[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Council to ask for 10 percent cuts due to lawsuit

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Mon Oct 1 16:20:59 EDT 2012


St. Bernard Parish Council to ask for 10 percent cuts due to lawsuit
By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, The Times-Picayune
on October 01, 2012 at 10:40 AM, updated October 01, 2012 at 12:43 PM Email

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The St. Bernard Parish Council on Tuesday is expected to pass a resolution
asking Parish President Dave Peralta to reduce the budget by 10 percent,
which could in turn lead to additional staffing cuts. The Executive Finance
Committee has made the recommendation to the Parish Council in case it loses
a lawsuit questioning the legality of its recently implemented $32 monthly
fee for fire services.

In August, the Parish Council unanimously passed the fee to pay for the
parish Fire Department's operation from Sept. 1 through the end of the year
so that the administration would not have to lay off fire personnel. It
started last month.

Peter Rupp, who lost a runoff for a St. Bernard Parish Council seat by 16
votes last fall, filed the suit on Sept. 20 in state court alleging that the
fee for parish residents should be nullified and its collection prohibited.
The initial hearing was postponed and now is tentatively set for Thursday in
front of Judge Robert Buckley.

The Executive Finance Committee members last week suggested that the parish
should prepare just in case the fees are overturned, as the fees are
expected to bring in about $2 million. The Parish Council will vote on the
resolution at its 7 p.m. Tuesday meeting in the Council Chambers, 8201 W.
Judge Perez Dr. in Chalmette.

The suggested resolution asks the parish president to submit a revised 2012
budge with the 10 percent cuts by Sunday, so that the finance committee can
examine it at its meeting next week.

"The Parish President has the option of implementing this reduction through
non-personnel, personnel, or furloughs or a combination of," the proposed
resolution states.

The Parish Council also is expected to ask the parish administration submit
to the council an ordinance detailing all previous budget cuts implemented
by the administration.

The cash-strapped parish government has stated that the Fire Department is
the largest drain on the parish budget, operating at a $5.5 million annual
loss.

At its last council meeting on Sept. 18, the Parish Council approved a Dec.
8 ballot proposition for a 20-mill tax for fire department services that
would be for 10 years and is anticipated to bring in about $6 million
annually. Whether that 20-mill tax is passed or not, the $32 fee would last
only through the remainder of the year.

The suit is not Rupp's first. Last fall, following his close loss to
incumbent District A Councilman Ray Lauga in the Nov. 19 runoff, Rupp asked
the courts to declare the District A runoff results void and order a new
district election.

Rupp filed a lawsuit alleging that 40 voters should not have been able to
cast ballots because they had homestead exemptions in St. Tammany Parish or
listed residences in St. Bernard that shouldn't qualify as intended
domiciles.

That lawsuit failed in both district court and on appeal.



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