FERRIDAY — During a meeting with the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus Monday, Alderwoman Gloria Lloyd accused Mayor Glen McGlothin of micro-managing the town and keeping the board of aldermen out of the loop when it comes to important issues.

During the legislative session earlier this year, the black caucus made a decision to meet with different constituencies around the state, caucus chair Regina Barrow said.

“We were going to start in August, but after hearing about the issue with the water, we wanted to get a better idea about what had transpired and what was going to be done to rectify the situation,” Barrow said.

When speaking about the water situation, Lloyd said she was disappointed with the mayor and the other city council members when it came to terminating the contract with Triton Water Technologies.

“None of us asked any questions — we did not ask the mayor any questions, and we did not ask the town attorney any questions,” Lloyd said.

The Triton contract included repairs to the town water plant, but city officials decided to terminate it because they felt it was taking too long for the company to begin work.

The town and Triton have a standing dispute about whether or not Triton was supposed to get front-end funding for the project — or if Triton even told the town they would get the funding — and Lloyd said it is possible Triton told the town they would get the funding.

“Maybe someone did tell (town officials) that, but they did not put it in the contract,” she said. “I put the breach of contract on the town.”

Lloyd — who said she has not seen the contract herself but instead relied on the town attorney’s advice — was the council member who made the initial motion to terminate the contract.

The black caucus will ask for the attorney general’s office to review the contract and give an expedited opinion about where the problem with the contract is, Barrow said.

Throughout the meeting, Lloyd maintained that the board of aldermen is kept in the dark about city business, and at one point said town money is being spent on the rehabilitation of a warehouse without the council’s approval.

After the meeting, Lloyd denied a second time that the aldermen had ever voted to approve the rehabilitation of the warehouse, but a review of the minutes of the May 12 meeting shows that the $50,000 expenditure was approved unanimously.

The funding was drawn from the money Walmart gave the town. Other funds have been appropriated from grants, but McGlothin said the town has to provide so much in in-kind funding.

If the aldermen have any questions about anything, they should ask the question, McGlothin said.

“Ms. Lloyd needs to pay attention to what we are doing,” he said.

McGlothin was not at Monday’s meeting, and though Barrow said all of the local leadership had been invited, McGlothin said he did not get an invite until 10 a.m. that morning.

The meeting began at 9 a.m., and the mayor said he had been at the doctor’s office with his mother.

Alderman Jerome Harris, who was at the meeting, said the current problems can’t be blamed on a single person or administration.

“We are doing our best to solve this problem, but we can’t put it under one administration, we have to put it on all of the administrations since this plant was built.”

Harris, who was at one time a water plant operator for the town, said in the past he learned that certain processes at the plant were being left undone.

“I kept telling them “You are going to let it go and let it go and (the plant) is going to go down,’” Harris said.

Anyone who has concerns should attend town council meetings or speak to his or her alderman, he said.

“Come to the town council to get firsthand information rather than be fed the wrong information,” Harris said.

The Rev. Justin Conner said the problems began as far back as when the plant was built, and the problems have never really been addressed.

“Something gets done, and three or four years later we are back at square one,” Conner said.

“If the federal government or the state has to come in and fix it and then give it back to the town, then so be it.”

Too many grants have been spent on the plant already, Conner said.

“Money after money after money has come to Ferriday to fix something that can’t be fixed,” he said.

McGlothin said he believes Conner’s statements Monday and recent protests Conner helped organize outside Ferriday Town Hall are little more than the early stages of a mayoral campaign for 2012.

“If Rev. Conner wants to help with this problem, tell him to take off his suit, put on some blue jeans and head to the field to help us find the leaks in the water lines that are costing us so much water,” McGlothin said.

“Don’t politic this thing — let’s get this done. If they want to help, come up here.”

During the meeting, District 21 Rep. Andy Anders — an honorary member of the black caucus — said a temporary solution is being worked on, and he and District 32 Sen. Neil Riser have both worked toward getting money for the problem and have both spoken with the governor about it.

The temporary solution includes finding a groundwater source rather than drawing from Old River’s surface water, Anders said.

“It is going to take close to $1 million for a temporary fix, but once we get that groundwater source, that will be part of the permanent solution,” he said.

Ferriday’s water wasn’t the only thing on the agenda for Monday’s meeting, however.

Other items discussed included:

Conner asked the caucus members if they thought it was possible that based on court caseload and the area’s population, the area could have a third judge.

“What can we do to get some studies on roll to see if we can get a minority district drawn up and a minority judge to represent us?” Conner said.

The legislative judicial committee is already currently doing a study of judicial districts statewide to see if judicial districts need an increase or decrease in the number of judges they have, caucus member Rick Gallot said.

Former Mayor Gene Allen said he believes that since Hurricane Katrina a population shift from the southern end of the state to the northern end has taken place, and that if the area is to get another judge those who want it need to make sure everyone is counted in the upcoming census.

“The census bureau says we have less, but the Ferriday has 7,000 people in the town limits,” Allen said.

Conner asked what could be done about what he believes to be discrepancies in the Concordia Parish educational system, particularly the lack of black males in leadership positions.

“It is a shift when you go to Vidalia and you come to this end of the parish,” Conner said. “We are supposed to be under the same system.”

The area is already under a desegregation order, and that order would be the vehicle through which anything would get done, caucus member Herbert Dixon said.

“To do that, you are going to have to have an active attorney and plaintiff class voicing the concerns (you have) to the local school board,” Dixon said.

Ultimately, that would mean that the plaintiff group would have to pool their resources to pay for an attorney, Dixon said.

Conner asked what can be done to ensure the social services building would be relocated to Ferriday.

The social services office was temporarily moved to Jonesville, starting in January 2008, and Conner said he wanted to make sure the office would be placed back within reach of the minority community in Ferriday.

“The majority of the folks who used that building lived here,” Conner said. “We are afraid something is in the works to move it away from here.”

Anders said he has been promised the office would eventually relocate in Ferriday.

Jonesville Mayor Hiram Evans asked the caucus to follow up on a grant request he had placed for stimulus money to address problems with Jonesville’s sewage system, for a groundwater storage tank and for gas meters.

Clayton Mayor Rydell Turner also spoke briefly, stating that it is very hard to get the area’s congressional delegation to come to the western end of the parish.

He also said it is important for citizens to be actively involved in their communities.