City to sign Memorandum of Understanding with E&P Consulting
St. Martinville – The City of St. Martinville will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with E&P Consulting Services to begin dealing with the adjudicated properties in the city, as part of the city’s efforts to clean up nuisance properties.
The City Council approve the MOU after hearing from Wesley Johnson of E&P Consulting, which auctions off adjudicated properties.
Adjudicated properties are those that have been placed in state or local governmental hands because local property taxes have not been paid and the property was not purchased at a subsequent tax sale.
State law authorizes the government entity to sell adjudicated property.
Johnson, a lawyer, said she is not the attorney representing either the city, or anyone who are interested in purchasing property. She also is not a title attorney, she said.
Under the MOU, the city will have a button (a link) on the E&P website. The city provides a list of adjudicated properties to E&P, which puts the list on its site as a PDF.
There is also a link to the parish tax assessor, a link to a list of upcoming auctions for the properties and a link taking viewers to a page of prioritized or featured properties.
Interested purchasers then fill out a one-page form on the website indicating which property they would like to purchase, and pay an administrative fee (currently $1,000).
E&P then determines a minimum bid that it will accept for the property, which is the lower of either twothirds of the tax assessors valuation of the property or the back tax bill, including any liens on the tax.
The potential purchaser is sent a written offer of the minimum bid, and if the person does not wish to meet that price, their $1,000 is refunded.
If the purchaser is interested, then E&P researches who the owner of the property is, and notifies them so that they can redeem the property (by paying the back taxes). That sometimes means notifying many heirs if its property that has been passed to several owners upon the original owner’s death.
If the owner does not wish to redeem the property, then the city will advertise in its official publication the intent to sell the property at auction.
If only one person has submitted a written offer of the minimum bid, that person wins the auction.
Adjudicated
If multiple people have submitted the written offer, an in-person auction would be held with all bidders who submitted the written offer of a minimum bid present. The people who do not win the auction have their $1,000 fees refunded. The company then charges the buyer an additional $200 fee, plus filing fees.
The title to the property is a non-warranty deed, Johnson said.
St. Martinville plans to include a mandate that the purchaser of an adjudicated nuisance property must clean it up, or the property reverts to the city.
The city also may set up a special no-minimumbid auction program to get those nuisance properties off the city’s hands and cleaned up.
Water system
The council approved a resolution to have Mayor Jason Willis execute an Act of Acceptance with Construction Pro regarding the completion of a contract for sewer system rehabilitation work that included point repairs and manhole repairs.
The council also passed a resolution pertaining to the Municipal Water Pollution Prevention Environment Audit Report, required to get a state permit for its sewer treatment plant.
Engineer Pam Granger of McBade and Associates said the audit report has the city assessed at 80 points out of 560 possible points. Lower point totals are more desirable.
The age of the water treatment plant gives the city 20 points, and the remaining 60 points were from overflows, Granger said.
“(Those are) all things that we are working on with this Water Sector grant, so I believe that in the future you will see that (go down),” she said.
The city’s total was 117 in 2019, and another audit she recently did was at 200 points, Granger said.
“So trust me, you are doing good compared to other places out there,” she said.
Granger also updated the council on the city’s pump station improvements. Four projects are in the works that should update most of the city’s pump stations, she said.
The city’s sewer rehab work is awaiting approval from the state to advertise for bids. The city already has the necessary permits in hand for that work.
The city also is working with the parish to get FEMA requirements for work to be done under a Louisiana Watershed Initiative grant to raise levee levels and work on some pump stations. Surveying should begin this week.
Granger also updated the council on several water system projects, including ones pertaining to the upcoming water consolidation project with the St. Martin Parish Industrial Park and St. Martin Parish Water District No. 4.
Class-action lawsuit The council passed a resolution authorizing the execution of a legal services agreement that could see the city be awarded a portion of settlements in a class-action lawsuit over “forever chemicals” that are contaminating public water systems.
Eddie Guidry, an attorney with Guidry & Guidry,
with the honeysuckle
told the city council that 25 companies were sued over PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) contaminants.
Two of those companies — 3M and Dupont — have settled the lawsuit for $13.6 billion, and two other settlements with Tyco ($750 million) and BASF ($318 million) are awaiting approval from a judge, Guidry said.
PFAS chemicals have been linked to a wide range of health risks in both human and animal studies, including cancer (kidney and testicular), hormone disruption, liver and thyroid problems, interference with vaccine effectiveness, reproductive harm and abnormal fetal development.
Public water systems that have detected PFAS in their drinking water sources may be eligible for the class settlement. The federal Environment Protection Agency set the limits of PFAS in water systems to 70 parts per trillion, then reduced that to 4 parts per trillion in 2024.
“What we do is we come in and have the water tested,” Guidry said. “It’s tested before any treatment is done to it at all. If you have over 4 parts per trillion, then you would have a successful claim in this deal.”
St. Martinville is a Phase 2 water system, meaning it has a minimum of 3,300 customers.
If the water tested meets the threshold, the city would qualify for part of the settlement based on the PFAS level and how many other water treatment systems qualify for the settlement.
“But it’ll provide the city with money to do whatever treatment is necessary to get the PFAS out,” Guidry said.
The law firms front the money for the testing, so if the city does not meet the 4 parts per trillion threshold, the city is not charged anything. The lawfirms receive a third of the settlement as a contingency fee
Festival policy
The city council tabled plans to approve a policy for holding outdoor recreation events in city parks until it can look at a plan the mayor proposed for allowing such usage by various groups, including fees charged for use of the property.
Culture, Recreation and Tourism Director Danielle Fontenette told the council that no other municipality in the parish allows festivals on city property, with the exception of the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival.
The council approved permission to hold the Acadian Memorial Festival and to sell alcohol on May 17. The event had been scheduled for March 14 but was canceled because of bad weather.
Information requests Councilwoman Carol Frederick asked the council to clarity the time frame city departments have to provide requested information to city council members.
The council agreed that employees should provide requested information that day, if they do not have other priority business to deal with such as payroll work or helping customers in the utility department.
If the employee cannot provide that information on that day, they are asked to notify the council member that day of the reason the request can’t be fulfilled that day, and a reasonable time frame for when it can be provided.
A five-day limit to get the information to council members was approved, and if it could not be met, the mayor would be notified as to why the could not be fulfilled in that time.
In other business
In other business, the council approved the hiring of Jacqueline Lee as a postcertified police officer. Police Chief Ricky Martin said the hiring brings the force up to full strength.
The council also approved a resolution to adopt a sewer rate study and reevaluate rates in 2027, when rates may have to increase.
The council also authorized the mayor to sign a lease agreement with Enterprise Rent-A-Car for two 2024 Dodge Ram pickup trucks.
The council adopted an ordinance ratifying a 2012 ordinance passed by the council authorizing the office of a Deputy Chief of Police. The ordinance was not published in the official publication of the city, so city attorney Allan Durand suggested the city adopt an ordinance ratifying that previous ordinance.
The council also ratified the mayor’s signature on a contract with Cuzan Services for Phase 1 of the Festival Ground Improvements Project funded by the Love Louisiana Outdoor Program.
The council adopted a resolution in support of state Rep. Marcus Bryant’s plan to pass a bill for the development of an Economic District in the City of St. Martinville similar to ones in New Iberia and other nearby communities. That would allow Bryant to procure funds for projects in the city without having to go through the state capital outlay process.
The mayor also reminded residents that Center-Point Energy has notified its customers that it has sold its natural gas distribution systems in Louisiana and Mississippi to Delta Utilities, so their bills will now be from Delta and not from CenterPoint.
