State Office lays off Vermilion Council on Aging employees, director; board disbands

The Louisiana Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs requested that the Vermilion Council on Aging Board disband, which they did, and then it laid off Executive Director Lois Bodin and all other employees who work for the Vermilion Council on Aging.
This occurred around 2 p.m. on Friday at a special meeting in the Council on Aging office in Abbeville.
As of today, the Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs and the Cajun Area Agency on Aging are now running the Vermilion Council on Aging.
The good news for the elderly in the parish is that the two organizations will continue to provide some services.
On Tuesday, the Meals to Wheels Program will continue. Only for lunch will the Abbeville, Kaplan and Gueydan offices be open to provide meals out of its facilities.
The Cajun Area Agency will deliver 200-plus meals to homes throughout the parish.
One program that will be closed is the transportation of the elderly. The vans will no longer be rolling through the parish until the Office of Elderly Affairs can fix the finances in Abbeville.
The Elderly Affairs office is expected to be in Abbeville for at least a month to try to figure out how to “stop the bleeding.”
Paul H. Colomb is the deputy council for the Office of General Counsel Division of Administration. He sat along side of the representatives from the state’s Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs.
He explained to the members of the disbanded board that once the Office of Elderly Affairs gets the Vermilion Council on Aging back in shape, a new board will be selected. The first job of the new board will be to hire a new executive director.
The reasons the Office of Elderly Affairs had to remove the executive director, the board and its employees, its because of “mismanagement.”
The Vermilion Council on Aging is $120,000 in debt, as its fiscal year comes to an end.
Colomb told the former board members the reason for debt problems is because bills were not getting paid on time, grant applications were not being filled out and when they were filled out, it was done wrong.
The board learned last week that the Council on Aging employees have been working with no workers compensation insurance. The executive director, according to Colomb, never told anyone that the premiums were due and let them end for three weeks before telling anyone.