Police Jury adopts $31.5M budget

It took a little bit of last-minute maneuvering of funds, but the Acadia Parish Police Jury adopted a balanced budget for fiscal 2016 during its final regular meeting of 2015 Tuesday night.
Peggy Romero, budget director, recommended — the jurors agreed — reducing the Economic Development Fund by $25,000 to pay for a new copy machine, servers and computers for the clerk of court’s office.
A $50,000 request by the clerk for a new scan program was tabled this year.
On Romero’s recommendation, the jury also transferred another $35,000 for the prior year fund balance to cover additional expenses, including $11,740 in deferred comp (retirement) payments for parish employees and $5,000 raises for four assistant district attorneys and the district attorney.
In addressing the jury at the onset of the budget hearing, District Attorney Keith Stutes said that his office will do without an additional secretary and an investigator that he had originally requested for the coming year.
Overall, the jury adopted a $31.5 million dollar budget of expenditures for the coming year. Expected revenues are budgeted at $32.2 million.
In the parish general fund — the day-to-day operations fund — revenue is estimated at $8,254,476 while expenditures are budgeted at $8,252,476, leaving only $2,000 for contingencies for the coming year.
In other budget-related business, the jury approved end-of-year budget adjustments mandated by state law to bring estimated figures to within 5 percent of actual.
In other action during the December meeting, jurors heard from Assessor James “Jimbo” Petitjean concerning assessment and litigation with the Bayou Cove Peaking Power plant (see related story on page 1).
An animal control issue in the town of Church Point drew considerable discussion after it was learned that parish Animal Control Officer Tim Benoit had responded to a call from a citizen in Church Point who reported that two German shepherds had injured a number of children attending a birthday party in the town park.
Benoit responded, confiscated and quarantined the dogs and wrote the dog owner $480 in fines.
The problem, however, is that the parish has no cooperative endeavor agreement with the town of Church Point allowing Benoit to act in that capacity within the corporate limits, according to Brad Andrus, who serves as legal counsel for both the jury and the town and is magistrate for Church Point.
“Church Point has nothing that allows the parish to do this,” Andrus said.
Roger Boudreaux, who had relatives attending the party, and Blaire Meche, who owned the dogs, explained that the two dogs were not acting in a vicious manner, but were, instead, “simply playing” with the children at the park.
“No one was bitten. No skin was broken. No one went to the hospital. No charges were filed,” said Boudreaux, former mayor of Church Point.
The jury voted to void all action taken by Benoit and ordered the return of the dogs immediately to the owner.
Further, the jury and the town will look into developing an intergovernmental agreement to handle animal control since the town had no animal control officer.