[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish government staff has grown to an unsustainable size

[Westley Annis]

If anybody thinks it's not possible to cut the number of parish employees,
just ask Lynn Dean to come back and he'll show them how it's done.



-----Original Message-----
St. Bernard Parish government staff has grown to an unsustainable size

Published: Sunday, June 17, 2012, 7:00 AM

 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, The Times-Picayune 

Before Hurricane Katrina wasted St. Bernard Parish in 2005, the local
government employed about 255 people who provided public services for a
population of around 65,000. Today, the parish has a smaller, but climbing,
population of about 40,000. However, the biggest surge to hit this suburban
enclave since Katrina has been in the number of employees who collect a
check from St. Bernard Parish government.

There are now 438 employees on parish payroll. And, while that makes the
staff 80 percent larger than before Katrina hit, the number is 57 less than
before Parish President Dave Peralta took office in January.

St. Bernard's public employee picture is an anomaly compared to most metro
New Orleans parishes.

Both the New Orleans and Jefferson Parish government employee counts
decreased, as did their populations. The St. Tammany Parish government
employee count increased, as did its population.

"We have a unique set of problems," Parish Chief Administrative Officer
Jerry Graves Jr. explained.

All but four structures in St. Bernard flooded. It was considered Katrina's
most devoured target.

The storm emptied the parish, scattering its residents far and wide. Until
recently, it has slowly repopulated. According to recent U.S. Census Bureau
estimates, St. Bernard was the nation's second fastest-growing county
between April 2010 and July 2011. Yet the St. Bernard government employee
count has risen much more dramatically than the surging resident population.

Graves attributes that to St. Bernard's devastation. As a result, the parish
has been in a constant state of regrowth, requiring additional employees to
deal with rebuilding and the tasks that accompany it.

But Peralta has said repeatedly that his goal is to end most recovery by
2014.

"And I think when you end recovery operations, first of all you no longer
need all the people who are directly handling recovery-related issues and
you no longer need the people who are indirectly handling them either."
Graves said. "You can get back to normal, but we will have to pinpoint what
that new normal will be."

And Graves said that since Katrina, more government services and oversight
are demanded by residents.

"At some point before Katrina, you have people who have invested in St.
Bernard and raised their family here and they were asked to come back after
Katrina and invest for a second time under really rough circumstances. That
alone has entitled them to demand more of local government," Graves said.
"And I think people are more involved now and pay more public attention than
they did before the storm. They expect more from local government, and they
should."

The employee count

Both he and Peralta have worked to trim staff. Before Peralta took office,
there were 515 parish employees, or 102 percent more employees than before
Katrina.

In the Peralta administration's first five months, 94 employees resigned,
retired or were fired, and there were 37 new hires. Now there are 204 more
parish employees than before Katrina, as opposed to the 261 additional
employees when Parish President Craig Taffaro left office.

When informed about the inflated staff since the spill, Parish Council
President Guy McInnis was curious how many parish employees were paid by the
parish and how many by recovery grants.

"Well, I'll tell you what I hope that (grant-paid staff) number is," he
quipped. "I hope it is around 200 or 250 employees."

But of the 204 additional employees, only 63 are paid through grants and
only 18 are paid through recovery-related grants, according to Lisa Smith,
the parish grants administrator.

Also, 13 of those employees are firefighters and the grant paying for them
expires at the end of this month. And that Staffing For Adequate Fire &
Emergency Response grant didn't even fully pay the firefighters' salaries in
the first half of the year because the Taffaro administration had given them
a 50 cent per hour raise on Jan. 1, along with increased benefits, according
to Parish Fire Chief Thomas Stone. Stone says they are hoping to get another
SAFER grant in the fall.

But even counting the firefighters as grant-paid staff, that still means the
parish is completely paying for at least 141 more employees than before
Katrina.

By Dec. 31, 2006, the parish employed 341 people. It increased by an
additional 45 people by Dec. 31, 2008, and then added another 52 staffers
the following year, reaching 438 employees by Dec. 31, 2009.

