Parish Council votes to boost Lafourche government pay

Lafourche Parish Government employees will receive cost-of-living and merit raises after the divided Parish Council approved the package last week.

With two councilmen absent, the pay raise ordinance received the exact amount of votes it needed to pass, with five councilmen in favor and two against. Joe Fertitta and Daniel Lorraine opposed the measure, and Matt Matherne and Jerry Jones were absent.

Every one of the 246 parish employees, from bridge tenders to appointed department heads, will see a 2 percent bump in his or her salary for cost of living.

Those who scored well on their most recent job evaluation will see an additional 2 percent added to their hourly wage.

The cost-of-living raises will cost the parish about $160,000 for the remainder of 2011 and about $315,000 over the course of a full year, according to Finance Director Ryan Friedlander.

Councilman Lindel Toups sponsored an amendment to the ordinance that set the minimum raise at 25 cents per hour. It passed 5 to 2, with the same voting lines.

Toups had pushed for every employee to receive an equal raise.

He proposed bumping the employees’ salaries by 62 cents per hour.

The parish Department of Civil Service sets a ceiling on the maximum pay range for positions.

If everyone were to get a 62-cent raise, Administrator Crystal Chiasson said, some would eclipse their maximum, so Toups’ idea was not feasible.

Councilman Phillip Gouaux said all department heads should be scheduled to work 80-hour per the two-week pay periods. Currently, the parish administrator, director of grants and economic development and director of human resources are scheduled for 70 hours.

“In regular business, that’s the way it works,” Gouaux said.

“I think the more you complicate the issue, the more you get away from giving raises to the people you want to,” Parish President Charlotte Randolph said.

Randolph said LPG would conduct an in-house salary study and consult with civil service by-laws to determine if it is possible to give everyone the same raise in the future. In order to do this, the civil service board would have to approve the changes.

Randolph said the salary study would also address Gouaux’s concerns, and the parish would look into requiring 80-hour pay periods for all employees and making salary hikes more equitable in January.

Councilman Daniel Lorraine said he opposed the pay raises because he didn’t like “the way the thing was put together for the little man.”

“These department heads are making some money,” Lorraine said. “Hell, sometimes I think of being one.”

Frank Morris, director of planning and permitting, is the highest-paid government employee. His $75,000 annual salary will see a $3,000 increase to $37.50 per hour.

The maximum hourly rate for a Bridge Tender I is $10.99 per hour, according to civil service by-laws.

The raises were not factored in to the 2011 budget because of uncertainty about the parish’s revenue streams, according to Parish President Charlotte Randolph.

Through June, however, the parish’s intake of royalty revenue was up 40 percent versus projections made last year.

Randolph said the parish is budgeting for a 20-percent increase in insurance costs.

Parish employees have been exempt from paying for insurance increases over the past nine years, she said.