Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

            In order to accomplish the purposes for which the district is created, the board of commissioners may:

            (1) Purchase, hold, sell and convey land and personal property and execute such contracts as it may deem necessary or convenient to enable it properly to carry out the purposes for which it is created.

            (2) Acquire servitudes, rights of way and flowage rights, by purchase or by expropriation.

            (3) Assist in conserving soil and water and in developing the water resources of the district; provided, however, nothing shall be done to interfere with districts previously organized under Louisiana law.

            (4) Under the supervision of the Louisiana state department of public works, contract for the construction of proposed works and improvements.

            (5) Cooperate with the department of public works in its construction of any drainage works or improvements, and the construction of any works or improvements for the control, retention, diversion or utilization of water; retard runoff of water and soil erosion, construct any ditch, channel improvement, dike, dam, or levee, and repair, improve and maintain any of said improvements or structures.

            (6) Acquire personal property by gift or purchase.

            (7) Levy taxes, issue bonds and incur indebtedness within the limitations prescribed by the constitution of the state of Louisiana, and in the manner prescribed thereby.

            (8) Cooperate and contract with persons, firms, associations, partnerships and private corporations, and cities of this state, or other public corporations and with any other local, state and governmental agencies for the sale or use of any waters impounded hereby.

            (9) Select a domicile and home office for the district.

            (10) Do and perform any and all things necessary or incident to the fulfillment of the purposes for which this district is created, including all acts necessary to construct, lease, acquire in any manner, maintain, and operate dikes, dams, reservoirs, storage basins, locks, levees, flumes, conduits, spillways or other structures necessary, suitable or convenient to the purposes of the district.

            (11) The board of commissioners of the Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District shall have the care, management, and control of the lake or reservoir formed by the damming of Bayou D’Arbonne and its property and finances. They shall have power:

            (a) To appropriate money and provide for the current expenses of the said district.

            (b) To make all police regulations necessary for the preservation of good order and the peace of the district; and to prevent injury to, destruction of, or interference with public or private property.

            (c) To secure the general health of the district; to prevent, remove and abate nuisances; to prohibit the construction of privy vaults and cesspools, and to regulate or suppress those already constructed; to compel and regulate the connection of all property with the sewers and drains; to establish and regulate health and sanitary regulations with the concurrent approval of the Board of Health or to regulate them and to prescribe and enforce regulations for cleanliness and sanitary regulations with regard to construction within the said district; to compel and regulate the removal of garbage and filth within the said limits of the district.

            (d) To grant franchises to telephone, telegraph and electric power companies for the purpose of supplying such service to construction within one mile of the high water line of the said reservoir.

            (e) To grant franchises for the purpose of laying gas, water, sewer, electric light or other utilities supplying the inhabitants or any person or corporation with gas, water, sewage, light, when such construction is located within one mile of the high water line of the said reservoir. For the granting of any such franchise, the board of commissioners of the Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District shall be authorized and permitted to levy and collect from such supplier of electric current, gas, water, butane, or any other utility, a sum not to exceed 5% of the gross realized by the said utility in furnishing such services to any person, corporation, partnership or association of individuals when such construction is located within one mile of and above the high water mark of the said reservoir. This applies only to construction begun after August 1, 1962. Such funds accruing to the commission as aforesaid shall be used for the sole and only purpose of the improvement of the said facility.

            (f) To prohibit the operation of any motor vessel in an area that is inundated from Lake D’Arbonne when it is above flood stage and when the operation of such motor vessel causes or may cause inundations of dwellings, camps, business establishments, or similar structures.

            (g) To appoint, designate, and empower wardens, rangers, patrols, and such other personnel as may be deemed necessary by the commission for the enforcement of such regulations as may be promulgated and adopted by the said commission.

            (12) The board of commissioners of the Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District of this state may raise funds by taxes or otherwise to be expended by and under the direction of the department of public works of the state of Louisiana.

            (13) The said watershed district as defined hereinabove, through its governing authority is authorized to incur debt and issue negotiable bonds for the construction of works of public improvement and for such other public purposes as may be necessary and proper to effect the purpose of this said water conservation district; and to that effect, they are authorized to call any special elections that are necessary to levy taxes, incur debt, and to issue and sell negotiable bonds, all in conformity of the constitution and laws of the state of Louisiana.

            (14) The Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District shall have, with respect to the improvement and maintaining of the said watershed district, the advice of the department of public works, and it shall be the duty of the department to make such surveys, inspections, and investigations, render such report, estimate and recommendations and furnish such plans and specifications as the board of commissioners of the said district may request from time to time.

            (15) Whenever any work is to be let under the provisions of this Part, the work shall be let in accordance with the provisions of La. Rev. Stat. 38:2211 et seq.

