A DEAL is Reached

Terrebonne Sheriff Jerry Larpenter and Parish President Gordon Dove have agreed on a plan that will eliminate the need for most of the deputy layoffs Larpenter recently announced.

In the deal:

-As many as 29 and possibly 30 deputies slated for termination will likely keep their jobs.

-The deal will result in the parish paying $1.5 million to the Sheriff’s Office as reimbursement for salaries of officers at the jail.

-Dove is agreeing because it will save the parish from costs associated with having inmate kept at other jails.

-The Terrebonne Parish Council must still approve the budget item.

-A determination of which deputies will continue on at the jail will be made by Warden Claude Triche, likely some time over the weekend.

A formal document has yet to be drafted, and ultimately the Terrebonne Parish Council will have to sign off on the deal.

But the sheriff and the president of Terrebonne Parish have agreed in principle for a financial agreement to save the jobs of most deputies facing end-of-year layoffs. Sheriff Jerry Larpenter and Parish President Gordon Dove jointly announced their plans on an HTV-10 television broadcast Thursday night.

Larpenter provided details Friday morning to The TIMES, confirming that his office should receive $1.4 to $1.5 million from the parish government — a separate entity from his office — that will help plug a gaping revenue gap in his budget.

SHERIFF’S BUDGET CRISIS

Last month 39 deputies received letters stating they would be laid off Dec. 30. The layoffs were part of a course of action Larpenter said he was forced to take, to avoid borrowing money for operations next year. This year and last year Larpenter borrowed $6 million and $7 million respectively. The budget crisis, Larpenter has said, results from drops in tax collections, rising costs and other factors relating in large part to economic downturns in Terrebonne and

elsewhere in the bayou region. A proposed half-cent sales tax that would have halted the deficits proposed by Larpenter was trounced by voters in November, a development that the sheriff said has fored his hand.

“I am going to try to bring back the number of people I need for the facility,” Larpenter said, referring to the main jail. “We will look at the situation since some are retiring, and we will decide who we are going to bring back.”

Larpenter said he will rely on decisions to be made by Warden Claude Triche. The jobs that will be saved, Larpenter said, in almost all cases will be those of correctional officers, who made up the bulk of the initially announced lay-offs.

Nearly half the pre-trial population of the Ashland jail has been sent to facilities in Jackson and Catahoula parishes, a move that will result in bills to the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government of $2.5 million or more. Costs would also be incurred by the parish that include transportation of inmates from those places, more than 250 miles from Houma.

The parish’s buy-in is based on complicated laws and regulations that mandate who is responsible for various aspects of jail operations and costs.

SPLITTING COSTS

Louisiana parishes are authorized to build, own and maintain jails. Sheriffs are authorized to operate those jails, responsibilities which includes supplying and paying officers who work in them. The personnel costs come out of the budgets of sheriffs, who are independent constitutional office-holders. There is no requirement that a sheriff keep staffing at a certain level, although most sheriffs do their best to maintain prisoner to guard ratios that reflect best correctional practices, thus lowering their potential liabilities.

When Larpenter tried to determine where he could make cuts in his budget, the potential of dismissing jail officers appeared to him a sensible route, so that patrol officers and detectives, as well as drug investigators, would not be cut. That would of necessity then require that fewer inmates be kept at the jail.

Some inmates are awaiting trials or final dispositions. Some have been convicted and sentenced to state prison time. State prisoners housed in the parish jail result in compensation to a sheriff’s coffers by the Louisiana Department of Corrections of $24per day. Out of that $24 the sheriff deducts $3.50 for meal costs per prisoner, based on three meals per day. Once that money is deducted the sheriff is left with $20.50 per state inmate, which is split with the parish. Each entity thus keeps $10.25 per state inmate.

But there has been a problem with the equation, Larpenter says. The number of state inmates — those the state is willing to pay to house — has been dwindling with the mandated release of non-violent offenders in accordance with recent state laws.

As for pre-trial inmates, the parish has paid $3.50 per day to cover their meal expenses but kicked in no more. To avoid paying nearly $3 million per year to other parishes for keeping pre-trial inmates, Dove has seen the potential of paying Larpenter $1.5 million instead.

DIFFERENCES OF RECALL

That will make it easier for Larpenter to balance his books. But it does not eliminate the specter of service cuts by the Sheriff’s Office in other areas. Larpenter says he will still close down the bulk of cells used to house inmate in his work program. Convicted of non-violent offenses and so technically DOC inmates, those individuals had been painting schools and non-profit buildings, cleaning up after Carnival parades and cooking lunches for seniors served by the Terrebonne Council on Aging.

Council on Aging Director Diana Edmonson says she is already exploring ways to feed elders without the Sheriff’s help, for which her agency has paid roughly $65,000 each year to cover the costs of a supervisory officer. Other options could cost a lot more, she acknowledges. So far, the Council on Aging has not approached Larpenter to see if the program can be saved. He says he approached Edmondson last year, before he ever floated his sales tax proposal, to obtain financial cost-sharing. He says Edmonson told him she would check with her board, but that nobody ever got back to him. Edmonson has denied being asked for any money from Larpenter other than the $65,000.

Larpenter said he is also seeking to obtain as many state inmate as possible, and that he will likely house them in a 100-bed jail building which stands idle. That structure — initially designed to be a jail for women — was shut down after less than a year in operation due to costs.

UNCOMFORTABLE CHOICES

Parish Council members will have the final say as to whether the parish budget will accommodate the agreement. They are not certain when the question will be put to them. Most of those interviewed indicated that it is likely the wisest choice, but some expressed concerns as to how the responsibility would affect parish budgeting overall.

“It sounds like a good idea. We’ve got to do something,” said Councilman Al Marmande. “But it’s more money out of our budget that we could use for projects.”

Councilman Gerald Michel said that if the sheriff’s office is having financial difficulties it must be laid on some entity.

“We will have no choice but to approve such a proposal,” Michel said. But the cost, he said, will come on top of recent policy changes made at the executive level such as adding Christmas Eve and New Years Eve to the schedule of paid time off for parish employees, and changes in charges for permit fees that recently went into effect.

“If we continue spending the way we are spending we are looking at more taxes after next year’s elections I am sure,” Michel said. “And I am certainly not for that. We can’t keep on spending and giving away.”

Councilman Dirk Guidry seemed resigned to approval as well, to a point.

“That would be the only way to do it, but I want to hear the whole story,” Guidry said. “The way I understand it is whether we want to pay $2.1 million or pay $1.4 million and I would rather go with the $1.4 million.”

Laid off deputies contacted about a potential change in their fortunes were cautious in their responses. None wished to be quoted by name. Some expressed concerns about some of their fellows who may have resigned when the lay-off letters were issued to facilitate job-seeking.

“It’s something,” one deputy’s family member said of the developments. “But we are really frustrated with the current details.”

A DEAL is Reached

Sheriff Jerry Larpenter struck a deal with Parish president Gordon dove which will likely save jobs for depurties with the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s office.

COURTSY