Council seeking applicants for board

By William Johnson May 5, 2008

wjohnson@dailyworld.com

Now that the backlog of appointments to the parish's various special taxing district boards have been filled, the St. Landry Parish Council is putting it place a new policy in hopes will improve both the number and quality of applicants in the future.
Until now, these boards have more or less acted on their own. It has been tradition for years for the council to simply reappoint board members over and over again whenever their two-, three-or four-year appointments ended.
On the recommendations of Chairman Kenneth Vidrine and District 9 Councilman Glenn Stout, the council earlier this year voted to open up the appointment process to the public.
"The idea is that anyone out there should have the right to apply," Stout said.
To do this, the council is publishing notices of all upcoming vacancies months in advance. The first such appointment just happens to fall to the Faquetaique Gravity Drainage District No. 1, which handles drainage in the Eunice area.
Board member David Arnaud's current four-year term expires July 6, and the council is giving interested citizens until June 30 to submit applications.
The district is funded by a 5.51 mil property tax that brings in about $40,000 a year. In addition to Arnaud, current board members include secretary Gerard Caswell, Herman Fruge, Mathias A. Miller, Steve Manuel and Stanley Loewer.
Members of the board, which meets monthly, receive $100 per meeting for their services.
Where in the past the council had to vote on such appointments with little more than a nominee's name to go by, the council has now prepared a form where applicants can list their qualifications and a brief résumé.