Manchac and the city of Bossier have formed a public-private partnership for the management of the city's water and sewage department and the city's streets and drainage department. Manchac has also taken over on a temporary/interim basis the duties of the city engineer.
This writer made a public records request on Sept. 8 for copies of all invoices by the Manchac Group to the city of Bossier from Jan. 2020 through Aug. 2021.
Bossier City attorney Charles Jacobs responded to the public records request on that day saying that
"After speaking with the Finance Dept., the estimated time to complete this request is 30 days. Once the information is gathered, we will review and let you know when ready."
Seemingly the Bossier City Finance Department could quickly assemble the invoices with a simple computer search. If not, Bossier Mayor Tommy Chandler should review that department.
The invoices for Manchac invoices will not contain any privileged confidential information. Thus, there is no need for review by Jacobs before tendering the same to this office.
The response by Jacobs appears to be the classic stonewalling of public information that should prompted provided as required by the Louisiana Public Records Act.
It is rumored that Manchac may be nominated to permanently perform the duties of the city engineer. Maybe the delay in responding to the public records request is tied to that potential expansion of services by Manchac.
Jacob's predecessor Jimmy Hall, who served as city attorney for over 20 years, was very prompt in providing responses to public records request. It’s unfortunate the new city attorney has not continued this admirable tradition of transparency.
Jacob's response reflects negatively on the Chandler administration and the Bossier City Council. The city attorney (and the assistant city attorney Richard Ray) work for both the city and the council.