[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish could approve amended 2013 budget on Tuesday evening

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish could approve amended 2013 budget on Tuesday evening
By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on March 05, 2013 at 9:37 AM, updated March 05, 2013 at 10:10 AM Print

The St. Bernard Parish Council on Tuesday nite (March 5) is expected to pass
the 2013 budget amendments that it introduced early last month. The budget
changes would add two employees to the council staff, fully levy the
parish's fire millage, give a 2-percent raise for all government employees
and continue the 100-percent employee insurance coverage.

The original 2013 budget proposed by the parish government did not have the
2-percent raise and had included a 70-30 split for insurance. But the Parish
Council went through the budget line item by line item and decided to keep
the 100-percent insurance benefit.

The amended budget also factors in the 10 employee layoffs earlier this
year, bringing the total number of eliminated positions since Parish
President Dave Peralta took office to 92. In addition to the layoffs, last
month there were five employees who were transferred to grant-funded
positions.

Based on the proposed new budget, the council expects to spend up to $65,000
to hire two more council assistants, which would bring the council's staff
to five members. Councilman Guy McInnis, explaining that the council would
still be below its previous expenses, has pointed to major cuts in the
council's budget since January 2012, including eliminating legislative
liaison services, slashing most travel expenses, and reducing the pool of
council vehicles from nine cars by the end of 2011 to three cars today.

He and other councilmen have said the two additional council staff members
would allow the council to better represent their constituents.

Also, when the Parish Council passed the original 2013 budget in December,
it had proposed keeping the fire department at its current level of funding,
in other words not having to levy the full 20-mill fire tax that voters had
approved earlier that month. The decision largely was based on $1.75 million
federal SAFER grant money coming in this year and next.

But after talking with administration and fire personnel last month, the
council changed course and decided to fully levy that millage. Yet, both
parties agreed, any additional money above regular personnel and operating
expenses would go toward capital improvements and into a rainy day fund in
case larger departmental repairs are needed down the line, especially after
the SAFER grant money expires.

Even with the amended budget's passage at the 7 p.m. Tuesday council
meeting, the matter of the $500,000 shortfall in the parish sanitation
coffers still likely will loom, unresolved, on the horizon.

Early last month, council members and administrators agreed that they would
work to resolve the sanitation budget shortfall by the end of the month. 

Making up for that shortfall -expenses are projected at $4.7 million - could
involve removing the current half-cent sales tax and instead charging
residents directly for garbage pickup, or renegotiating the parish garbage
contract, among other proposals.

In other matters, the Parish Council on Tuesday also is expected to
officially hire additional legal representation to defend the parish,
Peralta, and other parish officials in a lawsuit filed by forrmer Parish
President Crag Taffaro.  In his suit, Taffaro alleges that Peralta and
others engaged in "creating bogus accusations which were leaked to print and
broadcast media ... and repeatedly providing Taffaro's (current) employer,
the Jindal Administration, with false and bogus accusations of wrongdoings."

The federal suit (to read the full suit, click here) asks for no less than
$2.75 million in damages and claims that Peralta and other parish employees
have violated Taffaro's civil rights, his career rights and have
intentionally inflicted emotional distress.
http://media.nola.com/politics/other/Taffaro-v-Peralta-et-al.pdf