What we know - and don’t - about Lafayette mayor Josh Guillory’s equipment rental company

WM&N, the equipment rental company launched by Josh and Jamie Guillory last year has raised questions in the weeks since it was first reported, and public statements by the couple have left some unanswered.

Changing the record

Corporate filings show Josh and Jamie Guillory created WM&N Supplies and Machinery, LLC, on Aug. 19, 2021.

They put up a website for the company that same week, advertising it as a way for customers to make buying and renting heavy equipment “easier, more cost-effective, and dependable.”

The company’s initial address was listed as a rural lot just outside Lafayette’s city limits owned by Jamie’s father. It listed a phone number used for Josh Guillory's 2018 congressional campaign and the P.O. Box he has used since taking office in 2020.

Both Guillorys were listed on the company’s initial filings that August, but Josh Guillory was removed from its list of agents and officers on Sep. 21, 2021, leaving Jamie as the company’s only member.

Jamie Guillory was taken off the filings on Dec. 2, 2021, and replaced solely by Josh Guillory's cousin Jacque E. Pitre, leaving no trace of the Guillorys on the company’s active public records.

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That remained the case until WM&N was first reported two weeks ago by The Current. On Aug. 15, after the company’s existence was published, Pitre was entirely removed from corporate filings and replaced by Jamie Guillory and a new address for the company’s actual location in an office building off Kaliste Saloom Road.

Josh Guillory did not answer when asked why he, and later his wife, were removed from the company's filings at his Aug. 15 media briefing upon returning from rehab.

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Seeking inspiration

After Josh Guillory returned from his three-week rehab program, the couple sat for a lengthy interview with KLFY where he pointed to Jamie as the company's founder and manager, saying his involvement was limited.

Josh Guillory's office denied an interview request by the Daily Advertiser on Friday.

Jamie said the inspiration to start the equipment rental company came roughly a year-and-a-half ago, “probably right after the hurricane.”

“We had gone down and people were having trouble getting supplies. They were having trouble getting everything they needed, so that’s kind of where the idea started,” she told KLFY.

“We were like, ‘Ok, there’s a need for this. There’s a need for us to be able to provide these services, so how do we get into this?’”

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On his weekly call-in radio show on KPEL this past Thursday, Josh said they began having conversations about starting the company around the end of 2020, adding that Jamie worked to get the firm rolling for six to eight months before formally creating it.

What does WM&N do?

WM&N is billed as a heavy equipment rental company, and Jamie has described its operations as similar to a fulfillment center, where other companies turn to coordinate their equipment needs.

The business operates an office with one employee who told The Current that its operations were still in the research and development phase.

The company has not done a lot of business yet, according to the Guillorys, who said it has barely generated enough revenue to cover its salary costs, though it’s unclear what those costs are.

“We have a lot of ideas. I don’t even know where this company is going to go. Maybe it goes somewhere, maybe it doesn’t,” Jamie Guillory told KLFY. “I can tell you right now, the money we have made off of this is not enough really to even pay our salary. We’re pretty much breaking even.”

Can WM&N work for LCG?

WM&N has two partners in addition to the Guillorys, the couple told KLFY, but Josh Guillory clarified Thursday that Jamie Guillory remains the company’s majority owner.

Any company that Josh Guillory controls or that the Guillorys own at least 25% of is barred by state law from working with Lafayette Consolidated Government while he is serving as mayor-president.

State law also prohibits WM&N from doing work with any of LCG’s various vendors, and Josh Guillory has repeatedly said WM&N’s contracts expressly prohibit work with vendors for LCG or any other of the parish’s municipalities, which isn’t expressly required by the law.

He has offered to release the company's contracts in interviews with KLFY and KPEL, but LCG spokesperson Jamie Angelle did not respond to a message Tuesday about releasing the contracts.

State law goes further on LCG-related prohibitions by forbidding WM&N from doing work with any company that “has or is seeking to obtain contractual or other business or financial relationships with (Josh’s) agency.”

Whether that prohibition applies to sub-contractors doing work with LCG vendors comes down to a case-by-case determination, according to the state’s Ethics Administration.

The Guillorys have not said how many companies WM&N has worked with or who those companies are. But Josh Guillory said Thursday they refused a request from Rigid Constructors, the contractor at the center of LCG’s embattled drainage projects. 

“They did reach out to rent equipment, and the nanosecond I found out, I sent an email saying ‘We're not doing that,’” he told KPEL. “We can pull that email too, but again, it's in our contract. We don't rent to vendors of Lafayette Consolidated Government.”

Follow Andrew Capps on Twitter or send an email to acapps@theadvertiser.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: What we know about Lafayette mayor Guillory’s equipment rental company