Police Jury rejects to pay expenses sent by sheriff

By: RAYMOND PARTSCH III
Managing Editor

The Evangeline Parish Police Jury unanimously declined to pay expenses sent to them by Evangeline Parish Sheriff Eddie Soileau at this month’s annual meeting.
During the meeting, Police Jury Secretary-Treasurer Donald Bergeron revealed to the 12-person board that he had received a “stack of bills” from Soileau asking that the group pay the bills or reimburse the Sheriff’s Office for the bills.
Bergeron told the group that Soileau referred to a revised statute which indicated that the Jury is responsible for certain bills.
“The sheriff just found out through the Sheriffs Association that they are certain bills they are required to pay that we may have possibly not paid in the past,” Police Juror Bryan Vidrine said. “In order to pay a bill you have to go through a Purchase Order system. For example there were some invoices that they wanted us to pay for and they couldn’t identify the computers on the invoices and where other stuff was at. Our lawyer told us to absolutely not agree to that.”
Marcus Fontenot, who serves as attorney for the Jury, stated at the meeting that “while it is the responsibility of the Jury to support the tax collector, there needs to be an accounting given to the Jury accounting for all of the tax sale proceeds on each sale so we can ensure his office is not “double dipping”, and then there needs to a “checks and balances” system set up to ensure that proper procedures are being followed.”
Bergeron also told the Jury during the meeting that the expenses from the tax office should already be covered because the Sheriff because he gets a flat “cost” fee of $165.00 from each property tax sale.
Even though the Jury voted against the measure by a vote of 12-0, Vidrine says that doesn’t mean that they don’t want to assist the Sheriff, as long as it is through the proper channels.
“We want to support the Sheriff but he has to get the approval for these items through the right system,” Vidrine said.