§2907. Powers of board

In order to accomplish the purposes for which the district is created, the board of commissioners may:

(1) Purchase, hold, sell and convey land and personal property and execute such contracts as it may deem necessary or convenient to enable it properly to carry out the purposes for which it is created.

(2) Acquire servitudes, rights of way and flowage rights, by purchase, by expropriation, and by assignment.

(3) Assist in conserving soil and water and in developing the water resources of the district; provided, however, nothing shall be done to interfere with districts previously organized under Louisiana law.

(4) Cooperate with the State Department of Public Works and other state agencies in the maintenance or improvement, and the construction of any works or improvements for the control, retention, diversion or utilization of water; retard runoff of water and soil erosion, construct any ditch, channel improvement, dike, dam, or levee, and repair, improve and maintain any of said improvements or structure.

(5) Acquire personal property by gift or purchase; and employ and hire a secretary and such other personnel as may be necessary in the operation of the business of the district, and fix their compensation; and the commission is further authorized to employ engineers, attorneys and other professional personnel as the need becomes necessary and fix their compensation.

(6) Levy taxes, issue bonds and incur indebtedness within the limitations prescribed by the constitution of the State of Louisiana, and in the manner prescribed thereby.

(7) Cooperate and contract with persons, firms, associations, partnerships and private corporations, and cities of this state, or other public corporations and with any other local, state and governmental agencies for the sale or use of any waters impounded hereby; provided, however, that this district shall not engage in the production of goods or resources or the performance of services which are or may be provided or performed by private enterprise in this state.

(8) Select a domicile and home office for the district.

(9) Do and perform any and all things necessary or incident to the fulfillment of the purposes for which this district is created, including all acts necessary to construct, lease, acquire in any manner, maintain, and operate dikes, dams, reservoirs, storage basins, locks, levees, flumes, conduits, spillways or other structures necessary, suitable or convenient to the purposes of the district.

(10) The Board of Commissioners of the Jackson Parish Watershed District in cooperation with the State Department of Public Works and the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, shall have the care, management and control of the construction and maintenance of a lake within the district, the name of the lake to be selected by the board of commissioners. They shall have the power to:

(a) Appropriate money and provide for the current expenses of the said district.

(b) Make all police regulations necessary for the preservation of good order and the peace of the district; and to prevent injury to, destruction of, or interference with public or private property.

(c) Secure the general health of the district, to prevent, remove and abate nuisances; to prohibit the construction of privy vaults and cesspools, and to regulate or suppress those already constructed; to compel and regulate the connection of all property with the sewers and drains; to establish and regulate health and sanitary regulations with the concurrent approval of the state board of health or to regulate them and to prescribe and enforce regulations for cleanliness and sanitary regulations with regard to construction within the said district; to compel and regulate the removal of garbage and filth within the said limits of the district.

(d) Grant franchises to telephone, telegraph and electric power companies for the purpose of supplying such service to construction within one mile of the high water line of the said reservoir.

(e) Grant franchises for the purpose of laying gas, water, sewer, electric light or other utilities supplying the inhabitants or any person or corporation with gas, water, sewerage, light, when such construction is located within one mile of the high water line of the said reservoir. This applies only to construction begun after August 1, 1968.

(f) REPEALED BY ACTS 1993, NO. 830, §2.

(g) Appoint, hire, designate and empower wardens, rangers, patrols, and such other personnel as may be deemed necessary by the commission for the enforcement of such regulations as may be promulgated and adopted by the said commission.

(11) Raise funds by taxes or otherwise to be expended by and under the direction of the commission.

(12) The Jackson Parish Watershed District shall have, with respect to the improvement and maintaining of the said watershed district, the advice of the department of public works, and it shall be the duty of the department to make such surveys, inspections, and investigations, render such report, estimate and recommendations and furnish such plans and specifications as the board of commissioners of the said district may request from time to time.

