It’s budget time for the Acadia Parish Police Jury and, once again, money’s tight.
“We’re having to rob Peter to pay Paul,” said Robert Guidry, vice president, during Tuesday night’s committee meetings. “It’s looking kinda grim in some areas.”
One such area is the security guards at the front entrance of the courthouse.
The Finance Committee is considering cutting funding to that area in order to pay for a second medic for the Acadia Parish Jail.
Currently, sheriff’s deputies man the metal detector at the front doors. Their salaries are paid through the parish general fund per an agreement made with former Sheriff Wayne Melancon and continued when K.P. Gibson was sworn in.
The question is: Can the police jury do away with the security detail?
“Is it mandated by the state?” asked President David Savoy.
Jury counsel Glen Howie was tasked with finding the answer to that question, hopefully in time for a decision to be made at the Nov. 13 meeting of the full jury.
Secretary-treasurer A.J. “Fatty” Broussard added that he had contacted a number of surrounding parishes to ask how they funded courthouse security and learned that only in Vermilion and Acadia — both in the 15th Judical District — do the police juries foot the bill.
According to Broussard, the sheriff’s office covers the cost in Jeff Davis, Allen and Calcasieu parishes and a joint agreement among the police jury, the sheriff’s office and offices within the courthouse share the cost in Evangeline Parish.
When the security station was established in Acadia, the police jury asked government offices within the courthouse to share in the expense but were denied.
Gibson was at the committee meeting to explain the need for a second medic at the jail.
“We average 170 to 180 inmates daily and we have one medic,” Gibson said. “He’s on call 24/7. Every once in a while one of the deputies who’s an EMT will fill in for him.”
The sheriff said the position has experienced a lot of turnover lately — “this is our third medic in the last five years or so,” — and he’s afraid of what would happen if the current medic should leave.
“If we can’t find a medic, whenever there’s a medical need at the jail we’re going to have to ship the inmate to the hospital,” he said. “That’s not a threat, it’s a reality. We can’t afford the liability and neither can you.
“This is really more of a ‘need’ than a request.”
Savoy agreed.
“His liability is our liability,” he said.
Gibson estimated that the cost of a second medic, with benefits, would be between $58,000 and $60,000 annually.
In a somewhat related matter, the Finance Committee voted not to participate in a joint effort to place river gauges from Church Point to the Mermentau River in Bayou Plaquemine Brule.
The City of Crowley approached the jury to share in the cost, along with the Town of Church Point and area drainage boards.
The cost to the parish would be $12,000 for the first year (which would include the cost of installation) and $10,000 annually for maintenance — one-third of the total costs.
