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Algiers Development District The meeting of the Board of Commissioners for the ADD was called to order by Chairman Arnold at 9:45 a.m. Members Present: Others Present: Minutes Treasurer’s Report Old Business Street Repairs in Algiers House Speaker Tucker made a motion to approve up to $150,000.00 for the Holiday to Bender/Behrman overlay work for 2008. Councilman Carter questioned if the work could be done. He stated this is a legal issue due to HB45 issues with paying bills and would like to defer the vote. He recommended the commissioners move to the Assessment topic on the agenda. Speaker Tucker withdrew his motion. A motion was made by Assessor Arnold to move to the topic of the Assessment Report and it was seconded by Rev. Wardsworth and approved. Draft Report to State Auditors Dept for 2007 Requested Assessment of Federal City and ADD Chairman Arnold read a letter from Legislative Auditor Steve Theriot stating the Assessment is confidential and cannot be released to the public until the legislative auditors release it. Senator Heitmeier asked the question if the board could go to executive session. Chairman Arnold explained that we had outside counsel give an opinion which stated due to the state ruling that the Assessment is a confidential document it does give us the ability to go into executive session. He further explained that he instructed Ms. Honaker to contact the legislative auditors for their opinion. Chairman Arnold explained the legislative auditors advised the board not proceed with an executive session. The legislative auditors suggested that we meet less than a quorum to discuss and give our input to our executive director or that the ADD commissioners give input to our executive director and she would compile all the information and present it to us via email in a draft document. The legislative auditors reiterated that the report forwarded to ADD is a confidential draft report not to be shared with anyone. The state will release the report as they do all reports to the public at such time that it is complete with our remarks and our imput on their first draft of the assessment. The chairman stated he wanted on record that this assessment is not a legislative audit but that it was requested by the ADD Board of Commissioners in August 2007. Councilman Carter asked if they could schedule another meeting to go into executive session. Chairman Arnold once again stated that the attorney general and legislative auditor advised the commissioners not go into executive session. After much discussion was held about assigning a committee to work as a team on the report, commissioners were requested to send their questions/responses to the executive director for compilation and distribution to all members. The executive director responded to the board with the due date which is April 18 as the deadline for the responses to the draft Assessment. It was requested of Ms. Honaker that the email from the legislative auditors detailing the due date be forwarded to them. Chairman Arnold explained that today the board could only discuss the process to respond and timeline, but not any items in the assessment as it remains a confidential document until it is released by the auditors to the public. Ms. Honaker explained that Assistant Legislative Auditor Joy Irwin communicated April 18 at noon for the response due date. Ms. Irwin stated that the report will not be issued to the public on the 18th but most likely will be issued either April 21 or 28. Ms. Honaker was informed by Ms. Irwin that reports are always issued on a Monday and must go through their internal review process before being placed on the legislative auditor’s Website on a Monday. Chairman Arnold described the meeting called by the legislative auditors in Baton Rouge. The following were sent an initial copy of the confidential assessment with an invitation to attend: NOFA Chairman, ADD Chairman, LED, the Mayor of the City, and Chairman Fielkow of the City Council. At that meeting in Baton Rouge with the auditors in attendance a decision was made to do a joint response and the legislative auditors welcomed this as an excellent idea as this would be easier to deal with one response. The first joint team meeting was set and held Tuesday, March 25 at the ADD office, to address the assessment report. There ensued much discussion by the city between them on who was representing who at the meeting in Baton Rouge. The commissioners inquired about the individuals working on the response from each entity. The executive director explained the process set up and agreed upon at the legislative auditors meeting in Baton Rouge on Tuesday, March 25. Ms. Honaker and Chairman Arnold recounted who was present from each entity on that Tuesday. There was a representative from the Mayor’s office, Chairman Fielkow’s office, NOFA sent their attorney and LED had three (3) attendees in addition to Mr. Arnold and Ms. Honaker representing ADD. Commissioners inquired if they could attend the team meetings and Ms. Honaker informed them that no more than three (3) members could