[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Council passes amended 2013 budget that adds council staff

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish Council passes amended 2013 budget that adds council
staff

By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on March 05, 2013 at 10:50 PM, updated March 05, 2013 at 11:11 PM Print

The St. Bernard Parish Council, as expected, on Tuesday night passed the
2013 budget amendments that it introduced early last month. The budget
changes add two employees to the council staff, fully levy the parish's fire
millage, give a 2 percent raise to 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 percent-30 percent split for
insurance. But the Parish Council painstakingly went through the budget line
item by line item and decided to keep the 100 percent insurance benefit, as
well as the across-the-board raise.

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.

The new budget also allows the Parish Council to spend $69,700 to hire two
more council assistants, which will 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.

McInnis and other council members have said the two additional 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 parish 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
the $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 the newly amended 2013 budget fully levies that
fire millage. Yet, both parties have agreed that any additional money above
regular personnel and operating expenses will 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 Tuesday council meeting, the
matter of the $500,000 shortfall in the parish sanitation coffers still
looms, unresolved. 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.