Council moves forward with Cleco proposal

Published 2:00 pm Thursday, January 19, 2023

The New Iberia City Council narrowly passed an introductory ordinance to move forward the final authorization for a 25-year deal with Cleco for utility services despite several council members continuing to have grievances with the presented contract.

For council members like Deidre Ledbetter and Deedy Johnson-Reid, lingering concerns have persisted for several months regarding the renewal of the city’s agreement with the utility company.

At Tuesday’s meeting, both mainly discussed concerns with a stipulation in the contract regarding streetlights in the city. Issues included the fact that street light checks would only run quarterly for Cleco and that bulb replacements would have to come at request of the city.

“Mr. (Willie) Bergeron told me they’d come around quarterly and that means a light could be out for four months possibly,” Ledbetter said.

“I have never signed a contract where the company is asking me to do the work,” Johnson-Reid added. “It’s a big burden on us, they need to figure out how to get it done and get it done.”

Johnson-Reid also said that the contract not having any guarantees for keeping New Iberia’s utilities upgraded technologically could also pose big problems down the road.

“There’s nothing that says Cleco has to give us the most efficient energy, or to keep us upgraded as the technology comes out,” she said.

After a motion was passed to defer voting on the ordinance, a tied vote led to Mayor Freddie DeCourt choosing not to defer the measure.

Mayor Pro Tem Ricky Gonsoulin said that although he saw there were some problems with the contract, part of the agreement’s appeal was that it would allow for extra funding that will go to cameras for the New Iberia Police Department.

“So many other municipalities are approving the same contract,” Gonsoulin said. “We’ve said here and listened and our biggest problem is crime, we need to make sure our police department has what it needs to protect our constituents.”

DeCourt said he shared concerns about the future of streetlights in New Iberia, but also wanted to move the process along so that negotiations could continue.

The council ultimately approved the ordinance unanimously, which means it will go up for final approval at a meeting in the near future.