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The Lafourche Parish Council moved toward asking the voters to decide Nov. 16 whether to reroute a portion of the public library system’s revenue stream and a chunk of its fund balance toward efforts to construct a new jail.
Council Chairman Lindel Toups proposed the ordinance at a regular meeting last week. A public hearing is scheduled for Aug. 27 at the Mathews Government Complex. With council approval, the proposition would be posed to voters.
As drafted, the proposition has three prongs, but one question.
The first element is that 3.8 mills solely dedicated to constructing, improving, maintaining or operating the library branches would be extended through 2034. The tax is currently set to expire in 2016.
The second prong would rededicate 1.0 of the 3.8 mills to “the acquisition, construction, operation and maintenance” of a new detention center, leaving the other 2.8 mills to the library system.
The third and most-ambitious component would shift $6 million in cash from the library’s coffers into an account for a new jail.
In addition to the 3.8 mills under consideration, the library system collects 2.53 mills, meaning the library’s total would be decreased from 6.33 to 5.33 if the proposition were to pass. Of that total, 1.54 mills are attached to a tax call expiring in 2016 and a separate 0.96-mill call is scheduled to expire in 2018.
Each mill levied is estimated to raise roughly $908,000 per year, according to the proposition.
Laura Sanders, director of the Lafourche Parish Library System, said the $7.5 million currently in reserves was built up as the system prudently spent money on constructing new branches without bonding its revenue streams. To accomplish this, she said, the system had to cut back on the services it offered.
Now that all the new branches are built, the library plans to slowly draw from the reserve fund to increase its offerings and expand the size of some branches in order to meet state standards, she said.
“If they take $6 million from us and 1 mill, we’re going to be about $820,000 in debt the next day,” Sanders said. “I will have no choice to close branches and lay people off.”
The Lafourche Parish Detention Center, in Thibodaux, was built in 1968, expanded in 1977 and has been battling space issues since 1995. It is plagued with infrastructure woes, and the cramped quarters pose a threat to guards, sheriff’s office officials have said.
The current facility can hold 244 prisoners and typically averages more than 400. Excess prisoners are held in other parishes’ facilities.
Sheriff Craig Webre has said the jail’s population is an “artificially low number” and that nonviolent offenders are receiving reduced sentences due to overcrowding.
Toups said last week that a 500-to-600-bed detention center is the current goal and that it would be built with room to expand. He also mentioned a desire to install about 100 beds for rehabilitation purposes.
The parish has retained consulting services from Michael LeBlanc, who also hopes his company MWL Architects will land the project’s design contract. LeBlanc has said a 600-bed facility could be built for $22 million or less.
Only $400,000 has thus far been earmarked for the project. Parish officials have struggled to find ways to finance bonds or otherwise pay for construction of a new jail without the use of tax revenues.
The current tax proposal will likely be amended before a vote is taken, according to Toups, who said he foresees cutting the proposed fund-balance takeover from $6 million to $3 million in attempt to compromise. “If they (the library system) can’t go with that, shame on them,” he said.
Council dissent has already begun to surface. Councilman Daniel Lorraine said he will vote against the ordinance. He cited three concerns: the length of the renewal; the inclusion of the words “operation and maintenance” in the tax call; and the attempt to take cash from the library system.
“We do need a jail, but not at the expense of the library, especially leaving them broke,” said Lorraine, who added that he feels the wording of the proposition is an attempt to leverage the perception that the library has excess funds into coercing people to vote for a new detention center.
“They’re trying to buffalo the people,” Lorraine said. “The library does have a few dollars, but that doesn’t mean we have to go take it from them.”
Councilman Aaron Caillouet, the council’s liaison to the library board, said he agrees with the proposition’s general idea – that the library is taking more money than it needs and the parish needs a new jail – but he also disagreed with the way the question was crafted.
“If somebody is against the jail, they’re going to vote against it. That would cause the library to have the same amount of money they do now,” Caillouet said. “It should be a separate voter decision.”
Because the proposition does not contain a tax-rate increase, a simple-majority council vote is all that’s needed to present the measure to voters, District Attorney Cam Morvant II said in an opinion issued last week.
Bevin Verret pieces together a puzzle at the Lafourche Parish Library Bayou Blue Branch while Christian Hebert and Alenah Verret play games on computers.
