Public Property and Buildings Committee
Despite the presence of a dozen or more Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Deputies – many in uniform and heavily armed – the Public Property and Buildings Committee of the Lincoln Parish Police Jury (LPPJ) failed on two tie votes to advance Sheriff Mike Stone’s plan to build a $5 million public safety complex on the LPPJ’s Road Camp Road property.
David Hammons (Dist 5) made a motion to adopt a cooperative endeavor agreement that was drafted – according to jury legal adviser Andy Shealy – by the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association (LSA).
It was seconded by Bobby Bennett (Dist 3), who had heretofore been one of the more vocal critics of the entire process. Bennett has publicly said that his constituents were concerned that such a valuable piece of taxpayer-owned property would be given up with little in exchange.
For consideration of the land, the sheriff would agree to pay upkeep and utilities on the 28 thousand ft/sq. facility for the 50 year term of the agreement.
However, before that motion was voted upon, Theresa Wyatt (Dist 1) made a substitute motion, seconded by Nancy Wilson (Dist 10) to donate title to the land, instead of a lease.
Voting yes were Wyatt, Wilson, and committee chair Hazel Hunter (Dist 2).
Voting no were Hammond, Bennett and Skip Russell (Dist 8).
The vote on the original motion was the opposite, with Hammond, Bennett and Russell voting yes, and Wyatt, Wilson, and Hunter voting no.
Stone, during his plea for the deal said that no local tax money would be used for construction, and that only federal grant money and state capital outlay would be spent.
Said Stone, “The complex would be with no local tax dollars whatsoever. (It’s) money we’ve already received.”
During discussion, Bennett noted that the land was worth $1 million or more and that was a lot of value to just “hand over.”
Russell brought up the issue of the huge cost overruns at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center, and the sheriff’s promises to help defray some of those costs.
Said Russell, “He (Stone) has assured me that the cost overrun for the detention center’s going to be covered through the funds for the sheriff’s office, and for that reason, I’m certainly going to support this public safety complex.”
Both wound up voting for the lease as proposed by Stone.
The tie votes mean that both proposals failed and therefore the committee essentially took no action on the cooperative endeavor agreement. At tonight’s meeting of the full jury, that body can either accept or reject committee reports, but since the Public Property and Buildings Committee has nothing to report, there is nothing to “accept” or “reject.”
Likely, there will be an effort to revive the issue at tonight’s meeting, but unless the agenda is amended, that cannot be done legally.
Amending the agenda takes a unanimous vote of the body.
Personnel/Benefits Committee
There was a bit of frank discussion at this committee meeting over the re-appointment of two commissioners – Ray Robinson and Mike Fulton – to the Lincoln Parish Fire District No. 1.
After Robinson was nominated by Theresa Wyatt, and Fulton was nominated by Bobby Bennett, committee members Ronny Walker (Dist 12) and Walter Pullen (Dist 6) sharply questioned the two about the district’s declining fund balance and increasing expenditures.
Asked Walker of Robinson, “I have one concern, and that’s the deficit spending that we’re seeing in the fire district. I just want to kinda get your feelings on how to address it.”
Robinson replied that the fire chief intended to form a committee to look at the spending for the last three years, and suggest solutions.
Pullen asked if Robinson had voted against any of the budgets in the seven years that he had been on the commission. Robinson said he couldn’t precisely recall, but that he probably voted for them.
Pullen said he feared that if the present course continued, then the district would go broke.
Fulton was also questioned by the two, with similar questions and answers.
When the vote came, Pullen voted no on Robinson and abstained on Fulton.
The other committee members voted for the nominees: committee chair Joe Henderson (Dist 6), Walker, Wyatt, Hammons, and Sharyon Mayfield (Dist 11).
08/14/2012 at 1:46 pm |
…federal grant money and state capital outlay
Look at all that free money!
08/14/2012 at 3:17 pm |
Our tax dollars hard at work supporting deputies in their new entertainment complex.
08/14/2012 at 3:44 pm |
Sheriff has sucked up all the state grant money to build his SuperCenter, and meanwhile maintenance at the Detention Center has been deferred about $1.5 million worth, the courthouse looks like an abandoned building, and yet they want to spend all the money they can get on something new.
And, lo and behold! He doesn’t have a place to put it…
08/14/2012 at 8:13 pm |
Yep, it’s hard to see the value in fixing up and maintaining what you already have when you have access to other people’s money. It’s so much more tempting to just build something new as long as they’re paying for it. Too bad us taxpayers can’t just build ourselves new houses every time ours need painting or repairing. Well, so much for looking after the taxpayers’ interest in Lincoln Parish.
08/15/2012 at 10:03 am |
Interesting that the sheriff’s father-in-law is Mr. Hammons, and he offered the motion and voted for it.
