No Kaplan council meeting - quorum not met

The items on the agenda of the Kaplan City Council meeting Tuesday night may have been few, but there was an important issue which needed to be voted upon due to time constraints. This included adopting the budget for the coming fiscal year.
The current fiscal year ends June 30, and state law requires the new budget be adopted 15 days before this date.
But no action could be taken because a quorum could not be met. This puts the city in direct violation of Government Act 504 and will result in the city being cited by the Louisiana Legislative Auditors.
Attending were council members Eva Dell Morrison and Kevin Guidry.
Absent were Jerry Touchet, Brent Dubois and Herb Gaspard.
“I am so disappointed,” said Mayor Kirk Champagne. “All the meetings are important, but the last one of the fiscal year is especially important to adopt a budget for the coming year.
“I can understand they were working, but it seems like they could have called in their status when they saw they couldn’t make it in time.
“We were elected to do a job and that is to run the city, and that means your whole, entire term.”
With the meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m. and no one calling in stating they were not attending, by 6:35 p.m. and there was not a quorum to conduct a meeting, Champagne texted the three missing councilmen.
All three responded with:
•Dubois - still at work and too busy to text.
•Touchet - could not make it because he was still at work.
•Gaspard - was in Fort Worth, Texas with customers and getting ready to fly out to another state.
Even though the city is currently in violation of Act 504, there is still hope the budget can be adopted before June 30. A special meeting is being called for Tuesday, June 24 to place the city’s property tax renewal on the November ballot.
If a quorum is not met for this meeting and a vote cannot be taken for the renewal, the millage will expire causing the city to call for a special election and have to foot the entire cost of the election, while taking a chance of losing $1 million dollars for roads and drainage because of low voter turnout.
Richard LeBlanc and John Carbaugh, two incoming council members were in attendance and were asked their thoughts on the lack of a quorum.
“They were elected by the people and have a responsibility to do a job for the people till the end of their term,” said LeBlanc. “Out of courtesy for everyone, they could have called and said they were running late or could not attend.”
John Carbaugh said, “When the mayor had to cancel the city council meeting due to a lack of a quorum, I was quite upset as to why none of those who needed to be present weren’t there. There was no communication to the mayor or anyone else in attendance to indicate that there would not be enough members present to conduct a meeting.
“Those of us who were there to observe the meeting were left wondering why this has happened. There is important city business that needs the attention that can only be given at a council meeting. Now, that business has to be put on hold for at least a month in order to properly conduct the business of the city.
“The lack of commitment shown by those who didn’t even bother to inform the council that they weren’t going to attend is an embarrassment to our city. There will be a special meeting in the very near future to discuss some extremely important issues that will have an impact on every citizen in Kaplan.
“I can only hope that those who were not in attendance will honor the commitment that they made to their constituents and show up for the meeting.
“I wish to thank those members who did attend the meeting and were there to take care of the city’s affairs. The new council will be sworn in on July 1. I sincerely hope that we can learn to put aside any differences that we may encounter and work to make Kaplan a better place.”
A research of attendance to the monthly meeting by all council members showed:
Brent Dubois: in 2012, made four and missed eight; in 2013, made six, missed six; and 2014, missed all six meetings.
Eva Dell Morrison: In 2012, she made 11 meetings, missed one; 2013, made all 12 meetings; and 2014, made five and missed one.
Kevin Guidry: In 2012, he made 11 meetings, missed one; 2013, made all 12 meetings; and 2014, made five and missed one.
Herb Gaspard: in 2012, made 11, missed one; in 2013, made all 12 and in 2014, made one and missed five.
Jerry Touchet : In 2012, he made 11 meetings, missed one; 2013, made all 12; and 2014 made five and missed one.
This was to be the last meeting for all three councilmen. Gaspard and Dubois did not seek re-election, and Touchet lost a bid for the mayoral seat.
All council members are paid $350 a month, regardless if they attend meetings or not.
Champagne, LeBlanc and Carbaugh have discussed implementing future guidelines for council members if they do not attend the monthly meetings. One idea tossed around was if someone misses two meetings, they will forfeit pay for one month.