Liberty Fence’s James Saizan (foreground) with attorney Kim Landry.
Liberty Fence owner, James Saizan, appeared before Louisiana’s Licensing Board for Contractors (the Board) last week, unsuccessfully defending charges that he violated Revised Statute 37:2158 six times while performing various work for the City of Gonzales in 2024. The statute requires a contractor to possess a valid license to perform certain types of work when the job(s) exceed applicable monetary limits. Saizan, it would be revealed an hour into the proceedings, held no active license at all since a commercial fencing license expired in 2012.
The Board issued comparatively nominal fines in half the cases, assessing costs in all instances.
Saizan never possessed a license that would allow his company to do concrete work valued at over $50,000, nor plumbing/electrical licensure authorizing his company to do jobs valued at $10,000 or more. His defense, that a “qualifying agent” for Liberty Fence named “Misty” was responsible for ensuring current licensure was received by the 19-member board with appropriate disdain. None of the board members laughed out loud, at least not on camera.
Two of the six counts against Liberty Fence/Saizan related to sidewalk rehab jobs in Tee Joe Park (three invoices totaling $82,000) and Municipal Park (11 invoices totaling $287,000). The board concluded that these invoices denoted two distinct jobs, concrete rehab at Tee Joe and Municipal Parks, in excess of the $50,000 threshold triggering the licensure requirement. The remaining four counts related to plumbing (three jobs) and electrical (one job) that exceeded the $10,000 threshold.
Liberty Fence, it was made clear from Saizan’s testimony, did none of the actual work in any of the jobs. Saizan hired Ronald Gabriel to do the concrete sidewalk work at the two parks. He subcontracted Absolute Granite & Flooring, LLC to complete the plumbing/electrical work. Absolute Granite brought on another company to do certain electrical work.
None of the companies or involved individuals possessed the appropriate license to perform any of the work.
The Board was not buying any of the defenses deployed by James Saizan and his lawyer from the outset. It began with the Tee Joe Park sidewalk job.
Dated September 3, 2024, Liberty Fence submitted two invoices (Nos. 1545/1546) for $20,500. A third and final invoice (No. 1579) would be generated on September 23 in the amount of $41,000. The Board concluded that the invoices represented separate charges for a single job, rejecting Kim Landry’s argument that each invoice represented a separate and distinct job under the $50,000 threshold requiring licensure.
It got worse Liberty Fence when the Municipal Park sidewalk job was taken up by the Board. 11 invoices total, four pairs with the same date and amount ($20,500):
- Nos. 1505/1506 dated July 15, 2024
- Nos. 1519/1521 dated August 5, 2024
- Nos. 1526/1527 dated August 19, 2024
- Nos. 1565/1566 dated September 17, 2024.
Three more, each in the amount of $41,000 would be submitted on October 1, October 7, and October 15.
“Might I make a suggestion, Ms. Landry…Mr. Saizan?” offered Commissioner Andrew Lopez. “You’ve seen two of these cases go, right? You’ve pleaded ‘Not Guilty’ to both of these.”
“I’m suggesting you reconsider your strategy…You should’ve been licensed,” Commissioner Lopez concluded. “Mr. Saizan, I’m trying to help you.”
Saizan, at the prodding of Kim Landry, finally took the advice to heart. Landry would persist in the reasoning that the ultimate fault lay with the City of Gonzales and its contractual practices.
“This is the regular business that the City of Gonzales does,” Landry argued. “They hire contractors, and they hire them to do work in portions. There’s no bidding process.”
Her point is valid, and multiple Board members were critical of municipalities which contract for services in violation of Louisiana Bid Law. Unfortunately, for Landry’s client, none of it excused him from doing the work in a manner inconsistent with the licensing statute.
Vice Chairman William Clouatre: “This is one project, regardless of how it was released…This doesn’t pass the smell test…I find it difficult that your client, who claimed to have a contractor’s license, doesn’t understand this…What we have is a pattern, a blind man could see it.
Vice Chairman Clouatre also pointed the finger at “municipalities” without mentioning the City of Gonzales specifically. Municipalities often “act in a manner not in the best interests of their own constituents,” he said. It should be noted that every invoice presented for the Board’s consideration was generated by Liberty Fence from July through the end of 2024, months after Mayor Barney Arceneaux resigned to take a post with Louisiana Municipal Association at the end of April 2024.
“$287,000 worth of work (for Municipal Park sidewalks rehab) and nobody with the city approved it?” wondered Chairman Lee Mallett incredulously. “Ms. Landry, it’s the evidence that’s causing the problem. When you see all these even numbers (invoiced), it’s not what you say. It’s what we see as a whole, here. The evidence, as a contractor, it’s pretty overwhelming.”
The questions persisted:
- Who in the city’s organization, authorized the sidewalk projects?
- Why did said individual fail to put the job(s) out for bid?
- Did said individual envision 14 verbal agreements with Saizan/Liberty Fence?
“That would be the City Engineer,” asserted Kim Landry.
The City Engineer was Jackie Baumann who commissioned Precision Concrete Cutting to produce a priority least of concrete sidewalk in need of replacement across the City of Gonzales. That list was finalized in February of 2024 and included the Tee Joe/Municipal parks’ work that commenced five months later. Baumann would resign at the close of 2024, prior to the current administration taking office.
None of which is within the Board’s purview, limited to considering the Liberty Fence licensure issue.
Pending court proceedings (Liberty Fence has sued the City of Gonzales over outstanding invoices with the city’s answer yet to be filed) promise to shed more light on the events at City Hall in 2024.
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