A move to hire an independent, third-party evaluator of the St. Landry Parish School Board’s tax collection office will be delayed after its candidate for the job declined the work.
Andy Dakin, St. Landry Parish Sales and Use Tax Commission chairman, said Roger Bergeron had been in line for the job, but he was hired last week as executive director of the Louisiana Uniform Local Sales Tax Board.
The state board members said he could not do the evaluation in St. Landry Parish, Dakin said.
“He did make one comment to me about the board when this came up for discussion in that the board, some of the members, some of their board indicated that they were aware of the circumstances here and they were concerned about the political nature of where the situation had gotten to, so they wanted to steer clear of it,” Dakin said.
“What does that mean? Where did they get that information? I have no idea,” Dakin said. “But that is kind of what he told me off the cuff and he said it was just a board member or two that said that,” he said.
“I really don’t understand their total disregard for our circumstance, but maybe it is just they have other things ... on their agenda,” he said of the state board.
The nine-member St. Landry Parish Sales and Use Tax Commission was revived after years of inactivity.
In March, commissioners voted to set in motion hiring an independent third party to study the operations of the School Board’s tax collection office.
The Commission contracts with the School Board to collect parish sales taxes for a 1 percent fee. With sales tax collections totaling about $65 million a year, the School Board receives about 650,000.
Commission member Ken Marks said at one point the School Board doubled its fee to 2 percent, but paid back that additional 1 percent when it discovered.
St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot said when a sales tax was considered for the Smooth Ride Home program, it was discovered the School Board’s collection office was under-staffed and operating without the latest equipment and software.
After Thursday’s Commission meeting, Tressa Miller, school finance director and a Commission member, said the collection office has four employees and is about to hire a fifth worker.
At the March Commission meeting, Patrick Jenkins, school superintendent, said there were two people working in the collection office due to a recent retirement, but by the end of the month there would be five people.
Fontenot said there may be someone with Darnall Sikes, a certified accounting firm, who is capable of doing the operational study of the collection office.
Dakin said, “If this brick wall doesn’t dissipate then we will maybe have to look at Plan B and see what the next best option is.”
Fontenot said it is the Commission’s responsibility to make sure the sales taxes are collected.
The staff issue at the collection office raised concerns, he said.
“We had gotten a little feedback from the office that it was overburdening the office,” he said about adding the sales tax for the Smooth Ride Home program to the collection work.
“That concerned us that maybe they weren’t having enough resources to do the work,” he said.
“We don’t want to be as public officials leading the charge to ask for the community, our citizens, to give us more taxes ... when we can’t ascertain and get a comfort that the tax collection office has ... enough good resources to collect all of the taxes,” he said.
“I think they are getting there,” he said.
The study is necessary to determine if there are problems and solutions, he said.
Commission members are Kevin Brown, Opelousas, appointed by city of Eunice; Mike Carron, Opelousas, appointed by city of Opelousas; Andy Dakin, Sunset, appointed by St. Landry Economic Development; Jerry Domengeaux, Sunset, appointed by St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Commission; Ken Marks, Port Barre, appointed by St. Landry Parish Council; Johnny Ardoin, Port Barre, appointed by St. Landry Parish Municipal Association; Sherri McGovern, Opelousas, appointed by St. Landry Parish sheriff; Tressa Miller, Opelouas, appointed by St. Landry Parish School Board; and Gil Savoy Jr., Port Barre, appointed by St. Landry Parish Municipal Association.
The next Commission meeting is June 28.
