Teri Casso, file photo
The minimum number to achieve a quorum, six Ascension council members bothered to attend Tuesday’s Finance Committee meeting (we applaud the absentees because the less this council does through the end of 2023 the better). Five of the six attendees did not qualify for reelection (putting the “lame” in lame-duck), all of whom joined Dempsey Lambert last night. Making it all worthwhile for those of us still paying any attention, the hiring of a law firm to represent the parish against Corey Orgeron and exposing one engineering firm’s abject failure to earn its keep.
We take up the latter here.
In June of 2019, a different council approved $49,900 to engage Meyer Engineering to design two splash pads, the agenda including:
Approval of Contract with Meyer Engineers for the Dutchtown Library Splash Pad (Design Services) A/E Project No. 20-1406C (Joan Shivers, Purchasing Director)
“Where are we at on that?” inquired District 8’s lame duck, Teri Casso.
“Trying to reconcile, how do we get water to the splash pad. How do we get electricity to the splash pad. Are there any drainage concerns?,” a flabbergasted Ricky Compton responded. “Because none of these contracts were considered!”
Compton, a casualty of the former parish president’s administration, was not around to help ensure that such abject incompetence was prevented. One of President Kenny Matassa’s first official actions…
was Compton’s termination.
“We’re putting together a cost estimate to figure out where we’re going to be deficient,” he said.
District 8 Councilwoman Teri Casso
“Could we please make sure, going forward, it won’t be on my watch…why in the world were those things not considered? Who are we hiring to do this stuff and why can’t they ask the basic questions like, ‘can I get water to it?’ It’s gonna be a spray park,” an incredulous Teri Casso wondered aloud.
Good questions all. Well…
Meyer Engineers is the firm “we” hired, under extraordinarily dubious circumstances. Not dubious enough for Casso and her colleagues to stop doing business with the company which has four ongoing contracts with the parish:
- $71,428-Drainage & Support Services (2024)
- $252,117-Design & Related Services for Move Ascension (2025)
- $393,500 for design of two roundabouts for Move Ascension
and a recently “closed out” contract for approximately $1.5 million through the Move Ascension traffic improvement initiative.
It would certainly seem that Meyer, at least, shares some of the blame for egregious issues unearthed when the spray design was let out for bid. That’s when the current administration learned that the project was “way over budget,” leading to the consideration of ways “to reduce the number. That’s when we realized that none of those questions had been asked,” Ricky Compton explained.
“Regardless of the administration, an engineer ought to know what questions are needed to be answered,” replied Casso. “Whoever that was, and I think I recall, needs to be on our do not use again list…EVER!”
Hard to argue with that logic.
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