Lafourche jail mired in political standoff

Lafourche Parish New Jail Committee Chairman Lindel Toups continues to rail against Parish President Charlotte Randolph for what he describes as a nonchalant attitude toward making progress on a new detention center.

She contends progress can’t be made until funding is dedicated, an arduous situation that threatens to scrape the parish’s elderly and libraries or result in new taxes.

Toups has championed the parish council’s push to hire MWL Architects to design a $22 million, 600-bed facility. He said the parish “can’t beat” that price, which he said would be guaranteed with a $10,000 down payment.

Randolph contends that a funding source must be cemented before the parish can make a down payment that would establish a multi-million dollar obligation, lest elected officials risk being removed from office.

“Architects, engineers, professional services generally run about 10 of 15 percent of that (full contract) cost, so if we’re talking about a $20 million jail, we’re talking about $2 (million) to 2-and-a-half million,” Randolph said. “That’s not money we have.”

Toups sponsored a resolution earlier this year requesting the administration to hire the firm and sponsored a law with the same purpose last month. The ordinance was not voted on after the district attorney opined it would have no merit, and Randolph said adhering to the resolution would violate the parish’s Home Rule Charter.

The Charter dictates that funds cannot be spent on a project not stipulated in an approved budget or in absence of “unencumbered” funds that could be used to meet the obligation. District Attorney Cam Morvant II illuminated this in an opinion issued last week.

Violation of this prohibition is grounds to remove an official from office.

The new jail project is not in the parish’s 2012 budget. Because the parish has not earmarked money for the cost over the life of the contract, a commitment would violate the parish’s constitution, Randolph said.

“I don’t believe that. I’d like to get an attorney general’s opinion on that,” Toups said. “I’m going to put (the issue) on the agenda every time. I think it’s a shame when a council votes 9-0 to do something and the parish president says she’s not going to sign the contract.”

The Tri-Parish Times obtained a copy of the contract last week.

Dated Aug. 7 and unsigned by both parties, the 24-page document specifies a “preliminary budget” for the project between $20 and $22 million and says payment is “contingent upon” Lafourche Parish Government “receiving the funds after the project is bid.”

It says MWL Architects would bid out the project and draw up plans for the 600-bed facility in exchange for a $10,000 down payment.

A new facility would likely be financed through a bond issue. Before the parish can seek the government loan, however, they must establish the means to pay down the debt.

Although there is a debt-financing proposal on the table, it is far from finalized. The outline, which will draw opposition, still needs the council’s and voting public’s approval.

Internal auditor Tommy Lasseigne presented a funding proposal this summer that would depend on voters rededicating parishwide property tax calls from the parish’s libraries and Council on Aging to a jail commitment. It would not increase taxes.

Randolph, who opposes Lasseigne’s proposal and referred to it as a “raid” of elderly funding, said her staff is “looking at various ways” to pay a jail’s debt service.

Randolph said she does not know when such a proposal would be presented and did not rule out that it may include tax increases.

A third option, in its infancy at this point, is consolidating the parish’s various public boards and service districts, which would in turn create more parishwide millages that could be redirected. Councilman Phillip Gouaux has been a proponent of this plan.

Hardly anyone disagrees that Lafourche is in desperate need of a new facility.

The Lafourche Parish Detention Center was built in 1968, expanded in 1977 and has been battling space issues since 1995. It is plagued with infrastructure issues, and the cramped quarters pose a threat to guards, sheriff’s office officials have said.

Sheriff Craig Webre has said the jail’s population is an “artificially low number” and that nonviolent offenders are receiving reduced sentences due to the crowding woes.

Several parish leaders have expressed fear that a federal judge may mandate its closure if these problems aren’t remedied soon.

The process to research constructing a new facility began in 2005 and received a jolt 18 months ago through the formation of the New Jail Committee.

Lasseigne’s proposal

Nearly three months have passed since Lasseigne unveiled his proposal before the committee. It has not been made official, although Toups continues to press the administration into making decisions based on the auditor’s figures.

Before it can become a legitimate piece of the puzzle and lead to progress, per the Home Rule Charter’s guidelines, it must receive approval from the council and voting public.

Toups pledged to introduce the proposal for council vote soon. He may start as early as the next council meeting on Oct. 23, he said.

The proposal’s more-contentious elements are rededicating 0.97 of the library board’s 6.37 parishwide mills and 0.6 of the Council on Aging’s 2.0 parishwide mills to a new jail’s debt service.

Both entities collect millages parishwide, seemingly the only property-tax revenue streams that can be rededicated equitably. District-specific millages would be allocated unfairly if redirected.

The library board, which completed its construction projects last year, has about $5.5 million in reserve money, the library board’s director Susanna LeBoeuf said. Lasseigne said that money would help offset operating reduction stemming from a rededication.

LeBoeuf said the rededication would not cause layoffs or a decline in services. The board is spending all of its revenue each year, LeBouef said, but she did not wish to comment further because the proposal hasn’t yet been finalized via council approval.

The Council on Aging’s fund balance has grown by about $1.9 million over the last three fiscal years, according to Lasseigne. Without the 0.6 mills, the COA would have received roughly $740,000 in “excess funds” over the same time, he said when presenting the plan.

Charlene Rodriguez, the Council on Aging’s executive director, said she feels like her agency is an easy target because it collects a parishwide millage and because “tightwad” spending practices give the impression of excess.

Rodriguez, who said she would speak out against the proposal when the council votes on it, is safeguarding the revenue stream because she plans to expand COA’s services, she said.

COA intends to double its respite care, which provides breaks for full-time caregivers of the elderly, from four hours every other week to four hours per week. The council takes care of 25 homes with this service.

Rodriguez also said she wants to increase material aid and personal care services.

“I think we’re going to have to fight for (the millages),” she said. “If we’re going to increase services, we need the money that we have. We will be spending it, because I’m taking one program at a time and increasing services to it. … I don’t spend our money foolishly.”

Complicating matters further is the ongoing process of deciding what parish millages need to be rolled forward. Thirteen such millages, including three for libraries and one for the COA, were postponed at the last council meeting.

Councilmen are expected to vote on the rates within the next seven days.

The council has the sole authority to decide whether each millage rate should be rolled forward or backward. Rolling a millage forward doesn’t increase the tax rate from its original approval, but it increases the amount of anticipated revenue concurrent with rising property values.

Governing authorities make these decisions after the tax assessor estimates appraisals. Rolling a millage backward adjusts the rate to one that would allow its revenue collector to collect its previous revenue level.

If the millage rates are not rolled forward, rededicating the library and council on aging streams could exacerbate issues that would face the current revenue collectors. But if the parish rolls these rates forward and the voters don’t approve the rededication, they will collect more revenue than they are now.

“At one time, we thought about rolling backwards, but if we’re going to get our millage taken away, well then we better roll forward,” Rodriguez said.

The Lafourche Parish Detention Center is antiquated and overcrowded. Parish leaders will discuss a funding proposal for a new facility at the next council meeting, Councilman Lindel Toups said.

FILE PHOTO