(The Center Square) — Urgent requests and salary raises were the important legislation passed in the Caddo Parish Commission session Thursday.
An ordinance voted on raises the salary of justices of the peace and constables. Currently they receive $225 from the parish each month. Starting in 2025, this ordinance bumps that monthly pay up to $345.
It passed with a vote of 10-1.
Some of those in favor were in opposition for another ordinance that passed at the meeting with similar goals, which The Center Square reported on.
District 9 Commissioner John Atkins, who was one of those voters, stated that he felt it was different when talking about increasing the salary for direct parish employees doing local government work than requiring contractors and independent businesses to pay a certain amount.
Two resolutions were also voted on in this session, both sending urgent requests to two very different bodies: Congress and the Southwestern Electric Power Company.
The message to Congress is for them to seek viable alternatives to clinical trials for determining market readiness of sickle cell disease treatments.
The resolution received a unanimous vote in favor, bringing much less drama than the ordinances.
Author of the resolution, District 7 commissioner Stormy Gage-Watts, says she’s spoken with several citizens in the sickle cell community who have recently been affected by treatments that had to get pulled off the market for having more negative side effects than positive.
This resolution had sweeping support and every commission member agreed it was their job to be the voice for families most affected by urgently requesting better clinical trials before offering a treatment to the Caddo community.
The message to SWEPCO, which passed with a vote of 10-1, is less serious.
In the past, the parish provided a financial inducement to encourage SWEPCO to build its transmission facility in Resilient Technology Park in exchange for the creation and maintenance of jobs, which in turn spur economic and community development.
Part of the purpose of the financial incentive was to build a public road to the facility and have the extension of that road, from Resilient Way to Jefferson Paige Road, through SWEPCO’s property.
Now, the commission is asking SWEPCO to follow through by strongly urging them to allow the public road to be extended through its property in Resilient Technology Park.
