Some thoughts about items in the news last week:

• District Attorney Phil Haney can say, “I told you so,” about accusations he had broken the law related to culverts installed on his private property, and that fees his office is charging local governmental bodies for legal services were somehow improper.

Someone or some group sent anonymous e-mails and hosts a Web site alleging Haney has acted improperly.

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A report in Tuesday’s Daily Iberian told how the Legislative Auditor has cleared Haney or his office of any wrongdoings related to the culverts or the supplemental fees.

Haney pointed out the subject of the fees was discussed in many open sessions at the time they were implemented, so clearly there was no effort to try to hide anything from anyone. And Haney noted this week, the issue of the culvert had previously been reviewed and OK’d.

The state Inspector General is reviewing other allegations about the DA or his office, but it appears at least these two issues can be checked off as non-issues.

• The city of New Iberia told the Iberia Parish Council it’d better not approve a tax increment finance district, or TIF, involving city property, and had City Attorney Ted Haik send a six-page letter of “formal demand.”

But the Parish Council went ahead and approved its TIFs, including some property within the city. Parish Council members noted the city is within the parish and city residents are represented in parish districts.

The city is threatening legal action against the parish, one possible expense of taxpayer money that wouldn’t be necessary if we had a single governmental body overseeing both — at least it’d be uncommon for a governmental agency to sue itself.

• It was great to read about National Oilwell Varco breaking ground on a $15 million facility in Iberia Parish on U.S. 90 near Estis Road.

The new 175,000-square foot facility will see the consolidation of five National Oilwell Varco locations in the area, two from Broussard and three in Iberia Parish. The company will still use facilities on Jane Street and Sugar Mill Road.

It’s great to see this major investment in our community, and the confidence this company has in its future operations.

• There was definitely good news to report in the 2009 State Performance Scores, measuring school systems in a number of categories.

Iberia, St. Martin and St. Mary parish schools all saw improvement in their district and performance scores, indicating improvement in standardized test performance, attendance, dropout and graduation rates.

Congratulations to our area public schools for this positive report.

WILL CHAPMAN

PUBLISHER