attend or it would become a public meeting as we are subject to the open meeting laws and this is a confidential document not to be released until the auditors first release their copy. Ms. Honaker will keep them informed of when the meetings are scheduled so that they may attend. Councilman Carter stated that he wanted to make sure that no actions were taking place the commissioners didn’t know about. He further stated he wanted a transparent, ethical and open process to ensure we serve the citizens like everyone wanted to. Chairman Arnold explained he was called by the legislative auditors and they invited him as the current chairman of ADD to represent the ADD at that meeting. He and the executive director attended for ADD. Councilman Carter stated he didn’t want to intrude on those meetings, but wanted to be fully apprised of all meetings the board should attend. Chairman Arnold stated he was told by board member Rev. Wardsworth that he had not been made aware of HB45. Chairman Arnold passed out the email memo that had been sent to all commissioners on March 5 informing them of the need for the legislation and his plans to introduce this legislation per the Legislative Auditors findings. He read the attached email (See Attachment A) which was from him to all commissioners sent by the executive director on March 5, 2008. Chairman Arnold explained the bill was not introduced until March 9. He further explained he called all commissioners to say it was signed and approved as soon as the governor signed the bill into law. He stated he knows everyone receive a lot of emails, but all of this information was forwarded and well-communicated to everyone. Councilman Carter said he would check his emails to make sure he had received this memo and if he did not he would let us know. Chairman Arnold reminded the board that we were waiting on the assessment report and the auditors informed us that we needed to correct our state filing. He also reminded them that the state has reviewed all contracts since last fall per our request. Members questioned what action was taken to ensure other entities had input on HB 45. Chairman Arnold explained they met twice with the City of New Orleans and their lobbyist read the entire bill. Speaker Tucker stated he communicated with the mayor’s Executive Assistant for Intergovernmental Relations Kenya Smith twice. Senator Shepherd made a motion that ADD form a task force, and that a response be drafted and sent to all commissioners. He further stated a meeting should be held on April 14 to address the assessment response. He proposed a letter be written from the chairman asking for an extension until May 2. There was discussion on whether the commissioners needed an extension on the April 18 deadline date. Ms. Honaker reported they already received two extensions—April 16 and noon, April 18. In the discussion regarding a joint response, Lee Reid was recognized from the floor by the chairman as the lead attorney for NOFA. He explained from NOFA’s viewpoint that this team is a collaborative effort to prepare a response on behalf of all parties involved. He further discussed that all parties have a stake in this response. All attendees/entities with a stake agreed to a group response in Baton Rouge on March 25 as he was in attendance. He also explained it was the legislative auditor’s preferred response method. Senator Shepherd made the attached Board Resolution for the task force which was adopted by the commissioners. (See Attachment B.) The chairman stated that any member could attend the task force meetings if desired, as long as there were no more than three (3) commissioners present at any one meeting. He requested they be sure to inform the executive director to avoid a quorum. Ms. Honaker informed them the next meeting was scheduled Wednesday, April 9 at 1:00 p.m. After much discussion on when to schedule the next ADD board meeting, a motion was made by Senator Shepherd to have the next board meeting in Baton Rouge on Monday, April 14. It was seconded by Speaker Tucker and a verbal vote was taken with the following responses on vote: Rep. Arnold yes Assessment/Hiring of Attorney to represent ADD Speaker Tucker said the board had used three or four firms in the past as needed due to the limited work up to this point. After much discussion on the scope of the work to be performed, the commissioners suggested hiring an attorney experienced with conducting business with the legislative auditors, political subdivisions/development districts, and the city and state to handle the assessment process. The commissioners agreed to meet on Monday, April 7 at 7:00 a.m.to discuss the hiring of the attorney. A motion was made, seconded and approved by all. Chairman Arnold asked the commissioners to bring three to four names of attorneys for consideration. The chairman stated he would check with the attorney general’s office for any recommendations, but didn’t think they would provide any recommendations to avoid a possible conflict of interest. Speaker Tucker explained that the attorney general approves the final selection by the board but the board