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The Lafourche councilman who sought to annul council-granted pay raises to parish councilmembers he originally endorsed said Monday he would withdraw his proposal.
A month after casting the deciding vote to grant the next council a 23-percent pay raise effective in 2016, Councilman Lindel Toups formally proposed an ordinance to rescind the measure. He said he didn’t comprehend what he was voting on when he supported the raises and that in retrospect he doesn’t agree with the new salary scale.
“I thought it would be about $100 a month or something like that, but this is about $400-to-500 a month, you know,” Toups said. “I didn’t have time to read it (the original ordinance), to be honest with you,” before voting on it. “I didn’t look at it.”
Toups, amid his fifth consecutive term on the council, said it’s not uncommon for him to vote on measures without reading the proposals. “You have so much stuff to come in at one time, you don’t have the chance to read all of that,” he said.
Now, however, Toups will withdraw his measure aiming to revoke the council’s pay raise. The Dist. 6 councilman said he is doing so at the behest of his colleagues. “Some of them asked me, they want me to pull it,” Toups said. “They said they weren’t going to vote for it.”
Officially, the measure remains scheduled for a public hearing and council vote June 10.
The parish’s Home Rule Charter set councilmembers’ salaries at $12,000 annually beginning in 2008 and provided for a 2-percent increase annually through 2027. Each district leader will bring home about $13,566 this year and $13,837 in 2015.
The council’s salary schedule as approved in April bumped up the minimum rate to $17,064 per year with the council-selected chairman taking home $19,200. The pay rates would further increase by 2 percent each year with no sunset date.
The jump from 2015 to 2016, as approved, would represent a 23-percent hike for eight councilmen. The chairman’s salary would increase by roughly 39 percent.
The ordinance granting the pay raise passed by a 5-3 vote in April. Also voting in favor were councilmen Jerry Jones, Michael Delatte, John Arnold and Jerry LaFont. Councilmen Joe Fertitta, Philip Gouaux and Daniel Lorraine voted against the measure.
Councilman Aaron Caillouet drafted the ordinance but was absent. Caillouet, who had been hospitalized with an illness, could return to the council June 10 after missing five consecutive meetings. “He’s doing fine, and he’s going to try to be at the next meeting,” Toups informed the council last month.
LaFont, who staunchly opposed pay raises the parish president sought to award to parish employees during the budget process last year, maintains the council deserves a raise. LaFont said “not one” Lafourche citizen has criticized his support of the pay hikes.
Lorraine, the council’s chairman, said although he voted against the pay raise initially, he would not support an effort to repeal the ordinance because he doesn’t agree with revisiting measures that have gained council approval.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s passed, and I don’t like to move backward; I like to go forward,” Lorraine said. “He can bring it up, but I’m not going to support it. I showed my colors from the very beginning. … (Councilmembers) need to be a little bit more careful. You’ve got to do your homework.”
A separate ordinance passed at the same April meeting granted a roughly 80-percent pay raise to the parish president’s position, also effective in 2016. Officially, it chained the position’s salary to the average of the parish clerk of court’s, tax assessor’s and sheriff’s salaries. It passed by a 7-1 vote, with only Lorraine opposed.
The current Lafourche Parish Council flanks Parish President Charlotte Randolph. The council voted last month to grant the next council a 23-percent pay raise. Dist. 6 Councilman Lindel Toups, who cast the deciding vote, subsequently regretted his vote and introduced a proposal to rescind the raise.
