Residents concerned over whether or not the council has violated the Sunshine Law, which are rules that assure public access to government meetings, can relax. Council Chairman Dennis Nuss says that the council has not met in groups of five, which would be considered a violation and an illegal meeting because a majority of the council members would be present.
Members of the council can meet as often as they like as long as there are only four or less of them.
“We’ve never been in violation of the Sunshine Law,” Nuss said. “The council secretary will call two or three or four council members to set up the meetings to discuss things with the administration. The most we’ve had in meetings at one time is four.”
Another concern has been the length of the council meetings. The last council meeting started at 6 p.m. and didn’t end until 11 p.m.
Nuss says a three minute timer, that he hopes will be installed on the council’s computer system before the next meeting in June, will help alleviate that problem.
“We had a long meeting last Monday night – about five hours,” Nuss said. “We have a one minute timer in place for voting and a five minute timer in place for residents on the agenda that wish to speak before the council, but not a three minute timer.”
Nuss says that’s one of the reasons the council meeting lasted as long as it did. Dozens of residents came to speak to voice their concerns about the Bunge Grain Elevator in St. Rose.
“Generally, we like to allow the residents to speak. We don’t want to have to stop them,”Nuss said. “But next time around for public hearing – for time management sake – the three minute rule will be enforced and extended if a little more time is needed for someone that wishes to speak to the council.”
Years ago, a previous council administration created an ordinance in the parish that limited the amount of time the council is allowed to meet. That ordinance says that the meetings must end at 10 p.m., but time can be extended with a two-thirds majority council vote.
According to the rules of the parish council, if a meeting last until 10 p.m., the council has the option of completing the last item up for discussion, which would leave the rest of the items until the next meeting. They could also take a vote to keep going and finish up the agenda.
“We’re still working hard and we’re trying to get to know each other’s personalities,” Nuss said. “Sometimes we will disagree, if we didn’t and we agreed on everything then that would mean we weren’t doing our best to satisfy residents in our districts.”
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