Boucher: Why Construction Companies Had to Sue to Get Paid

Councilman Grayson Boucher explains the City Council's plan to pay the two construction companies who did emergency sewer work and why they had to sue the city to get paid.

Shreveport will be sending out payment to the two local contractors, Yor-Wic Construction and Pulley Construction, both of whom won suits against the city after doing those emergency repairs. The just over $9 million judgement will come from the Shreveport Department of Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund, That department's fund does have the funds to make the payment.

"If we weren't able to pay it by law - and there were statutory issues with paying it because (the emergency declaration) was not approved when it should have been, or should have been on the agenda, then we could have been held liable and it could have been worse than the $50,000," Boucher says, explaining why the bills weren't immediately paid. "Secondly, the only was for us to pay those would have been by court order, because then the statutory limit would be alleviated by that order."

City Chief Administrative Officer Henry Whitehorn says the emergency work was performed without the required declaration and the amount owed was over the threshold for the otherwise mandated public bid law. As a result, the two companies had to sue to get paid so the city could also avoid paying fines to the state.