A well-attended April 26 webinar hosted by LaMATS and presented by TL Cox, Executive Vice President at Springsted, outlined many of the features and uses of the company's revamped SurveyNavigator™ online salary and benefits tool. SurveyNavigator™ provides the most complete and current information on municipal salary ranges in Louisiana and is made available to LMA members free of charge through underwriting by LaMATS. Members on the April 26 call learned how to access the site via their individual login credentials and to submit and view data in numerous ways that can ease the process of hiring and reviewing personnel across more than 65 common municipal positions. CLICK IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH

LaMATS Board and staff mourn the loss of Immediate Past President, Arcadia Mayor Eugene Smith, who passed away peacefully this week among family and friends. Mayor Smith was recognized in October, 2017, for his five years of service as LaMATS Board President and received commendation for his outstanding leadership from current Board President, Mayor Carroll Breaux of Springhill and Vice President, Pineville Mayor Clarence Fields. Mayor Smith’s long, productive administration of LaMATS coincided with the development of several significant new benefit programs, including the inception of LaMATS Purchasing Services (LPS) and new partnerships with Millage Management, GrantStation and Springsted’

LaMATS co-sponsored the April 17 event, “Doing Business with State of LA & Local Government Agencies,” a half-day forum held at LMA headquarters in Baton Rouge to inform commercial vendors on ways to better engage with state and local government buyers. More than 75 business owners representing an array of products and services of interest to municipalities learned about available supports for marketing, bid notifications, small entrepreneurship certifications and other programs from the Louisiana Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), Louisiana’s Office of State Procurement (OSP), Dept. of Economic Development (LED) and LaMATS. Executive Director Cliff Palmer detailed the newly bra

Back in July of 2017, it was just a blueprint and a dream. Longtime Mayor John Dawsey spoke wistfully of building a better City Hall for his home community of Angie (pop. 216), a new building with adequate work and meeting space and more than one bathroom! Working with a limited budget and through consultation with Paul Holmes of LaMATS Purchasing Services, Mayor Dawsey learned that appropriate space could be constructed below the price threshold requiring a public bid. Dawsey soon engaged a contractor, and today the new City Hall stands ready to serve the people of Angie. Congratulations to Mayor Dawsey and his constituents on their fantastic new facility! Want to learn more about Louisiana

Congratulations to Ville Platte citizens and city staff on the recent acquisition of new public safety vehicles! The five fully-equipped police SUVs will soon be joined by a fleet of new public service vehicles as well, contributing to a major upgrade in city services that promises to save public funds in fleet management over the life of the vehicles. LaMATS is proud to have played a part in affordably procuring and financing these vehicles through our Purchasing Services office (lamats.net/LPS). Learn more about Ville Platte’s shiny new fleet here.