SMPSO offers taxpayers online payment option
December 30, 2013
Tragic Tales: Shelter records reveal sad job
December 30, 2013
An apparent yearlong record-keeping glitch at Houma police headquarters has resulted in some officers drawing more in overtime pay than they should have, Terrebonne parish officials say.
Now the parish is scurrying for solutions, so that the books will properly balance by year’s end without requiring cops to endure a chunk of money coming out of their paychecks, especially during a holiday pay period.
“HPD Administration has recently discovered that only officers working the Louisiana Highway Safety Grant not need have 80 physical hours in a pay period in order to receive overtime pay,” reads a memo from Police Chief Todd Duplantis to all officers. “However, all other federal grants and the District B program officers need to have worked 80 physical hours before they receive overtime pay.
With that being said, it was discovered recently that dating back to August of 2012 some officers received overtime pay for working the District B program and Task Force Grant program without acquiring their 80 physical hours as required: Therefore, it must be reimbursed to the parish. Unfortunately this needs to be rectified prior to the end of the year. Any officers affected by this payroll correction will be notified soon.”
Claiming that the issue is an “internal matter” Duplantis refused to discuss it when contacted, other than to ask how the Tri-Parish Times learned about it.
Other parish officials acknowledged that a problem had indeed occurred and that Parish President Michel Claudet was personally working on a solution.
Claudet likened it to any accidental overpayment; his staff determined the error was at the police department’s administrative level. Although records administrators there were given specific codes for entry into computer programs, there may have been misunderstandings in application leading to the overpayments.
Police officers did not know, according to parish administration officials, that they were not entitled to some of the money they were paid.
Claudet said the problem must be rectified because if it is not, the payments would amount to an unauthorized donation of public money.
“It affects 30 officers,” said Claudet, who confirmed that the total that must be paid back amounts to $5,538.04.
Claudet said that can be accomplished by the parish being reimbursed from compensatory time owed to officers rather than being pulled from paychecks.
Estimates are that the amount of money owed by individual officers varies from $40 or $50 to $500 or more individually.
Police officers haven’t gotten that memo yet, however, and as of Monday were said to have been taking steps to have whatever solution the parish comes up with placed under 32nd Judicial District Court supervision.
A petition for injunction was filed Friday with Judge Timothy Ellender, but as of press time, no action had been taken.
