Jefferson Davis Parish - Community Involvement

Executive Summary

The Jefferson Davis Parish Long-Term Recovery Planning team sees its role as providing technical assistance and acting as a scribe for the community in writing its Recovery Plan.  Prior to the establishment of the full team, the Parish Office of Economic Development organized a Long-Term Community Recovery Steering Committee and several subcommittees to provide initial input on the planning process.  They also scheduled public meetings in the parish’s five incorporated communities.  The LTCR team expanded on this effort by setting up seven working groups that include a wide range of people from all levels of government, business and non-profit organizations from all parts of the parish; over sixty people have become involved.  Team members have also interviewed dozens of people not on the planning teams.

The local parish officials and governments seem eager to proceed with the planning process.  It is not uncommon to hear statements such as, “This is the best thing to happen to the parish in a long time.”  The public seems glad that the LTCR team was established in the community, and they have actively participated in LRPD and the parish public meetings.

Stakeholders

Local Government

• Jefferson Davis Police jury president, sheriff, coroner, tax assessor, engineer
• Thirteen elected officials
• mayors and police chiefs of Arthur, Elton, Jennings, Fenton and Welsh
• departments of economic development, human services, housing authority, tourism commission, local representatives and city councils.
• Imperial Calcasieu Regional Planning & Development District (IMCAL)

Non-profit and community groups

• Louisiana Spirit, Volunteers of America, Southwest Louisiana War Veterans Housing, United Way and Big Brother & Big Sister of Southwest Louisiana
• Jefferson Davis Parish Business Alliance
• SWLA Chamber of Commerce
• Jennings Council on Aging

Education, and health and human services

• Louisiana Technical College
• Acadian Ambulance, Jefferson Davis Parish School Board, Fenton High School and Welsh Elementary School
• Jefferson Davis Farm Bureau
• Louisiana State University Agricultural Center Research & Extension
• USDA
• Farm Service Agency

Public Service Agencies

• Jefferson Davis Electric Group
• City of Iowa Water Works
• City of Jennings Water Works and Sewer Department
• Central Water Works District.
• Louisiana Department of Labor
• Louisiana Work

The general public voice is generated from visitors to the LTCR team’s storefront office, and from Louisiana Planning Day, in addition to input from several members of the workgroup.

Local Committee / Task Force

Jefferson Davis Parish has created workgroups in several areas of recovery.  The Capacity Work Group is responsible for drafting the parish recovery vision, reviewing material produced by other work groups, and assessing the capacity to implement proposed projects.  The other workgroups are tasked with collecting issues, creating goals and generating projects to address the goals.  Each workgroup consist of community and governmental individuals and meets on a weekly basis, or more frequently as required.  The parish supplies a team leader and the LTCR team staff facilitates the meetings, takes notes and writes minutes.

• Government and organization capacity - nine initial members
• Coastal and environmental - team is in initial stages of development
• Education and human services - 10 members
• Public safety - six members
• Transportation and infrastructure - nine members
• Economic development - 12 members
• Housing - 11 members (main committee); 10 members (subcommittee)

Input Events

• Governmental Workshop (December 2005) Ten community officials and government leaders met at the Jennings Conference Center to brainstorm issues in each of the five areas of recovery, barriers to recovery, showstoppers, community treasures and partnerships.  Many comments in each area were collected and tabulated for use in developing the recovery plan.
• Louisiana Recovery Planning Day (January 2006) The open house was held to collect public opinion on the five recovery areas.  The open house format allowed people to write down their opinions in the same areas as the Governmental Workshop event.  The parish event had 18 participants.
• Parish Open Public Meetings (January 2006)  The Parish Office of Economic Development scheduled and led meetings in all five incorporated communities within the parish, documented comments, and distributed them to the LTCR workgroups.

Day-to-day interaction with local decision-makers, general public

The LTCR team sends a representative to each Parish Police Jury meeting. To date, presentations have been made at council meetings in three of the five incorporated communities.  Participation from the local governments and police jury members is encouraged by invitations to the workgroups and also face-to-face meetings.  The LTCR storefront has an open door policy to encourage community interaction.

Local leadership of implementation

During the planning process, champions and team leaders have been identified for each established workgroup.  It is emphasized that it is up to the community leaders to take the reins and see the plan through to fruition.  The parish has assigned its Department of Economic Development the task of organizing the planning process and ensuring the continuation of the process after the Recovery Plan is completed.

View the Parish Summary Page from Louisiana Planning Day (PDF)