Staffing numbers jumped 28 employees the next year, and then 49 employees in
2011, hitting its height of 515 employees by Dec. 31, 2011. The Peralta
administration recently trimmed 57 positions, but Graves and Peralta said
that more employee cuts are not necessary.

"I am certainly not giving excuses for the parish government expanding to
515 employees, but we are now at 458. How much smaller could we get?" Graves
said. "I honestly don't think that we can decrease government without
services decreasing."

Additional duties

Graves says many departments are much larger than before Katrina because of
added responsibilities.

The permit office, the resident service and compliance office, the
recreation, water and sewer, maintenance, insurance, human resources and
legal offices each have swelled with recovery-related tasks, Graves says.

"For example, back in the good old days before Katrina, there were probably
just a couple building permits issued per week and then by 2008 we had
jumped to about 100," he said.

And with about 100 contractors working throughout the parish at any given
moment, work increases for other departments that are not directly related
to recovery or paid through FEMA grants, Graves said. As roads and sidewalks
are fixed, water lines or other parish equipment are more apt to break.

And with grants, there are more meetings with state and federal offices. And
in terms of legal, there are new challenges with wrongful-demolition suits,
and allegations of damaged property due to demolition or slab removal,
Graves said.

In the meantime, the parish is nearing the red, as sales tax revenue can't
pay to maintain parish staff and services.

"We are still trying to provide a high level of public services, but at some
point something is going to have to give," Graves said. "We don't want to
cut services. We want to expand public services, but someone is going to
have to pay for it and it's clear from current finances that we can't afford
to pay for it anymore."

And employee salaries and benefits represent about 65 percent of all
government expenditures, according to Graves.

Recent savings

The previous St. Bernard Parish administration predicted $21 million from
2012 sale tax revenue. But after realizing how sharply sales tax revenue has
dipped in recent months, the parish now is expecting the number to be $5
million or $6 million less.

The parish job cuts this year saved about $1.6 million.

An additional $817,519 was saved from non-personnel cuts, bringing overall
savings to about $3.6 million.

Graves and Peralta say the jump from 438 employees in 2010 to 515 employees
by 2012 was unsustainable. They say the increased staffing was based on
temporary sales tax revenue spikes between April 2010 and April 2011 due to
commercial activity generated by the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill
response.

Decreased revenue and increased fees

A look at the sales tax revenue does show that at the start of 2009, total
sales tax hovered around $1.1 million a month, and that at the time of the
oil spill on April 2010, it rose rapidly. For nearly a year afterward, it
varied between $2.5 million and $1.7 million a month.

And by the time Peralta took office, sales tax revenue had returned to about
$1.1 million a month.

"The plain truth is that new and/or enhanced revenue sources must be
identified not simply for the purpose of avoiding further layoffs and making
it through the year, but for the long-term viability of St. Bernard Parish,"
Peralta wrote in a report last month that summarized the cuts.

Peralta said the parish has several options, from "updating water and sewer
rates, which had not been done in over a decade," to instituting fees for
road lighting, fire services or waste disposal.

The parish also is looking to establish a franchise agreement with Entergy
that, in return for cheaper rates, would give the company exclusive rights
as the parish's utility provider and allow it to use parish property as
needed for infrastructure.

Graves says water and sewer fee increases may be necessary since many newly
constructed facilities have led to greater expense. Graves also says the
parish will attempt to reduce trash collection costs, and might ask the
public to cover some of the remaining cost.

At the same time, some additional expenses are in the pipeline.

The parish is trying to determine how much it owes the state because of
deobligated FEMA projects and flood insurance overpayments. Graves said that
could be in the millions.

He says the parish will have to take out a bond to cover that cost, likely
requiring an additional $5 million to $10 million.

Benjamin Alexander-Bloch can be reached at bbloch at timespicayune.com or
504.826.3321.



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