Lafourche Parish officials deny ‘Books for Crooks’ accusations

Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph refuted another publication’s recent report that the parish would take $1 million out of the Lafourche Parish Library System’s fund to pay for a new jail.

Randolph said she has scheduled meetings with library officials to discuss what to do with excess library funds, but no plans have been set in stone.

Parish Finance Director Joel Doty said he estimates a $5 million library surplus by the end of 2010.

“It is not cut and dry taking library money to build a jail. It is not close to that. It’s something to discuss,” said Randolph at last week’s parish council meeting. “Unfortunately, it was blown out of proportion.”

The “Books for Crooks” campaign launched by local libraries coupled with the inaccurate report accused Randolph of taking money away from fund to build the new public library in Thibodaux

Randolph and the council assured residents that the reserve library fund will only be used to build the new library and cannot be touched.

“All of the accusations from the newspaper were wrong,” said Councilman Rodney Doucet. “It was just a question to ask to look at everything as a whole. If anything gets done with anything from millages to any department or any area, it has to go to the people to vote.”

But Randolph did not rule out future discussions to use the parish’s excess revenues in other departments that may need it.

“I think we still need to sit down and look at all of the finances of the parish and determine if there are any excess funds, because this parish is in dire financial straits,” said Randolph.

Meanwhile, the parish and Lafourche sheriff’s office continue to investigate alternatives to fund a replacement for the aging detention facility.