Jefferson Parish Council meeting turns into heated battle over contract negotiations

GRETNA, La. ( WGNO ) — There was a lot of back and forth between multiple parties at Wednesday’s Jefferson Parish Council meeting that left some believing lines were crossed.

“Corrupt politician right next to my name. That is unfair and it is wrong, and you cast that doubt on all the people that have worked on this contract,” said Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng.

Tensions ran high during the council meeting due to a dispute over advertising on parish buses.

The ads have been in limbo since July when the parish awarded the contract to Fuel Media. However, the company and parish attorney could not reach an agreement on the money involved, causing the council to look for new bidders.

Yet, Councilwoman Jennifer Van Vrancken disagrees with that decision, stating Fuel Media hasn’t received a fair shot. So, she sent a letter to Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill with her concerns.

“I think it’s an unfair rush job as we are seeing with documents coming out. So far, I still see documents that eliminate the competition and that is not legal,” said Van Vrancken.

The letter is causing frustration because it specifically names Lee Sheng and paints the council in a bad light.

“We don’t care who gets the contract. I don’t have a vote in this matter, I don’t care who you pick. My only concern is that we move the parish forward,” said Lee Sheng.

“We went with one vendor. We voted for them, and they couldn’t reach terms. So, we go to the next one. If we renege on these RFPs, and we don’t expect these bids, and every time we don’t like who gets the contract and we put it back out, we are violating our own rules,” said Jefferson Parish Councilwoman District 4 Arita Bohannan.

Now, one of the previous bidders, Vector Media, claims it has the right to take over the contract.

“The RFP says you shall, not might, not please. It says shall. You shall negotiate with the next firm. The parish attorney says negotiations are at an impasse,” said a Vector Media representative.

Bottom line, the deal with Fuel Media has been terminated and Van Vrancken isn’t backing down.

“If we don’t get our act together, we are going to continue to run off good companies that have jobs and good service,” said Van Vrancken.

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