            (16) The special taxes imposed for the purpose of providing for the payment of principal and interest on the bonds as aforesaid, shall each year be levied, assessed and collected on the property taxed, under the same terms and conditions and at the same time as state and parish taxes; the said taxes shall bear the same liens upon the property as state, parish, municipal and other special taxes; the property shall be sold for delinquent taxes in the same manner as properties sold for delinquent state, parish, municipal and other taxes.

            (17) The provisions of the constitution and all laws regulating the collection of taxes, the creation of tax liens, mortgages, tax penalties and sales, shall apply to and regulate the collection of special taxes for the purposes enumerated in this Part.

            Where the taxes have been levied by the governing authority of the said Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District, the sheriff and ex-officio tax collector for the parish in which the property is located shall make monthly statements with the parish treasurer and receive from him a receipt for the amount of special taxes paid over, in the same manner as the tax collectors are required to settle with the auditor of the state, and he shall receive from the parish treasurer the same quietus for a full settlement of taxes due and exigible in a given year and account for the delinquence or deductions in the same manner as though accounting to the auditor of the state for the state taxes. The sheriff and ex-officio tax collector shall retain no commission thereon. Upon the failure of the tax collector to comply with the provisions of this section, the governing authorities of the Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District shall proceed against him and the sureties on his official bond, for the collection for whatever amount may be due the said Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District.

            (18) For the purpose of providing funds to carry out the objects and purposes for which the Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District is created, through its board of commissioners, may call special elections for the purpose of submitting to the property taxpayers throughout the Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District as hereinabove defined to vote at such election, a proposition to levy annually a special tax not to exceed 1 mill on the dollar upon all the taxable property within the district, to run for a period of not more than 10 years. The expense of any election so held shall be borne by the police jury of each parish within which the said district is located as above defined.

            (19) In the resolution calling an election, the rate, object and purpose for which the tax is to be levied and the number of years it is to run must be stated. After the resolution is passed by the board of commissioners of the said district, notice of the election shall be given, embracing substantially all things that are required to be set forth in the resolution, and setting forth further, that the authorities ordering the election will, in open session to be held at an hour and place named in the notice, proceed to open the ballot boxes, examine and count the ballots in number and amount, and declare the results of the election. This notice shall be advertised for thirty days in a daily newspaper published in the district, and the insertion of the advertisements once a week for five weeks in such newspapers shall constitute sufficient notice. Thirty days must intervene from the day on which the advertisement is first inserted and the day on which the election takes place.

            (20) Only property taxpayers, qualified as electors under the constitution and laws of the state shall be entitled to vote at such elections; the qualifications of the taxpayers as voters shall be those of age, residents and registered as voters.

            (21) The board of commissioners of the Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District shall designate the polling places, provide the ballot boxes, ballots, evaluations of property and compile statement of the voters in number and amount and fix the compensation of election officers. They shall appoint for each polling place three commissioners and one clerk of election all of whom shall be persons qualified to vote at such election. The police jury of the respective parish within which such portion of the district is situated shall pay all of the expenses of such election.

            (22) The registrar of voters in each parish within which the district is situated shall furnish to the election commissioners appointed to hold the election a list of taxpayers entitled to vote, together with valuation of each taxpayer’s property as shown by the assessment roll and filed prior to the election. When any taxpayer’s name and valuation of property is omitted from such list or erroneously entered thereon, the commissioners of election may receive affidavits of such taxpayer entitled to vote and the assessed valuation of his property, which affidavit shall be attached to his taxpayer’s ballot. No defect or irregularity in or omission from the list of voters furnished by the registrar of voters shall affect the validity of the election, unless it is established that voters deprived of right to vote were sufficient in number and amount to have changed the result of the election.

            (23) The questions submitted to the voters at special elections shall hereunder and the ballot to be used hereat shall be substantially of the following form:

            Shall the Bayou D’Arbonne Lake District of Louisiana impose, levy and collect annually for the term of ______ years, beginning with the year 19 ___, a tax not exceeding one mill on the dollar upon all the taxable property within the district for the purpose of providing funds for carrying out the objects and purposes for which it is created? Taxable valuation $_______________.

_____________________________

Signature of Voter

NOTICE TO VOTERS

            To vote in favor of the proposition submitted upon this ballot place an (X) in the square after the word “yes”; to vote against it, place a similar mark after the word “no”.

            (24) If any commission or clerk of election is unable, fails, or neglects to attend or serve at the polling place designated and at the hour fixed for opening the polls or within one hour thereafter, the commissioners present shall appoint, or in the absence of all commissioners, the voters present shall elect, the necessary number of commissioners and clerks, who shall have the same powers, compensation and duties as other commissioners and clerks and shall serve in the place and stead of the delinquent absentee appointees. Commissioners and clerks of elections, before opening the polls, shall be sworn to perform all duties encumbent upon them as such, the oaths to be taken before any officer authorized to administer oaths or by the clerk, and each commissioner of election before any other commissioner. Commissioners and clerks may administer any affidavit provided for in this Part.

