Opinion sought on hiring powers

The Westwego City Council and Mayor John Shaddinger are once again wrangling about who has which powers in the city and this time they've decided to get the Louisiana attorney general involved.

Westwego City Attorney Joel Levy is seeking an attorney general's opinion about who in the city has authority to hire contractors to provide professional services. Shaddinger and the council have been bickering about which engineer the city should hire to oversee improvements at Westwego's wastewater treatment plant.

Initially, Levy was going to research the issue himself, but Shaddinger said that the city is seeking an opinion from the attorney general to allay all concerns. Both Shaddinger and the council believe they have authority to appoint an engineer without the other's approval.

Section 2:142 of the Westwego Code of Ordinances states that "Each person who is to be retained or employed to perform professional services for the city shall be selected by the board of aldermen from the list of those persons submitting statements of qualification and/or proposals pursuant to said section."

The dispute stems from the council's decision last month to borrow $1.15 million from the state at 0.95 percent interest. The 20-year loan will be used to do several repairs at the city's dilapidated wastewater treatment plant.

City officials are arguing about whether LaPlace engineer Oscar Boudreaux or Westwego engineer Mo Saleh should oversee the projects. Both men have done engineering work for the city in the past, and Saleh actually helped city officials draft the letter requesting the $1.15 million. However, at Shaddinger's request, Boudreaux recently submitted a proposal to the city about how the loan should be spent.

At the council's Oct. 12 meeting, Councilman Glenn Green introduced a resolution naming Saleh as the consulting engineer for the project because he said Saleh was largely responsible for the city receiving the state loan. Green added that Saleh should be given the contract out of fairness, and because he is knowledgeable about the workings of the sewage plant. Councilmen Ivy Rogers and Larry Warino have agreed with Green, noting that it seems wrong to use Saleh to get the money, but then shut him out of the contract....