The St. Landry Parish Council Finance decided it will pay election costs directly associated with it, but other entities in the parish will have to pay their own bills.
Amanda Cain, parish finance director, said, “The question I have is parish government responsible to pay for these other entities such as sheriff and the assessor?”
The answer from the committee was a vote to restrict the parish government’s responsibility to elections it holds and entities governed by the Council such as constables and justices of the peace.
The action must go before the full Council.
Wayne Ardoin, committee chairman, said records from previous elections show parish government absorbed “the whole bill.
Council member Harold Taylor said he consulted an attorney who said the election bills from the state secretary of state should be shared on a pro-rata basis for entities associated with the Parish Council.
“All other bodies have to pay for their own portion of it,” he said.
The Parish Council had received bills from the secretary of state for elections in October and November 2019.
The October bill was for $18,215 and included elections for sheriff, assessor, parish president and Parish Council. The bill includes costs such as the ballot, machine setup and drayage. Dividing the costs up meant $5,237.05 was to be paid each by the sheriff, assessor and Parish Council for the parishwide elections. The Parish Council share was $2,504.44.
The November bill totaled $47,983.30. Divided up it was assessor, $15,709.83; parish president, $15,709.83; parishwide proposition (jail maintenance tax), $15,709.83; and Parish Council, $853.81.
The committee turned down seeking an attorney general’s opinion on the election costs.
“We just tell the ... secretary of state we are paying our share and if you want to get an opinion take it to the supreme court,” Taylor said.
Ardoin said the issue surfaced now because “there was no transparency like we are having now. At least she (Cain) is calling it to our attention. We need to off load some of those expenses we inherited.”
Cain said the issue for was reinforced by upcoming elections for district attorney and judges. “I did not budget election expenses,” she said.
