Voters to decide: Council OKs request

Lafourche voters will decide Nov. 16 whether to divert a portion of the parish library system’s revenue toward funding construction of a new parish jail.

The parish council approved placing the measure on the ballot by a 5-3-1 vote. Councilmen John Arnold, Jerry LaFont and Daniel Lorraine were in opposition, and Councilman Jerry Jones was absent. A provision that would have reallocated $6 million in cash from the library system was deleted.

Voters will decide on two points:

Whether to extend collection of 3.8 mills solely dedicated to constructing, improving, maintaining or operating the library branches through 2034. The tax is currently set to expire in 2016.

Whether to rededicate 1 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.

In addition to the 3.8 mills under consideration, the library system collects 2.50 mills, meaning the library’s total would be decreased from 6.30 to 5.30 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 is expected to raise $870,000 this year, according to the council’s internal auditor.

Decision follows lengthy debate

Debate on the proposition was waged for nearly two hours, with the audience crammed into the council chambers applauding most statements supporting the library. Topics shifted from the library’s fiscal realities to the values of funding education against a new jail.

The Lafourche Parish Detention Center, located in Thibodaux, was built in 1968, expanded in 1977 and has been battling space issues since 1995. The facility is also plagued by infrastructural woes, and the cramped quarters pose a threat to guards, officials have said.

If the jail is left unfixed, a federal judge could order the parish to make the repairs, officials regularly say, which would require immediate funding from parish government – tying up money used for other services – rather than the planned spending officials are seeking to implement.

The jail can hold 244 prisoners. As of Monday, 332 inmates were booked in Lafourche Parish. Overflow inmates are shipped to facilities out of parish through contracts the council has approved at a higher cost to the parish.

Sheriff Craig Webre has said the jail population typically hovers around 400 and said it is “artificially low” due to the lack of space. Violent offenders are still receiving typical sentences, but property offenders are receiving lenient punishments to lessen the cost of shipping prisoners out of parish.

“No one was going to show up tonight and say, ‘Build a jail,’” Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph told the council. “We are charged by the federal government and the state government to provide a facility to house those people who commit crimes. … It is the opportunity to use existing funds to build something we have to build.”

The Lafourche Parish Library System oversees eight branches, the last of which was opened in 2012 in Thibodaux. Given that the system has no plans to build more branches, Randolph and Council Chairman Lindel Toups, the most ardent proponents of the revenue shift, said the library system is collecting more money than it needs.

Laura Sanders, director of the library system, said parish libraries cut back on the services they offered while building the new branches, which was done without the use of loans. Over that time, the system built up a fund balance of roughly $7.5 million, she said.

Sanders said the plan is to continue drawing from the reserve fund to beef up library offerings and expand branches in order to meet state standards. Instead, the council is asking the library system to pay for being good stewards of taxpayer funds, she reasoned.

“Obviously, the belts will have to be tightened,” Sanders said afterward, in response to a question about the impact of such a rededication. “We’ll no longer be able to meet state standards. We will have no choice but to make cuts. How drastic the cuts will be will be dependent upon just how much we can tweak.”

The library system also has $1 million in an emergency account, Randolph pointed out. Given that Lafourche Parish is vulnerable to flood threats, the system needs to keep that money designated for insurance deductibles, Sanders said.

“We do need a jail. We do need one fast,” Arnold said. “Are we going about the right way to get funds for the jail? In my opinion: No. … We need to stop, back up and punt.”

Arnold called instead for the council to pay for a jail through a new sales tax. Lafourche already has some of the highest sales tax rates in the state, with south Lafourche residents paying 9.2 percent and unincorporated north Lafourche paying 8.7 percent. He said afterward he was motivated to speak out because he sees the rededication as harmful to education.

Should voters pass the measure, the parish would have in place most of the revenue it needs to secure a bond for a $20-million facility.

That cost estimate is widely used by parish officials in regard to a new facility, and it was originally put forth by Michael LeBlanc, an architect aspiring to land the design contract. The council has since hired LeBlanc to consult on the process of building a new jail, which does not disqualify him from being the architect, the state Board of Ethics has said.

Rededicated or not, 1 mill could equal $99 million over 30 years

Tommy Lasseigne, the council’s auditor, said a parishwide mill is currently valued at about $870,000 in revenue per year. The value of 1 mill has risen by an average of 8 percent over the past 10 years; at that rate, the mill alone would cover payments toward a $20-million, 30-year bond at 4 percent interest beginning in the bond’s seventh year, Lasseigne said.

Should the mill average 8-percent annual growth over the life of the bond, it would collect $98.6 million, according to Lasseigne’s figures.

At 3-percent annual growth, a modest projection, the mill would raise $41.4 million over 30 years and would be sufficient annually to pay bond obligations by 2025, Lasseigne figured.

Because anticipated inflation can’t be factored into a bond deal, the parish would have to subsidize annual shortfalls in the interim. The parish would dedicate roughly $600,000 in general funding to satisfy these requirements, Randolph said.

It’s likely that money would be dedicated from the parish’s oil-and-gas royalty stream, which, tied to the trading price of crude oil, raised $4.9 million in 2012 and has averaged $452,101 per month this year through July.

The parish would also “keep about $1 million of our obligation for the jail, which we now spend on feeding, clothing, maintaining, insuring medical, and whatever the cost of the increased number of prisoners,” Randolph said.

Though 600 beds is also widely used among parish officials when discussing the size of a new jail, no specifics as to the size, functions and programs have been publicly decided.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana has criticized the parish’s tract to building a new jail several times in the past. The council has ignored the foundation’s pleas for a comprehensive study to determine an appropriate size based on crime trends.

“Robbing the public libraries to fund a jail complex that remains in the planning stages and will have 200 empty beds the day it opens is not in the interests of the people of Lafourche Parish,” wrote Marjorie R. Esman, the foundation’s executive director, in an open letter to the parish council.

Randolph conceded that building a jail doesn’t top her list of preferred capital improvements.

“The first thing we’re charged with when we take that oath of office is for the safety of the people of the parish, and the only way you’re going to keep people safe is to lock up the bad guys,” Randolph said.

Bevin Verret and Alenah Verret play games on computers at the Lafourche Parish Library’s Bayou Blue Branch. Voters will decide in November whether to rededicate property taxes from library improvements to funding construction of a new jail.

ERIC BESSON | TRI-PARISH TIMES