Town of Farmerville Unanswered Questions

The Town of Farmerville [TOF] town council met Monday evening at 5 pm at the old town hall. The meeting was interesting to say the least and a bit unhinged at times. All members of the council were present as well as the town clerk, the town attorney, most of the police force and the mayor.
The meeting was called to order, prayer was had, and allegiance was pledged to the flag of the United States of America.
Minutes of the last meeting were adopted, and the agenda was approved.
Town Clerk, Gay Nell Pepper conducted the meeting by calling the agenda items.
Councilman Ricky Johnikin addressed concerns of his constituents regarding roving dogs and seeking a solution to this potentially dangerous condition in town. Mention was made of pit bull fighting and some animals being used for that purpose. This revulsive matter was left unsolved but with concern that it be effectively addressed. How was not decided upon.
Public Works Director Keith Jeselink reported citizens were happy with his department’s performance and related positive phone calls and comments from the public.
Community Outreach Director Mary Barrios reported on events involved in by the town and many positive comments she had received from the public about the town’s civic activities.
Foster Farms Complex Manager Vince Lucas spoke briefly and positively on the water situation at Foster Farms, as it relates to the town. The town provides water to that facility.
Engineer Oliver Neal informed the council that efforts to receive a grant for the $7,000,000 needed to rework the obsolete town sewage treatment plant had been denied. The option now being considered is a possible 0.95 per cent interest loan but that loan limit is only some $4,000,000 so even with that there is a $3,000,000 shortfall. No one had a solution for that dilemma. Johnny Dollar pointed out that the practically non-functioning system was contaminating his property with fecal coliform and other harmful pathogens and all of that drained into the lake, He also pointed out that the town had recently entered into an agreement with the UPPJ to let the landfill effluent drainage be injected into the town sewer system and that he did not know what “forever chemicals” might be in that waste. The system has been overloaded for years so why would the town spend millions on the TTR property to bring infrastructure there when it already cannot process the wastewater in the current system in any meaningful manner? No one responded.
Charlie Young addressed the council complaining that every election cycle his water bill went up by hundreds of dollars; and that the town had dug up part of his yard and took the dirt to his neighbor for topsoil and did not fill his hole back up.
During the public comment period, Danny Benoit, owner of two car dealerships in town, spoke on his concern relating to high taxes, not only sales taxes but real estate taxes. He mentioned that car manufacturers were trending toward paying dealers to close down small-town dealerships in favor of larger dealerships in metropolitan areas, but that he was happy with his two dealerships in Farmerville, and both were profitable, but high taxes in this parish and town did discourage people from shopping here. Benoit also talked about the economic ripple effect, giving as an example that his dealerships buy many of the needed parts for the service departments through Bumper-to-Bumper Auto Parts and therefore his dealerships comprised a large part of that small business’s customer base.
Benoit also criticized Mayor Crow for wasting and misusing public funds, and endangering individuals with asbestos, in tearing down the Metz Motel to benefit the owner of that motel and surrounding property owners, including the mayor; failing to disclose to the council members his conflict of interest in hiring Mike Walsworth as a consultant for $1,000 per month without disclosing to the council that he was business partners with Walsworth in C & W Properties of Louisiana, LLC; and, failing to disclose that the mayor was in the process of a $1.2 million real estate transaction with one of the individuals owning an interest in TTR, LLC which was benefitting from the Mega Ramp multi – million dollar project location and related infrastructure cost, while the mayor was simultaneously urging the passage of a TTR infra-structure bill to benefit that property. Benoit also asked the council members if any of them had any financial transactions with TTR or its members. No one would respond.
Willie T. “Butch” Sensley, Jr. requested the council reconsider making the tax reassessment effective this year because it unfairly caused a large increase in taxes to those who could least afford it, reminding the councilpersons that if they thought long enough, they could remember people who had lost their property at tax sales because they couldn’t afford the taxes. He also pointed out that if the increase in assessment is caused by inflation, as some claim, that people cannot spend inflation so the increased taxes are paid from money they would otherwise have for food, medical and shelter.
Johnny Dollar addressed the council and adopted the concerns of Benoit and Sensley and in addition provided the council with documentary proof that Mayor Crow concluded a $1.2 million real estate deal with TFR, LLC, a company owned by Trey Towns who also is a member of TTR, LLC. This deal was concluded by a cash deed in January 2023 while the mayor was asking the council to put infrastructure to the TTR site and buy the location for the Mega Ramp from TTR. Dollar also produced a diagram of the financial transactions and the timing of the approval by the town of expenditure of town funds on the TTR sites.
Dollar then pointed out that the council had only approved for Mayor Crow to acquire the mega ramp site from TTR, but the transaction document raised many questions and exceeded the authority the council had granted the mayor. Instead of a simple deed, the mayor executed a lengthy Deed, Option and Cooperative Endeavor Agreement.
Specifically, the mayor did not get a warranty of title; did not get a title opinion; and did not get a title insurance policy when he paid TTR a quarter million dollars from the town.
The mayor, without authority from the council, did obligate the town to work with TTR to acquire construction site material from TTR [earlier capital outlay documents estimated that alone to be $3,000,000]. Other obligations, far beyond merely acquiring the land, were undertaken on behalf the town by the mayor in this transaction. Ordinarily, the expenditure of $250,000 in public funds to acquire property is a straightforward deed with a warranty of title and an owner’s title insurance policy to insure title.
Dollar then asked the council to review the documents he left for each council member and requested they reconsider the location of the mega ramp, requesting that they relocate it to Ramp Road which is where the Lake Commission wanted it to be put and where the commission had already acquired the property to put it on. They should at least do a feasibility study and cost comparison for that purpose. Capital outlay funds do not come without strings and one of the strings to this project requires a match of funds from the town – in this case more than $2,200,000. Given the town need of $7,000,000 to revamp the sewage system, it cannot justify spending $2,200,000 on another boat ramp when the Lake Commission has already solved that problem for everyone, at a mere fraction of the cost.
The last citizen to address the council was Leroy Warren who praised the accomplishments of Mayor Crow, said it was a good thing that the mayor used town equipment on private property to help citizens and that former mayor, Stein Baughman [the most revered mayor this town has ever had] was a crook and that Johnny Dollar was also a crook. Dollar said he would wear that badge with honor as long as he was in the company of Stein Baughman, one of the nicest men he had ever known.
Butch Sensley stood up and told Warren that he needed to know what he was talking about before he got behind the podium and made such outlandish accusations, whereupon Mayor Crow frantically waived for the police to come forward to where Mr. Sensley was standing, thus using the police to end the meeting in an obvious impotent attempt to discredit those asking him to acknowledge his wrongdoing.

Note: written by the editor in the third person.