Kaplan council gets $22,000 bill from contractor for work done in court room

By Judy T. Mire, Kaplan Editor

KAPLAN - A bill received for work done on Kaplan’s City Court raised eyebrows when presented at the Kaplan City Council meeting.
Paul Broussard, owner of PB Enterprise, was asked to disassemble the old court room benches and the judge’s bench, then make adjustments to make them fit into the newly opened Kaplan City Court.
The charges in question were the labor rates Broussard charged. His invoice states he charged 124 hours at $60 an hour for himself, 125 hours at $40 an hour for one helper, and 70 hours at $30 an hour for two additional helpers.
“He did excellent wood work,” said Kaplan Mayor Kirk Champagne. “You can’t even see where the old and new benches meet. We have no problem with the quality of work he performed.”
Feeling the hourly rates charged were excessive, the Kaplan council members, along with the mayor, asked City Attorney Woody Woodruff to research the going rate for carpenters and their helpers.
Woodruff’s research determined the going rates were $35 an hour for the experienced carpenter, $25 for the under study, and $15 an hour for laborers.
“Louisiana law states a municipality can only pay the fair market value on anything,” said Woodruff. “Anything paid above the fair market value is considered a donation, and that is not allowed under any circumstances. And all charges have to be justified with an invoice. ”
Another controversial item on the bill was the general liability, workmen’s comp insurance.
The charge was for $4,765. No invoice accompanied this charge. The council felt this amount was not pro-rated to accompany the amount of man hours worked.
City officials agreed to send Broussard a check to cover 100 percent of the materials he purchased and labor costs based on the fair market value. A letter explaining how the totals were derived also accompanied the check of approximately $12,000.
The total amount of the invoice billed the city was over $22,000 for 20 days of work.
Phone calls to Broussard were not returned.