St. Charles Parish Council amends millage rollbacks, approves engineering and waterworks items, adopts hazard mitigation plan

St. Charles Parish Council members on Aug. 18 approved a set of ordinances and resolutions that affect parish tax rates, drainage and waterworks projects, emergency housing rules and hazard mitigation planning.

Most prominent was the annual ad valorem tax ordinance (file 2025-0198). The council approved a rollback that reduces total assessed millage across several taxing districts by 0.51 mills, and at the council-on-aging’s request amended council-on-aging millage number 2 from 0.66 to 0.65. Council members noted the rollback, together with similar reductions by the sheriff’s office and the school board, reduces assessed millage for residents compared with recent years. The amended ordinance opened for public hearing and passed unanimously.

Other formal actions approved by the council at the meeting included:

- File 2025-0232: Approved Amendment No. 2 to the Crescent Engineering and Mapping LLC professional services agreement for the King and Horn Street drainage project (amount not to exceed $52,767) to add a cultural-resources survey required during environmental review. Passed unanimously (see separate article for resident comments and project details).

- File 2025-0233: Approved Change Order No. 1 (closeout) for the Eastbank water intake platform repairs (project WWKS110) to increase the contract amount by $133,715.51; Councilman Comerdale abstained from the vote. The engineering presenter said the funds address additional panel repairs and materials identified when river levels fell during construction.

- File 2025-0234: Amended the parish code to change the department name from "Department of Emergency Preparedness" to "Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness." Passed unanimously.

- File 2025-0237: Adopted a resolution authorizing the parish president to certify to GOSEP that the parish will waive certain land-use permits for temporary housing and shelter assistance during declared emergencies. Passed unanimously.

- File 2025-0242: Adopted the St. Charles Parish hazard mitigation plan (five-year update). Staff noted the plan is required for FEMA grant eligibility and will be maintained as a living document; passed unanimously.

- File 2025-0243: A resolution to submit a USDA Rural Housing Service fiscal year 2025 Housing Preservation Grant application was postponed indefinitely at the grants officer’s request.

Votes were recorded by the clerk for each item; where roll-call details were not read into the record the meeting minutes logged unanimous passage or noted abstentions as recorded.

Ending: Council business concluded with appointments to advisory committees and notices of upcoming meetings; the council adjourned and wished residents a safe Labor Day.