makes the selection to send to them. He advised we contact legislative auditor’s office for additional information and recommendations also. State Appropriations Update Senator Shepherd said we should let an organization that works with all of Algiers have the Tourism project. Someone suggested AEDF was the only group that works with all of Algiers. Rev. Wardsworth said he has no problem with the APA but a committee needs to be formed. Councilman Carter stated he was not comfortable discussing any outstanding financial obligations with the exception of staff and hiring an attorney until all issues are completed with the assessment. He further stated that he would like to resign as treasurer. A motion was made, seconded and approved by all, to table all financial discussion until assessment issues are dealt with the exception of staff pay. Councilman Carter stated he wanted to pay staff for operational issues. Speaker Tucker explained to all the commissioners that the legislation of HB45 corrected our financial issues and we are able to make payments now. Councilman Carter stated that ADD should be consistent with the new governor’s ethics and city’s inspector general. In light of the pending assessment issue, he reiterated that he was uncomfortable voting on financial related matters, with the exception of hiring legal counsel. Senator Heitmeier agreed with Councilman Carter. Senator Shepherd objected and substituted a motion to pay staff and this motion was seconded by Rev. Wardsworth. Chairman Arnold stated that with the resignation of Councilman Carter as treasurer, there were three members qualified to sign checks—Chairman Arnold, Vice Chairman Heitmeier and treasurer. The Legislative auditors indicated that an outside attorney should rule on the issue of paying all bills, including staff payroll. Chairman Arnold further explained that Brian Adorno reviewed the independent status of our executive director and he ruled that she is an independent contractor. After HB45 was signed, the legislative auditor said it was ok to go forward with paying bills, but suggested we have an outside attorney ensure the executive director is an independent contractor which Mr. Adorno has done. Her contract was approved by the state. Senator Francis Heitmeier sent it through his Baton Rouge staff for approval. Senator Shepherd summarized that the ADD staff had not been paid in two months. With the treasurer’s resignation and Vice Chairman Heitmeier not willing to sign any checks (even with the opinion of legislative auditors), Senator Shepherd suggested Speaker Tucker be appointed as treasurer or Vice Chairman since he was already on the bank documents. Senator Shepherd asked Speaker Tucker if he would be willing to sign with attorney general or legislative auditor approval. Speaker Tucker indicated he had no problems signing the checks. Senator Shepherd made a motion to go forward with obtaining an opinion from the state’s attorney general or outside counsel regarding ADD’s financial obligations. This was seconded by Assessor Arnold and approved by all. A motion was also made to appoint Speaker Tucker as the interim treasurer and have staff paid immediately upon receipt of favorable opinion. Rev. Wardsworth seconded and all approved. After much discussion about whether ADD staff should be working without payment, everyone agreed that no one should be paid until attorney general or our legal counsel ruled. Ethics Legislation Special Session Federal City Update Other Business Rev. Wardsworth then stated what was presented to the city and what was passed as legislation was not the same. He stated that the mayor has a problem with that. Speaker Tucker again reiterated he spoke with the mayor on three occasions and he has yet to say anything negative about this legislation. “Where were the amendments in the process? The legislative lobbyist was there every day,” Speaker Tucker inquired. The pastor stated that the city wants the provision back in the legislation. Senator Shepherd explained that legislators are limited to five (5) bills. Senator Shepherd stated he agreed with Speaker Tucker that any problems with HB45 should have been brought to the legislators’ attention prior to today. Senator Shepherd further stated he was also bothered about the city’s criticism in saying no input was given. He further explained that meetings had been held in Baton Rouge with the city and nothing was ever mentioned. Senator Shepherd said the city knows how to track a bill and how to be involved. They have full-time lobbyists and they all have the contact information for the commissioners. He questioned, “Why didn’t they tell us before we used our 5 bills?” He stated that Senator Heitmeier was at the table also and no one said anything. “I talked with both Senator Heitmeier and Chairman Arnold”, said Senator Shepherd. No one from the city contacted us throughout the process regarding any changes. A motion was made by Assessor Arnold to adjourn the meeting at 11:49 a.m. and it was seconded by Senator Shepherd. All approved and the meeting was adjourned. Respectfully submitted, Kathy Lynn Honaker |