Proposal to manage LUS two weeks away

Claire Taylor | The Daily Advertiser

Show Caption Hide Caption Jim Bernhard's LUS management pitch Jim Bernhard Jr. of Bernhard Capital Partners made his pitch to manage Lafayette Utilities System to the Lafayette Rotary Club Aug. 23, 218.

A co-founder of Bernard Capital Partners/NextGen said his people can operate Lafayette Utilities System more efficiently because of worldwide experience.

"If it costs less to run, that's where the profit comes from," Jim Bernhard Jr. said Thursday.

The top man at Bernhard Capital Partners, an equity investment company he started with Jeff Jenkins in 2013, Bernhard told the Lafayette Rotary Club about the company's proposal to create a new subsidiary, NextGen, which would manage LUS and dozens of utility systems across the Southeast.

The company, Bernhard said, should complete its review of LUS and present a proposal within two weeks to Mayor-President Joel Robideaux. It's unclear if the Lafayette Public Utilities Authority, which governs LUS, or the City-Parish Council will get the proposal next.

RELATED: Company expands proposal to manage LUS water, sewer and electricity

Also uncertain is whether the proposal can be brought before voters, because the Home Rule Charter doesn't specifically allow for a vote on management of the utility system, Councilman Bruce Conque said.

Robideaux and Bernhard have said they support a public vote.

Bernhard said the company can improve safety, cut transmission costs

BCP has 18,000 employees in various companies that have worked in different environments around the world, including the construction of plants in China and India, Bernhard said. That gives company representatives the ability to see things that need to be corrected at LUS or that can be done better.

Customer service at LUS "has been great," Bernhard said. But other aspects of LUS, such as employee safety, need improvement, he said.

"There's never been a great company with a bad safety record," Bernhard said. "Companies that are safer run more efficiently."

Last year, his companies clocked 8 million man hours without a single recorded incident. LUS, Bernhard said, averaged 35 vehicle accidents per year over the last 10 years, well over its benchmark of six, and 23 employees were hurt on the job compared with a benchmark of five.

"Unacceptable," he said. "We're going to fix that."

BCP/Next Gen can do some things and has access to ways in which it can lower costs through transmission, Bernhard said.

LUS must invest in cybersecurity, he said. It must invest in making the grid more resilient and it must prepare the transmission and distribution center for smart grid technology.

Terry Huval, who retired abruptly in July as LUS director, attended the meeting as a Rotary Club member, but declined to comment for this story.

Jim Bernhard Jr. discusses LUS ILOT Jim Bernhard Jr. discusses Lafayette Utilities System "in lieu of taxes" versus taxes and franchise fees under a private management plan.

NextGen headquarters will employ 1,000 workers

The company, Bernhard said, will invest at least $15 billion buying and managing municipal utility companies across the Southeast.

"Our hope is that we invest in Lafayette Utilities, and our greater hope is that the headquarters for this $15 billion investment is in Lafayette," he said.

RELATED: What would Lafayette get in the deal?

One other city outside Louisiana is under consideration for the headquarters, Bernhard said.

"My favorite is Lafayette," he added.

Bernhard's parents and siblings live in Lafayette. He grew up in Lafayette, attending Cathedral Carmel and Edgar Martin Middle School. Bernhard graduated from LSU and resides in Baton Rouge.

The company, he said, could become a Fortune 500 company, just like the company he previously owned and founded, The Shaw Group. The headquarters would employ about 1,000 people.