VP will come in under budget for fiscal year

Dana Quebedeaux presented the Ville Platte City Council with some very good budget news during its regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening.
Quebedeaux, a certified public accountant, was introducing a proposed 2017 fiscal year budget for the city. During her remarks, she noted that Ville Platte will end the current 2016 fiscal year $444,780 under budget.
This marks the third year in a row that the Ville Platte city government shows a budget surplus.
Mayor Jennifer Vidrine was very complimentary to her staff for following the budgetary procedures that the city has implemented. She had especially high praise for Fire Chief Chris Harrison, noting that his department was especially good at maintaining good financial discipline. Harrison is in his second year of running the department.
The proposed 2017 budget must be approved in a special meeting on June 30. A public hearing on the proposed budget will be held at 9:45 a.m.; and the special meeting to adopt it will be at 10 a.m.
Vidrine has included a capital outlay plan worth nearly $3 million in her proposed budget. Quebedeaux said that 80 percent of the money for the improvements will come from federal and state grant money.
The following items are in the capital outlay proposal: improvements to all three city parks, including picnic pavilions; splash pads at Northside and Hargrove Parks; $1.6 million for a recreational complex; and sidewalks running from James Stephens Montessori to Ville Platte High School.
The proposed budget includes a 20 percent raise for the city marshal and police chief; a five percent raise for fire department employees; a raise to $8/hour for all part-time employees; a raise of .50/hour for full-time police department employees; and a three percent pay raise in salaries for all other employees.
The new budget includes a $1 million Louisiana Community Development Block Grant for sewer plant renovations. Work will begin on the renovations in early 2017.
“We’re just trying to meet the needs of the city, especially in our playgrounds,” said Vidrine. “We’re also trying to stay in competition with nearby police departments to keep our officers here. Instead of training them and seeing them go to other municipalities, we want them to stay with us.”
The Council approved the hiring of two full-time officers and two part-time officers. According to Chief Neil Lartigue, the police department now has 27 full-time officers. His goal is 33 full-time officers.
In other action, the Council unanimously named the Ville Platte Gazette as its journal of record for the upcoming year.
Councilman Bryant Riggs asked the mayor to consider changing the policy of not hiring employees with a felony record. He asked the Council to listen to Arthur Sampson’s testimony to help persuade the change in policy.
Sampson told the Council that he had two drug felony charges as a young adult, which made it difficult to get hired. However, he joined the military and was able to turn his life around.
“Somebody gave me a chance,” Sampson said, and the City “should give somebody a chance, too.”
Riggs said that, just as the City is trying to lead by example on pay raises, it could lead by example on this issue, too.
“We should be lenient in hiring people with a little felony,” Riggs said.
When Vidrine asked him what he meant by “a little felony,” he said “a dope charge.” Riggs said that sometimes people make a mistake, but deserve a second chance to get their lives together.
Councilman Mike Perron pointed out that the City is very good at helping out new employees, noting that it gives new hires time to get a driver’s license or a GED if that’s what is needed.
“We believe in second chances. It’s not that we’re not sympathetic. We’re all human,” said Vidrine. “The problem is with the insurance.”
Human Resources Director Rod Lafleur told the Council that insurance companies flag any employee with a felony as a “high risk” employee. This results in higher premiums. It also exposes the City to lawsuits because of “negligent hiring,” should the employee commit a crime while on duty.
“Right now we’re facing eight lawsuits – none due to high risk employees,” said Lafleur. “Municipalities are always a target for frivolous lawsuits because people think that we have big money.”
Vidrine also noted that when background checks are done on prospective employees, the result comes back simply marked “felony,” not with any specific crime. She did promise to take up the issue again with insurance companies to see if there is anything that could be done.
In her Mayor’s Report, Vidrine noted that the Boys & Girls Club had a very successful opening a couple of weeks ago for its summer session.
“It took off with a bang,” Vidrine said. “In fact, we’ve already outgrown our building.”
She said that she will look for funding to build a new Boys and Girls Club “from the ground up.”
Vidrine announced that the Fall session, which will begin in August, will be focused on academics. She said that retired teachers and peer tutors will be able to help with homework and studying “before the fun and games.”