No, it’s not a trick question, but it could be elaborated upon.
How about this: “Should Bossier City hire its own city engineer versus a company as in the Manchac Group?”
Section 9 of the Bossier City charter addresses the city Engineering Department (ED).
The responsibilities of this department include “the review and approval of plans for city infrastructure, preparation of plans and specifications for selected city projects, and preliminary negotiation for engineering and architectural services.”
The charter provides that the “Mayor shall nominate for confirmation by the City Council a City Engineer. This shall be an unclassified position. The City Engineer shall be a college graduate with a Bachelor’s or Graduate Degree of Engineering, have a minimum of five years’ related work experience, three of which were administrative or supervisory. He/she must also be a licensed engineer in the State of Louisiana.”
The charter also calls for an assistant city engineer who must have a bachelor’s degree in engineering.
The city engineering department is comprised of several divisions: building maintenance, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), geographic information system (GIS), permits and inspections , property standards and traffic engineering.
After the last engineer retired, the Bossier Council hired, reportedly on an interim basis, Manchac Engineering to man the city engineer position. The website lists Benjamin Rauschenbach, P.E. as the city engineer with an email address of brauschenbach@manchacgroup.com.
The Manchac Consulting Group has a Bossier Office, and it is currently in a public-private partnership (P3) with the city of Bossier to manage and oversee the city’s water and sewer department that was established in 2016.
Currently, the city is paying Manchac $12,000 per month to function as the city engineer. How long Manchac continues in this post depends on the Bossier City Council, which has not been receptive to two nominations for positions by Mayor Chandler.
Some unnamed companies who do business with Bossier question the advisability of having Manchac function as city engineer while managing the city utility department. Since the city engineer’s office includes permits and inspections, the likelihood of conflicts of interest are apparent with Manchac being the city hall superman.
But, as they say, it’s the free state of Bossier. Slowly, but surely, the real world is seeping into Bossier but not as fast as it should be if the city is to continue to grow and flourish.