VP council sees gains and losses in budget

By: TONY MARKS
Associate Editor

At its monthly meeting Tuesday evening, the Ville Platte City Council discussed a mixed bag of issues ranging from the budget for the next fiscal year to the recent thefts.
Dana Quebedeaux with J.S. Dowling, Inc., presented the operating budget for the 2017-2018 fiscal year. She stated that the city anticipated to spend $3,291,000.00 next year for capital outlay items. “Some of these would have to be paid for strictly by the city, but majority of this is actually fully funded by federal and state grants,” she said.
According to Quebedeaux, the city originally intended to receive $15,977,000.00, but it would receive $11,675,260.00 under the amended budget. She also stated next fiscal year’s proposed revenues is $16,008,000.00. On the expenses side of the budget, the city originally intended to spend $15,917,000.00; however, it spent only $12,993,000.00. Expected expenses for next fiscal year are $15,792,000.00. The net change results in the city having a surplus of $269,618.00.
There is also a utility fund surplus in the amended operating budget in the amount of $792,103.00.
Mayor Jennifer Vidrine called for a special meeting on June 29, 2017, at noon for the council to adopt amended operating budget from last fiscal year and to adopt the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Quebedeaux went on to discuss the general fund and its hurdles. “The biggest hurdle looks like the police department,” she said. “The original budget was $1,957,000.00, but the police department actually spent $2,437,000.00.”
The budget woes for the police department will continue to rise due to medical expenses for prisoners going up 205%, insurance claim expenses going up 400%, and insurance going up 182%.
“This is because of the accidents that we’ve been having in conjunction with the lawsuits and the high risk of the department,” said the mayor.
“We need to lower the safety rates, and we need more safety in the department,” said Chief of Police Neil Lartigue.
According to Quebedeaux, “some of these expenses are beyond the city’s control, and they’re going to have to be paid no matter what. A solution as far as budgeting purposes are concerned is you have to reduce your other budget items where you can.”
“We’re doing everything that we can going forward to do the cuts where we have to cut,” the mayor said. “We’re negotiating with a lot of vendors that we presently have to see if they can go down on their prices especially with the medical.”
“We’re not gonna limit the services,” continued the mayor. “It’s just a lot of the supplies we have to cut back to the bare bones.”
While the budget is rising for the police department, calls to the department and felony arrests are also rising. In his report Lartigue stated, “the department responded to a total of 592 calls for assistance which required 564 reports, 14 citations, 57 arrests, and also responded to 41 accidents in the month of May.” The arrests included 18 felony arrests.
“Calls are up 49, reports are up 38, citations are down three, arrests are down six, felony arrests are up eight, and accidents are down two,” continued the chief.
The chief also updated the council on the series of break ins into several cars. He said that it was a group of juveniles going around St. Landry Parish, Eunice, and Ville Platte. He also said that they would open car doors and take items from the cars.
“Eunice ended up catching them,” said Lartigue. “There were seven in one vehicle, and we caught five of them. One was an adult. We also have one who stole a car, and he was found in Shreveport. He was in possession of a stolen firearm that was left in a vehicle that was unlocked. Since we’ve done this, we haven’t had anymore problems.
In other business the Ville Platte City Council:
•promoted Nancy Duplechain as curator of the Swamp Pop Museum.
•changed the July meeting date from July 11 to July 18.
•presented the fire department with a check in the amount of $39,249.48 to buy equipment that comes from an insurance rebates.
•renewed The Gazette as the Official Municipal Journal.
•adopted the millage rates for 2017 property taxes.
•and awarded city employees a three percent salary increase effective with the June 29 payroll.