[Update: On Tuesday night the City-Parish Council voted unanimously to pass the ordinance retroactively blocking the waste transfer facility, which is already under way off Sunbeam Lane.]
City-Parish attorney Mike Hebert has advised the City-Parish Council that a vote in favor of an ordinance to block the construction of a waste transfer station in an unincorporated section of Lafayette Parish will likely result in LCG paying millions of dollars in civil damages.
A six-page letter sent by Hebert to City-Parish Council members and obtained by The Daily Advertiser says the ordinance, proposed by District 3 Councilman Brandon Shelvin in response to outrage from residents who live near the construction site, would be equal to LCG “taking” the property from Waste Facilities and IESI, the two companies operating the facility.
The council is scheduled to vote on the ordinance at its regular meeting Tuesday night:
Hebert said Waste Facilities of Lafayette LLC has acquired permits and approvals to build the facility in accordance with all laws and regulations, meaning that Louisiana courts would “very likely” rule that Waste Facilities has a vested property right to its building permit.
“If Waste Facilities has acquired a vested property right to its building permit, a withdrawal or revocation of that permit would likely be held a ‘taking’ of property obligating LCG to pay compensation to Waste Facilities,” Hebert wrote.
In that situation, LCG could face not only a civil lawsuit from Waste Facilities, but similar claims from others who would lose business as a result of the revocation, such as contractors and affiliates of Waste Facilities. The company could use on grounds such as property acquisition costs, development and construction costs, relocation costs and business losses.
The outcome of blocking Waste Facilities’ construction could mirror that of the recent settlement LCG reached with Greyhound bus station, which sued LCG when the City-Parish Council denied Greyhound’s move to the old IberiaBank building on Moss Street. The administration warned the council then, too, that blocking the move would likely cost LCG millions in damages. The pending settlement will force LCG to pay more than $270,000 to Greyhound to purchase the Moss Street property, as well as offer more than $270,000 in free rent to Greyhound at the transportation center downtown for 20 years.
Read more from The Advertiser here.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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