navy said. “You’re not going to patch it. It’s going to look just like East and West Houma gym looks, it’s not going to be patched. We’re not going to tolerate it anymore.”


Williams expressed dismay over Rec. 11’s limited spending on the three gyms covered in her recreation district. According to a copy of Rec. 11’s capital spending over the previous five years, provided by Rec. 11 board member Jonathan Foret, those three gyms received less than $30,000 over the preceding five years. The recreation district as a whole receives about $1.4 million per year, according to Navy. Williams said many of the neglected parks are in high-crime areas in dire need of community development.

“What is community development? When you have neighborhood stabilization and things that can draw kids and families to the park and have an opportunity do fun things,” Williams said. “But you can’t just turn your back on those kids, and that’s what I felt, like my district had been neglected.”

Williams and Navy’s fellow council members came to their support while discussing Rec. 11. Al Marmande said he has seen other recreation districts and felt “embarrassed” to see the quality of facilities at places like Dumas Park, in Williams’s district. Christa Duplantis-Prather also highlighted the rec districts’ need to properly account for their spending and provide opportunities for the parish’s children. Steve Trosclair said a main part of his campaign platform when he ran for his council seat in 2015 was to help get more money to children. Trosclair said he has seen the difference in qualities when Terrebonne’s recreation baseball teams travel to other parishes and see what other parish teams are provided in terms of facilities and gear. Trosclair said the council’s comments were directed at the entire recreation system rather than any individual and that Terrebonne recreation is lagging behind its neighbors.


“We’re not where we need to be as a parish in my opinion,” Trosclair said.

Foret and Randy Galliano, the new chairman of Rec. 11, were at the council meeting to discuss their time on the board. Both Foret and Galliano agreed the district had underserved particular gyms and were open to making changes. Galliano agreed with the “deplorable” conditions at Dumas and Mechanicville and said renovations need to be done. He said the playground equipment at Dumas is under a powerline and was supposed to be moved months ago. Foret, who has been on the Rec. 11 board for two years, said he welcomes the dialogue and is open to changes if need be.

“If we’re not doing it right and there is a better way to do it, I support that 100 percent,” Foret said.


Council Chairman Dirk Guidry brought up a past audit of Rec. 11, released in 2013, that included multiple allegations of mismanagement. That audit included accusations of awarding construction contracts to companies that were not the lowest bidders as well as payments made without full board approval. Guidry said he learned of Rec. 11 paying $26,000 to a company to clean a pool without board approval before going back to the same company to re-do the job and paying them $26,000 again. Guidry highlighted another instance of Rec. 11 paying $12,000 for half of a basketball court at the West Houma Gym before paying the same contractor $26,000 for the other half of the court six months later.

“This is money that the kids in Rec. 11 should have had. This is money that John Navy’s Mechanicville Gym could have had to fix the doors,” Guidry said.

Dumas Auditorium and the park around it were the topic of much debate at the last Terrebonne Parish Council meeting. Council members pointed to the old building in sore need of repairs as an example of mismanagement by Recreation District 11.


KARL GOMMEL | THE TIMES

Terrebonne Parish Recreation guard Jayden Coleman makes a move to the basket during a game this season. Parish lawmakers are pondering ways to make the recreation districts more efficient.