Pine Prairie council discusses raises and new police units at meeting

The Pine Prairie Village Council reached a compromise agreement with Chief of Police L. C. Deshotel regarding police department funding.
The council agreed to look into obtaining a grant to cover the costs of purchasing new police units. This move would free up village funds to give a police officer a pay increase.
The issue arose at the council meeting held last Thursday. Chief Deshotel requested the council to purchase two units because one is in the shop. When asked what would happen if the unit cannot be fixed, Mayor Quint West replied, “We can’t spend money we don’t have.” He added, “We have to stay within the budget. We can look at something like at the state police auction and try to pick up something.”
The council toyed around with the idea of purchasing units on credit, but Village Attorney Greg Vidrine interjected. “There are restrictions on your ability to borrow money and to borrow money and bonds and all that,” he said.
Chief Deshotel then floated the idea of giving Officer Ben Bordelon a pay increase because he was promised one under the previous administration.
West replied that the timing is not right for such a raise. “I want to let this audit finish,” he said. “The State has been hammering us, and they’re still not done. I talked to Mike Johnson, and he told me to hold off and to let all this get cleared up then we can move on.”
“I’m not going to run the town broke,” West continued. “I’m not going to do it. I want to be careful with the money.”
Councilwoman Debbie Oge assured the chief that Bordelon will get a raise before the councilmen receive one and quelled the idea that a raise was not available in the future. “I can understand Quint’s position that you don’t want to rush into things,” she said. “You want to be careful, and you want to make sure the money is there.”
In other business, the council:
•approved the minutes of the June 8, 2017, regular meeting.
•and approved the payment of monthly expenditures.