Laf. council seeks return to South Central Planning

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Reigniting a familiar debate, the Lafourche Council has requested Parish President Charlotte Randolph to rehire a regional planning agency to oversee building inspections in the parish. The council passed a similar non-binding resolution each of the past two years.

The council also requested the administration to make a presentation within two months concerning the pros and cons of in-house inspections and permitting versus contracting code-enforcement services to South Central Planning and Development, with whom the parish formerly used. South Central Planning is a quasi-governmental agency that oversees code enforcement for five parishes and five municipalities.

“To me, it (code enforcement) is probably the pitfall of the parish, according to all the complaints that I get,” Councilman Jerry LaFont said.

Critics of the current system claim that Lafourche commerce is stymied as people remain frustrated with the process of obtaining occupancy certificates and related building permits. Randolph, who has opposed reconciling with South Central Planning in the past, urged councilmen to relay their concerns to her administration as they arise.

The parish split from South Central Planning in 2010 amid charges that parish workers were circumventing SCP’s chief building official, who reported to the state and regional code councils the parish issued more than 100 permits without his approval.

After the divorce, the parish hired Frank Morris to lead its newly created permits department. Morris became a lightning rod for residents’ and councilmen’s permitting issues – which Morris and Randolph attributed to more stringent code laws passed post-Katrina – and councilmen twice sponsored resolutions to fire him.


Morris resigned after 11 months as the department’s head, declining to disclose his reasoning. Looming was his council-reappointment vote, and five votes had been logged against him during the second attempted mid-term firing.

Now Lafourche has eight employees who work in permitting and planning, which is under the direction of Chief Building Official Adrienne Labat. Three permit technicians work for the parish, as do one plan reviewer and two inspectors. An additional inspector and permit technician are expected to be hired this year, Labat said.

The department, budgeted under the parish’s general fund, anticipates collecting $706,000 from building, energy, bingo and fireworks permits, according to statements provided by the parish finance department. Total expenses are budgeted at $907,000. Those figures, nearly inversed, were $945,000 and $745,000, respectively, in 2013.

The parish budgeted $1.8 million for fees collected from occupational licenses in both years.

Seeding the department when it was created in 2011 were two grants totaling $760,000 – for equipment, vehicles and personnel. Labat said the parish received no planning and permitting grants for 2014.

Parish government dues to South Central Planning for code enforcement were $120,000 in 2010.


Councilman John Arnold, who voted against several successful drawbacks on permitting fees in 2012, said it is too costly for residents and contractors to obtain building licenses in Lafourche. He labeled the price scale as “ridiculous.”

The Dist. 5 representative also blasted the department’s personnel, saying there is “a lack of knowledge in the permit department.” Arnold went on to say “several contractors” told him they stopped doing business in the parish because of these issues.

In 2012, the council against Randolph’s wishes cut permit fees imposed on residential construction, residential accessory structures, commercial structures, farm structures, residential generators, mobile homes and code violators. Arnold voted against all decreases excluding farm structures and residential generators.

Randolph also opposed the council’s 2011 slashing of fees for plumbing and electrical permits – they were cut by 60 percent – and inspections.

When Lafourche created its department, it adopted most of SCP’s fees. The sweeping amendments made most permits cheaper to obtain from Lafourche Parish than South Central Planning, said Randolph, adding that she would back up the claims in her presentation to the council.

 


COUNCIL AUDITOR, CLERKS

GET PAY RAISES

The Lafourche Council authorized pay raises for the internal auditor, the council clerk and the auditor’s clerk, set to take effect immediately.

Internal Auditor Tommy Lasseigne’s salary was set at $66,523; Council Clerk Carleen Babin will make $64,662; and Internal Auditor Clerk Freddia Ruffin-Roberson will make $34,240, across-the-board increases of 7 percent.

Lasseigne was hired in 2012. Some councilmen have likened him to an administrative watchdog, and Parish President Charlotte Randolph has opposed the position from the outset.

Randolph included Lasseigne’s position in the parish’s 2013 budget, but it and the auditor clerk slot were absent from her 2014 proposal. Randolph said the ordinances that created the positions did not establish them as recurring and that last year’s inclusion was an oversight. The council reinserted both during the budget process.


The pay-raise ordinance also set forth provisions for annual cost-of-living and merit increases in future budgets. Determining “any merit or annual increase” will be the council’s chairman or a majority vote of the legislative body.

During the budget process last fall, the council opted against pay raises for Lasseigne and Ruffin-Roberson, in line with an anti-pay-hike mindset they adopted for all parish employees.

However, the body did vote to grant parish employees pay raises after Randolph contended the way Councilman Jerry LaFont wrote his budget amendment to strip the hikes left the parish open to a future lawsuit because it did not encompass all departments. He went on to pull the amendment without a vote, which was after raises for Lasseigne and Ruffin-Roberson were discussed and denied.

Councilmen said afterward they would readdress legislative branch salaries at the year’s first meeting.

The raises passed 7-0 without discussion, with Councilmen Michael Delatte and Phillip Gouaux absent.

 


PARISH ALLOCATES $519K TO RECREATION DISTRICTS

Nearly 40 percent of recreation funding the Lafourche Council distributed for 2014 was dedicated to the recreation district in Golden Meadow, the parish’s only recreational body south of Lockport.

Recreation District No. 3 received $200,690 of the $518,930 distributed, as outlined in cooperative endeavor agreements proposed by the administration and approved by the council.

The parish is budgeted to collect $1.2 million in recreation revenue as derived from a parishwide 1.54-mill ad valorem tax, though that projection was decided upon after contention.

Parish President Charlotte Randolph initially budgeted $914,208 for parishwide recreation collections in 2014, but the council amended that estimation and overrode Randolph’s subsequent veto. The revenue stream collected about $1.4 million in 2013, according to figures provided by Tax Assessor Michael Martin, who has said per-mill collections traditionally rise each year.

Of the remaining $730,000 in budgeted collections, $470,000 has been dedicated to capital projects, also done by the council during the budget process and affirmed through veto reversals.

About two-thirds of those capital funds were earmarked for nonprofit entities. Parish leaders are investigating whether such transfers would be legal and to what standard they should hold the recipients if the grants are permissible.

The distribution was based on a formula devised decades ago that takes into account the number of registered voters in a district, Randolph said. Amendments to the calculus have been made over time, and the parish has made it a priority to overhaul how it distributes parishwide recreation funding this year, the parish president said.


The approved recreational allotments can be used for acquiring, constructing, maintaining or operating recreational facilities and activities. The following appropriations were approved by a 7-0 vote without discussion:

District 1 (Lockport) – $86,700

District 2 (Raceland) – $65,790

District 3 (Golden Meadow) – $200,690

District 4 (Thibodaux – Heroes Park) –  $47,430

District 5 (Chackbay-Choctaw-Kraemer) – $39,780


District 8 (Gheens) – $30,600

District 11 (Bayou Blue) – $47,940