Randolph proposes $68M budget

Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph has proposed a $68 million operations and maintenance budget for next year, a 9.4 percent increase compared to the spending plan enacted last year.

Her budget, set for a council vote next month, includes pay raises for all parish employees, sets $9.3 million aside for capital projects and rolls over $600,000 for a contingency fund. Two legislative positions – the internal auditor and his clerk – were stricken from the proposed budget, though multiple councilmen said they would be restored.

“I think it addresses some needed problems,” Randolph said. “Certainly, we’re very concerned about the amount of money we’re taking in for drainage. That’s always the biggest expense item. The fact that we’re able to set money aside for a contingency fund and emergency fund is very important.”

Public budget hearings are scheduled Nov. 12 and Nov. 13. The council is scheduled to vote on the budget Nov. 26.

PAY HIKES BUDGETED

Randolph’s budget includes a 4-percent increase to all civil service pay grades. If granted, the raises would mark a 24-percent hike across the board in minimum and maximum pay thresholds since the council adopted its 2011 budget three years ago. From 2009 to 2012, civil service pay grades rose by 6 percent.

Alone, pay grades do not guarantee hikes in actual pay. If someone is below the new minimum, however, his or her salary is adjusted accordingly; sub-minimum pay rates are not grandfathered, according to the parish’s civil service director.

Additionally, all parish government positions have been budgeted for at least a 4-percent raise. Raises can be given throughout the year, either dependent upon evaluations for merit raises or to account for cost-of-living increases, which all employees are slated to receive, Randolph said.

A few positions were budgeted for greater bumps in pay.

The information technology manager’s salary would rise by 24.8 percent, the community services director is in line for a 14.4-percent raise and the human resources director’s salary is proposed at a 9.2-percent hike.

The civil service director, whose salary is set by the civil service board, is slated for a 32.4-percent raise.

Randolph’s proposal includes $6.6 million for wages and benefits for next year, up 32 percent from 2011 and more than two-thirds of the $9.1-million general fund budget.

CAPITAL BUDGET IS ROUGHLY $47.4M

The proposed budget appropriates $1.5 million in south Lafourche road and drainage sales-tax revenues toward construction of a bulkhead at Larose’s Industrial Park Road, a project long desired by Councilman Phillip Gouaux.

“I’ve been working on this for 10 years,” Gouaux said. Engineering the project has not yet begun, and the District 7 representative said the project’s ultimate cost would be much greater than the proposed appropriation.

The area in question, currently served by a half-mile wooden bulkhead that has deteriorated over time, props up a “very important thoroughfare” leading to North American Shipbuilding and other industrial interests, Gouaux said. “(The bulkhead is) going to give in, and it’s the only thing holding the roadbed up,” he said.

Including the bulkhead project, $9.3 million is marked for capital projects. Aside from that project, $5.6 million is unallocated, but set for Road Sales Tax District A projects, and roughly $2.2 million in allocated funds will be rolled over.

When added to capital funds earmarked in prior years, it brings the 2014 capital budget to $47.4 million, which includes projected spending over five years.

“We’re fortunate that we have the (Community Development Block Grant) projects this year that will finally come to fruition,” Randolph said. “We were also able to bond out some money for both road districts. Therefore, we have money available to do many of the projects within those funding sources.”

Through budget amendments, the parish council will counter the administration’s proposal to include its desired capital projects and other designated spending next month prior to voting on the plan. Last year the body proposed 37 budget amendments, passing 26 and pulling the other 11 from the floor without a vote.

The council typically does not alter the budget’s size, which is based on the finance department’s projections of how much money revenue streams will deliver and fund balances at the end of the prior year. But the legislative body frequently moves money to fund pet projects.

The authority to execute those projects, through contracting architects and engineers, remains with the parish president, which has led some councilmen to decry excessive amendments as forceless bluster.

The budget doles out $4.9 million in projected royalty revenue, with $3.7 million of that dedicated for drainage. An additional $1 million is allocated to the general fund, and more than $200,000 is marked for civil defense.

COUNCIL CHAIR PLEDGES TO RESTORE AUDITOR’S POSITION

Randolph’s budget does not include funding for two politically charged legislative positions: the internal auditor and the auditor’s clerk.

The auditor was established during the 2012 budget process and was included in this year’s budget via the administration’s 2013 proposal. Randolph, however, said that when the position was created, the council did not appropriate recurring funding and thus is required to approve the slot on an annual basis. It was due to an oversight that the position was included in last year’s budget proposal, she said.

Councilman Jerry Jones withdrew a resolution last week that would have asked the district attorney to investigate the legality of the administration deleting a legislative branch position. He echoed other councilmen who said the positions would be restored, likening current internal auditor Tommy Lasseigne and his clerk Freddia Ruffin-Roberson to administrative watchdogs.

“You build a fence to keep the fox from getting to your chickens,” Jones said. “If you take the fence down, the fox is going to eat the chickens. I don’t let that fox in my henhouse.”

Lasseigne compiles reports on various issues as assigned to him by the council chairman. He has examined means to fund construction of a new jail and financial records of various parish boards and commissions, among other assignments.

Lasseigne was instrumental in drafting last year’s budget amendments, an esoteric process that cannot take the budget out of balance, and figures to do much of the research for this year’s proposals.

Councilman John Arnold floated the idea of granting Lasseigne a pay raise. His pay has not increased since the position was created for 2012. Council Chairman Lindel Toups definitively said that Lasseigne would be brought back.

SOLID WASTE PROJECTED TO SLIDE

The Solid Waste Fund is projected to bleed in 2014. Revenues are forecasted at $6.8 million (a 0.6 percent increase from last year’s projections) versus $7.6 million in expenditures. This would result in a $755,000 deficit, saved from marking the fund red by a projected $874,000 ’13 end year balance.

Solid waste is funded by a seven-tenths of a cent sales tax, which the parish council rolled back from a full cent in 1996. The council has the authority to raise the tax up to three-tenths of a cent if it deems an infusion of revenue necessary.

The fund has been projected to bottom out in the past. In 2010, the finance department projected the fund would end 2011 with a $72 balance. One year later the projection was $2.3 million.

In total, sales tax revenue is forecast to total $13.1 million, an increase of 0.3 percent from last year’s original projections. Road Sales Tax District A, which encompasses unincorporated areas of north Lafourche, is projected to jump by 6.2 percent to $3.7 million. RSTD-2, which is south of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, is expected to increase by 6.6 percent to $3 million.

Property tax revenue is projected to slide in 2014. The total is budgeted at $20.1 million, down 2 percent from last year’s projections.

The parish has $51.7 million in outstanding debt, buoyed by this year’s $24 million bonding of sales tax revenues to remedy deteriorated streets in north Lafourche. In total, the parish is scheduled to pay $4.1 million toward its debt in 2014.