            (25) Each voter’s name shall be written on his ballot. The commissioners of election shall receive the ballot of each voter, check his name on the list of voters furnished by the registrar as having voted, enter number of his name on the list of taxpayers voting, and immediately deposit his ballot in the ballot box, reserving to each voter the right to so fold his ballot that it shall not be known at the time whether he voted for or against the proposition submitted.

            (26) The polls shall be opened on the date appointed at 7 o’clock a.m. and remain open until, and not later than, 7 o’clock p.m. No election shall be vitiated by the failure to open the polls at the time prescribed or by closing them before the time prescribed, unless on a contest it could be established that voters were there by the time to vote sufficient in number and amount to have changed the result of the election.

            (27) Immediately after the closing of the polls the commissioners shall, in the presence of the bystanders, open the ballot box, count the ballots found therein, check the same with the list of voters kept, proceed to count the votes in number and amount, keep in duplicate tally sheets showing the votes in number in favor or against the proposition submitted and showing the valuation of property in favor of and against the same, make in duplicate compiled statements of the vote in number and amount, both in favor of and against the proposition. After swearing to the correctness of the numbered list of voters the duplicate tally sheets and duplicate compiled statements, they shall deposit the ballots, registrar’s list of voters, the numbered list of taxpayers voting, one duplicate tally sheet and one duplicate compiled statement in the ballot box, immediately seal the said ballot box and within 72 hours after the closing of the polls, deliver said sealed ballot box with its contents to the board of commissioners of the Bayou D’Arbonne Lake District, at its domicile, and shall within the said period, deliver the duplicate tally sheet and the duplicate compiled statement to the clerk of the district court of the parish in which the said ballots represented thereby were cast, who shall file the same in his office. If the election commissioners on counting the ballots find they do not correspond with the list of voters, they shall, before examining and counting the ballots, examine the same for the purpose of finding the discrepancy, and if it should be found that any ballots have been duplicated, the same shall be destroyed, or if it be found that the name of a voter has been omitted from the list of persons voted, the same shall be added to the list.

            (28) On the day and at the hour and place named in the notice of election, the board of commissioners of the Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District shall, in public session, open the ballot boxes, examine and count the ballots in number and amount, examine and canvass the returns and declare the results of such election. The results shall be promulgated by the proclamation published in one issue of a daily newspaper published in both parishes in which the said district is located. The board of commissioners shall keep a proces verbal of the manner in which the ballot boxes were opened, the returns canvassed and the result of the election ascertained, and shall forward a copy thereof to the secretary of state, who shall record the same; a copy to the clerk of the district court of each parish within the district who shall record the same in the mortgage records of his parish, retaining the original proces verbal in the archives of the said district and in the clerk’s office of each parish located in the district. The secretary of the board of commissioners of the Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District shall preserve a term of three months from the date of the promulgation of the election, the ballots and other returns thereof.

            (29) During the 30 days next following the publication of the proclamation declaring the results of any election, if the same be in favor of the tax, any taxpayer within the district may contest the legality of the election by appropriate action. Thereafter, no one may contest the regularity, formality or legality of the election or the validity of the tax levied or authorized to be levied, but the same shall be absolutely incontestable for any cause whatever and no court may hear or determine any such question, and the board of commissioners of the district shall not be permitted to question this authority to levy the tax.

            (30) If a majority in number and amount of the qualified taxpayers voting at the election vote in favor of the proposition to levy the tax, the board of commissioners of the district may, by resolution, proceed to levy such tax from year to year, for the term for which the same has been voted. The board shall not be required to levy the full one mill tax, but their failure to levy the tax in any one year shall not permit them to exceed the one mill tax for any subsequent year.

            (31) The copy of the resolution levying the tax, certified by the secretary of the board of commissioners of the said district, shall be transmitted to the tax assessor of each parish within the district on or before June 1 of the year in which the tax is to be assessed and collected, and it shall be the duty of each assessor to assess the tax and extend the same upon the tax rolls of his parish. The tax shall be collected by the sheriff and ex-officio tax collector of each parish in the same manner as taxes levied by the state. The several tax collectors shall make settlements for taxes so collected with the state auditor and state treasurer for the account of the respective Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District, and the funds so derived shall be withdrawn upon the warrant of the secretary of the board of commissioners of the Bayou D’Arbonne Lake Watershed District, countersigned by the president of the said commission. Taxes assessed shall constitute the same liens upon the property assessed; shall bear the same penalties; and collection thereof shall be enforced in the same manner and at the same time as state and parish taxes.

            Acts 1956, No. 9, §8. Amended by Acts 1962, No. 194, §2; Acts 1993, No. 830, §2; Acts 1995, No. 711, §1; Acts 2022, No. 108, §2.