5-Star committee to review Lafourche’s jail needs

A new committee – not a commission, as was first suggested – will be formed to identity funding sources for improvements to the Lafourche Parish Detention Center.

The Lafourche Parish Council unanimously approved the formation of the Five-Star Committee recently, despite opposition from former Lafourche Parish Councilman Mark Atzenhoffer.

“Developing a committee like this will allow us to gain data on where we can consolidate some of our boards in the parish and rededicate some of the millages and reduce the parish’s millage obligations,” said Councilman L. Philip Gouaux, who authored the ordinance. “The findings will help us support the building of a jail and make Lafourche Parish a more efficient and business-oriented parish.”

Atzenhoffer said he opposes the committee because citizens “should not have to wait a year for results.”

“Sheriff [Craig Webre] is looking for 20 mills for jail improvements. The council has the information in hand,” Atzenhoffer said. “Instead of waiting for the committee to review the information, we need to start reducing the millages and consolidating the boards now.”

Councilman Daniel Lorraine attempted to take the lead in cutting millages by proposing that Lafourche Parish citizens vote to cut the special ad valorem tax from 5 mills to 2.5 mills in the July 19 election.

But the proposal failed 8-1.

The council majority said the special ad valorem tax is needed to aid such entities as the parish’s Council on Aging, the animal shelter and the detention center.

Gouaux said the ordinance forming a committee is not intended to make citizens wait a year for results. He said action should be taken as information is presented to the council.

“The committee will be comprised for a one-year period to review the current data and the new information gathered on board consolidations and millage rededications,” Gouaux said. “As the committee progresses, it can present information to the board so that we can take action on it immediately.”

The current data collected by a similar committee called the Blue Ribbon Committee in 2001 recommended that the parish government be reorganized because the way it is structured makes it difficult to manage.

Nicholls State University Economic Professor Dr. Morris Coats and his public economic class added to the information in the fall of 2004 by tackling the parish’s tax structure.

“In the Lafourche study, the students worked in groups of two and three and the entire project was broken up into smaller parts for the students to work on. I edited the students’ work and compiled their work into a single report, with continuous numberings and consistent language,” Coats explained.

The students examined the property and sales taxes for the parish based on its sufficiency, growth, fairness, stability, competitive rate, visibility, efficiency and inflation, he said.

Both the sales and property taxes were sufficient. Yet, students said that the new and never-funded mandates from the state and federal government could raise a problem for the parish in the future.

Lafourche Parish entities that have a vested interest in the parish jail are in the process of nominating a member for the Five-Star Committee, which will be made up of 15 members.