(13) Whenever any work is to be let under the provisions of this Chapter, the contract for which will exceed the value of two thousand dollars, the board of commissioners of the district shall proceed to provide through the department of public works, proper specifications for the performing of said work, which specifications shall receive the approval of the board of commissioners of the district. After the adoption of the specifications thus approved the board of commissioners of the district shall advertise for bids to do the work according to the plans and specifications prepared by the department of public works, which advertisement shall appear once a week for the full term of thirty days in a newspaper of Jackson Parish, as well as any other paper or papers in the discretion of the board of commissioners. Such advertisement shall state the place where the bids will be received, the time and place where the bids will be opened, and a general outline of the work expected to be performed. Every bid shall be accompanied by a certified check of the bidder in an amount equal to five percent of the amount of the bid, which check shall be forfeited to the board of commissioners of the district, should the bidder to whom such contract is awarded fail to enter into the contract required within ten days after notice to do so from the board of commissioners awarding the work. The checks of all unsuccessful bidders shall be returned after the contract is awarded. All bids submitted shall be addressed to the Board of Commissioners of the Jackson Parish Watershed District and shall be publicly opened and read at the time stated in the advertisement.

The governing authority of the district may reject any and all bids, if, in its opinion, it is to the best interest of the district to do so, but whenever a contract is awarded, unless for cause which in its discretion is deemed sufficient, it shall be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder. The bidder to whom such contract is awarded shall be required to furnish bond of a surety company authorized to do business in Louisiana, or other good and solvent surety, in the sum equal to one-half of the amount of the contract awarded, conditioned that such work shall be performed in accordance with the plans and specifications of the Department of Public Works and the terms of the contract, and containing such other stipulations and provisions as may be required by the authority granting the contract. The awarding of the contract to a successful bidder will be binding upon both, even though for some cause there should be no signing of the actual contract.

(14) The district is hereby authorized to incur debt for any one or more of its lawful purposes, to issue in its name negotiable bonds or certificates of indebtedness evidencing such debt, and to provide for the security and payment thereof as follows:

(a) To issue certificates of indebtedness maturing within one year from date of issuance to evidence money borrowed in anticipation of current revenues for the administration, operation, construction and maintenance costs and expenses of the district, which certificates shall be payable in principal and interest from any available income, revenues, fees and/or taxes pledged to their payment by the district.

(b) To issue bonds substantially in the manner set forth in Article XIV, Section 14 of the Constitution, and other authority supplemental thereto, particularly Part III, Chapter 4, Title 39 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950. Such bonds shall be payable from an ad valorem tax on all taxable property in the district sufficient to pay such bonds in principal and interest, when approved by a vote of a majority in number of the qualified electors voting on the proposition at an election held for that purpose in accordance with Part II of said Chapter 4, Title 39, as amended by Act 277 of 1970. Such bonds shall be issued in the manner provided by the law pursuant to which they are being issued and the maximum interest rate for the bonds shall be that prescribed by such law. The bonds shall be issued in such amount or amounts as the board of commissioners shall determine, provided, however, the principal amount of all such bonds outstanding as of the date of the issuance of any new bonds shall never exceed ten per cent of the assessed valuation of the taxable property within the district, to be ascertained by the last assessment roll of record in the Parish of Jackson.

(15) The district shall have additional authority to levy taxes under the provisions of Article X, Section 10 of the Constitution of the State of Louisiana for the year 1921, as amended, for the purpose of improving, operating and maintaining its facilities, provided any such tax shall first be approved at an election held for said purposes in accordance with Part II of Chapter 4 of Title 39 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, as amended by Act 277 of 1970.

(16) The copy of any resolution levying a tax, certified by the secretary of the board of commissioners of said district, shall be transmitted to the tax assessor of the parish on or before May 1 of the year in which the tax is to be assessed and collected, and it shall be the duty of the assessor to assess the tax and extend the same upon the tax rolls of the parish. The tax shall be collected by the sheriff and ex officio tax collector of the parish in the same manner as taxes levied by the state. The tax collector shall make settlement for taxes so collected with the state comptroller and state treasurer for the account of the respective Jackson Parish Watershed District, and the funds so derived shall be withdrawn upon the warrant of the secretary of the board of commissioners of the Jackson Parish Watershed District; countersigned by the president of the said commission. Taxes assessed shall constitute the same liens upon the property assessed; shall bear the same penalties; and collection thereof shall be enforced in the same manner and at the same time as state and parish taxes.

(17) The parish shall not be entitled to reimbursement out of the property tax relief fund for any sums which may be lost to it occasioned by any homestead exemption which may be applicable to any property within the parish with respect to any tax levied under the authority of this part, as amended.

Added by Acts 1968, No. 589, §1. Amended by Acts 1970, No. 516, §§1, 2; Acts 1972, No. 316, §3; Acts 1993, No. 830, §2.