Ascension Sewer to parish council: We want to include you in sewer plan, but will go without you – The Advocate

GONZALES Two principals behind Bernhard Capital Partners' plans to build a regional sewer system in Ascension Parish say they're going forward with or without parish government.

But, they sure would like the parish to come along with them in the Ascension Sewer LLC consortium, now or in the future.

"We're gonna build a system. Ascension Sewer," Jeff Baudier, managing director of Bernhard Capital, told the Parish Council utilities panel recently. "We've got, you know, 17,000 customers and growing. We plan on building the premier environmental water company in the state of Louisiana and beyond and we're gonna start in Ascension Parish."

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"We would like the parish's 2,000 customers," he added later, "to be a part of it."

Baudier and Tom Pertuit, another partner in the Ascension Sewer LLC consortium, delivered their two-sided message earlier this week, making for an interesting roundin an ongoing game of poker over the future of municipal sewer service in the parish.

A little more than a week earlier, Parish President Clint Cointment had laid out his own 10-year, $100 million plan to build a regional system without Bernard Capital or the consortium's involvement, saying it was the private sewer group's turn to propose something better.

Cointment's proposal came as a separate parish committee of council and administration officials some of whom sit on the Utilities Committee have been meeting in secret to negotiate with Bernhard and Ascension Sewer. They want a public-private partnership to build the same type of regional system that Cointment has proposed doing solely through the parish.

Last year, Bernhard proposed a $215 million plan to bring together its 17,000 customers and parish government's 2,000 customers. The 30-year deal would cost ratepayers $57.90 per month to start but locks in escalation of rates for the first 10 years, ending at more than $82.41 per month.

Cointment's plan, a high-level proposal that lacks some of the deeper engineering and financial data built into the Bernhard plan,proposes monthly fees of $45 to $55 per month over the 10-year period and banks on significant grant funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

His plan would also start an inspection program at $11 per month for individual home treatment systems.

Both plans aim for regional plants that discharge into the Mississippi River and so remove wastewater from local waterways. State and federal regulators have tightened water quality rules in those local rivers and bayous due to the ecological damage that years of poor treatment have created.

At the end of last year, the former administration and council came close to approving a deal with Bernhard until Cointment and some newly elected council members asked for the vote to be handed off to the new parish leaders taking office in January amid objections over aspects of that plan.

The parish negotiating panel met over Zoom on April 30, and parish and Bernhard officials said the consortium was asked to deliver an update of its plan for the parish and estimates of what it would cost the parish to operate sewer on its own.

In a public meeting on Tuesday, Baudier told the council Utilities Committee that consortium officials were preparing to make those submissions when officials learned about Cointment's plan in the media and felt they needed more engineering and financial data related to his plan.

"To be honest, we can't respond to that presentation. It's not an analysis. It's not a plan. It's a summary with some conclusory statements about a plan," he said.

But Cointment said that his administration would not provide that information to Bernhard while the parish was negotiating privately with the consortium.

To do so would require parish staff to generate the information being sought, Cointment added, because it doesn't exist yet.

"If we're gonna negotiate and continue to do negotiations in executive session, what's public and what's not? And that's a good question to ask as we continue these negotiations. Should we be doing these negotiations out in public or should we be doing them in executive session," he asked. "And do we have to do extra work so they can provide a proposal, at taxpayer expense?"

Some council members asked whether a public records request could be filed for the information, which would require a parish response within 72 hours. Under the law, however, that response can be only that the government doesn't have the records requested or that the parish is for some reason legally barred from providing them.

Council Chair Teri Casso questioned if the parish was obligated to provide the information under an agreement the council signed last year to exclusively negotiate with the consortium.

David Fleshman, one of the attorneys representing the parish in the deal, told her that the agreement does obligate the parish to exchange information with the consortium and the parish has done that.

"I don't think it extends to anything they request, whether it's related or not," Fleshman said.

Some council members have said they want to be able to compare Ascension Sewer's and Cointment's plans. Councilman Aaron Lawler argued that at some point the administration should have what Bernhard wants if the administration does go forward with its plan.

"The other part of this, to me, is I think we get the best deal if there's competition," he said.

Under prior administrations, the parish's lack of customers has been seen as a major stumbling block to financing an entirely parish-owned system due to the upfront cash for a new regional plant and related land and piping. A tax revenue subsidy, higher user fees or both were seen as likely necessities without outside capital.

The parish already subsidizes its current customers, who pay $42.50 per month, with local tax revenue.

Baudier told the council that if the subsidy for the parish's current capital costs and operational expenses since 2014 had been paid strictly through user fees, parish ratepayers would have paid $158 per month. That works out to about $2.8 million in annual subsidy.

He said Ascension Sewer had factored in those costs but he can't tell, based on what the parish has publicized, if the administration has done the same.

The Utilities Committee directed the administration to turn over what information it had. The negotiating panel is expected to meet again soon in closed session to hear from the consortium.

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Ascension Sewer to parish council: We want to include you in sewer plan, but will go without you - The Advocate