With little fanfare, but before a large audience, the Acadia Parish Police Jury introduced its proposed 2020 budget and called for a public hearing on the document Tuesday (Nov. 12) night.
That public hearing will be held at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 10.
With most of the “new” jurors in attendance, along with officials from the parish coroner’s office and justices of the peace / constables, the stage appeared set for confrontation.
It’s those specific parish officials that say they feel “targeted” by proposed cuts to the budget because, if the budget is adopted in its current form, the parish will no longer pay its “share” of insurance premiums for them.
The parish’s share of monthly premiums for those employees range from $1,554 for employee/spouse coverage to $2,100 for family coverage.
The employee share is $388 for employee/spouse and $525 for family.
Those employees would still be eligible to enroll in the group insurance plan, but would be responsible for the entire premium, should the proposed budget be adopted.
For fiscal 2019, five of the parish’s eight police jurors, four of Acadia’s 10 justices of the peace / constables and three members of the coroner’s staff were enrolled, costing the parish $20,825 a month, or $249,903 for the year, according to figures released at last week’s Finance Committee meeting.
An alternate plan was offered during budget hearing whereby only the employee would be covered. That plan was rejected.
Under the employee-only plan, the parish would pay $748 monthly and the employee would pay $94 monthly and the parish would save $142,155 annually (given the same number of employees enrolled).
The budget cuts were deemed necessary because the parish was facing a nearly $440,000 deficit in the general fund, the day-to-day operating fund for the parish, according to Melinda Leger, budgeting assistant.
Of the eight jurors who will ultimately decide on the budget in December, seven will not be on the panel in January. Three did not seek re-election and four were defeated in October.
Only Jimmie Pellerin was returned to office.
By law, the police jury must adopt a balanced budget before Dec. 31 or the parish will be forced to operate on one-half of its 2019 budget until such time as a balanced budget is adopted.
In other, routine action Tuesday night, the police jury, acting on the request of the Fire Protection District 8 Board of Directors, removed two members from the board and replaced them.
In a letter to the jury, President Gerald Sonnier, Vice President Melvin Lege and Secretary/Treasurer Stephanie Romero, reported that Brandon J. Romero and Justin P. Lopez had missed five consecutive board meetings. The board’s bylaws allow for only three missed meetings.
Replacing the two board members are Jody Viator and David W. Stelly.
In related action, jurors reappointed Ronald Carrier and David Sonnier to the Fire Protection District No. 10 board.