08/15/2012 at 12:57 pm |
“HEAVILY ARMED” ? WHY DO YOU IDIOTS TRY TO MAKE THE VERY ONES TRYING TO KEEP LINCOLN PARISH SAFE FOR YOUR FAMILIES SOUND LIKE OUTLAWS?THIS BLOG IS CLEARLY RUN BY A FREAKIN IDIOT. (GOT COFFEE).
08/16/2012 at 7:12 am |
Everyone knows exactly what message the deputies who showed up in full uniform were trying to send. This was nothing more than an intimidation tactic and there’s no reason for deputies to be in full uniform at a Jury meeting. You can come off of the “trying to keep Lincoln Parish safe” noise. Lincoln Parish doesn’t have enough crime to justify the number of deputies Stone has, and every howeowner in the Parish is armed to the teeth with enough firepower to make Dillinger blush. The only time we see a deputy in my part of the Parish is when he’s lost. Bunch of donut munching coffee swillers.
When the state amasses too much power, then citizens have to start fearing the state. Hitler had the Brownshirts to keep order, while Stalin had the NKVD. The federal government is purchasing billions of rounds of hollow point ammo, constructing FEMA camps, and stocking them with plastic casket liners. Do we have anything to fear from our government? With Obama and his radical progressive liberal Chicago thugs in charge? Really?
08/15/2012 at 10:24 pm |
The paper today said the transfer in fact passed. Did something happen? Did the full Jury in fact amend their agenda?
08/16/2012 at 7:47 am |
This story was about the committee meeting Monday evening. The full jury met Tuesday evening, and that is when the deed was done. Blog hasn’t caught up yet.
Note Mr. Russell’s attempt to make public the Sheriff’s promise to him (in exchange for his support of the land grab) to make up the deficit at the DC out of Sheriff’s office funds. he was plainly trying to put the QPQ out there, even if it is not written into the final agreement.
08/16/2012 at 5:04 pm |
To : Cowboy,
Do you really think that a few deputies in their dress uniforms is an intimidation tactic? I have seen the uniforms and they look very clean and professional. I don’t feel intimidated when I’m around law enforcement, I feel safe. And for the doughnut munching coffee swilllers comment, why speak foul of the men and woman that are sworn to protect us? I understand that you may not be happy with the way that our government is being ran, but i believe that the problem is in Washington not our local deputies.
To: Stone / LPSO – Keep up the good work, don’t let the words of these C.A.V.E. people ( citizens against virtually everything ) discourage you. Lincoln Parish is grateful for your service.
08/17/2012 at 7:45 am |
When a group of them show up at a Jury meeting for this vote when they don’t normally atttend meetings, then yes, I do see it as an intimidation tactic. I am an honest, law abiding citizen and feel no threat whatsoever from law enforcement personnel because I obey the law and see them as being there to protect and serve. Law enforcement is a job like any other job and the occassional miscreant is hired to perform that job. Humans being what they are, not every deputy is there for the most moral and upstanding reasons. Some are there because it’s the only job they could find, or they knew someone who helped them get on. Do you think Stone’s father-in-law, David Hammons, had pure motives in supporting Stone’s drive to build this new facility that will cost taxpayers from now on? There was no favratism there or family connections at work? We have a courthouse that every Parish agency seeks to abandon so they can build new facilities. We taxpayers foot the bill for all of this. Whenever one of us questions the need for these expenditures or disagrees with the wishes of the poitical insiders around here, we have to hear how these poor public servants work so hard for us under such terrible conditions and are made to feel guilty for even daring to speak up. Well, now it is coming out that government workers make more than their private sector counterparts and enjoy much better benefits packages. We private sector workers have to worry about layoffs, cutbacks, plant closings, foreign competition, economic slowdowns, etc., but government workers don’t have any of these worries and we have to watch as they pass new taxes, build new facilities, and lobby for better benefits packages with no worries of layoffs. And, we have to pay for all of this. I’m not against everything, but you people portray anyone who disagrees with you as being against everything. I am against wasting public resources on facilites we don’t need especially when we have perfectly good facilities available that the sheriff feels he’s too good to occupy. So, you’re damn right I got a problem with business as usual as conducted by the political insiders in Ruston!
08/17/2012 at 5:00 pm |
When the Crash That’s Coming gets here, lots of people are going to wish they’d done a lot of things differently. No Federal money to La means no State money to Lincoln parish: no money for schools, no sheriff’s supplemental pay; a huge drop in tax income, layoffs, etc. and it’s gonna hurt. Worse than hurt…politicians won’t tell people the truth: government is broke already, been covering it up with borrowed money, and that’s about at an end. Huge inflation coming, which can wipe out savings and retirements in short order.No one in government believes n the word “No”, but they’re about to become believers.