St. Martinville City Council approves budget, hiring of facility maintenance repairinan

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, July 1, 2020

ST. MARTINVILLE — The St. Martinville City Council held its regular meeting a week in advance Monday night so it could adopt the city’s 2020-2021 budget before the end of its fiscal year today.

Even with the public hearing and meeting moved up and the document in place, there were questions to be answered, specifically about how the city charges for its utilities.

“We have a utility system that is pretty much the only thing that makes money,” said Mayor Pro Tem Craig Prosper, who presided over the meeting in the absence of Mayor Melinda Mitchell. “The markup was about 20 percent back in the day. When the cost came down, we should have made adjustments but we didn’t.”

The budget document as presented Monday night had the utility providing $1.5 million to the city enterprise fund in 2020 and in 2021. Even after backing that down to $1.2 million, the operation may lose $270,793 at year end 2020, largely due to losses in the sewage portion, but be on track to make $181,000 in 2021. Because of the short timeline to submit the budget, the adjustments will have to be made in the next budget year.

“We negotiated a good (electric) deal, but the payment to the enterprise fund never changed,” Prosper said. “The only thing that will happen for now is that the residents and businesses got a break on their electricity. The city will have to take the hit on that.”

The council made adjustments to its water department in the 2017-2018 budget, bringing that department from a $50,000 to a $119,000 profit this year.

Overall, the budget shows the city gaining a $2.2 million grant for sewage renovations and upgrades and $200,000 in a grant to create an RV park at the city’s Festival Grounds.

The net position budgeted for the end of 2021 is $10.6 million, within $1,500 of the starting position on July 1.

During the council’s regular meeting, Legal Counsel Allan Durand told council members that the administration had an agreement in principle with the Races and Aces video poker operation to extend its lease for one year, with an option for a two-year extension based primarily on the city making repairs to the building’s roof.

The council also approved hiring a new facility maintenance repairman at a higher than normal rate due to the certifications and qualifications he was bringing to the position.

In explaining the reason for the higher entry level pay, Public Works Maintenance Manager Brian Touchet used the example of a mechanic who was hired three months ago at a higher rate based on his abilities. According to Touchet, the addition of the mechanic has saved the city considerably more than the additional salary costs in decreased repair and maintenance costs for the police vehicles, city bucket truck and backhoe repairs.

Although the hire was approved, District 5 Councilman Edmond Joseph asked Touchet if the job had been posted properly so existing employees could apply, insinuating that the position was created so that the new hire, Joe Watkins, could be hired without any competition from current employees.

“What are you saying hasn’t been done right?” Touchet asked.

District 4 Councilman Juma Johnson said he was concerned about the morale of employees at the Public Works barn.

“I agree that you get what you pay for, but if there is a feeling that you put in your years and you should get the position.”

Touchet said he was open to having any council members who had questions about morale coming by the barn and speaking to the employees.

The hire was approved in a 4-0 vote, with Joseph abstaining.

The council also rejected a move to put Touchet on two days unpaid leave for allowing another employee to take Watkins to the city’s water plant as part of his interview process. Mitchell had sent a letter to discipline Touchet for violating a city policy that was designed to keep friends and family from riding in city vehicles, not employees or people on business.

Durand said the policy was not applicable to the actions Touchet had taken. The council voted to rescind the punishment.

In another disciplinary matter, the council voted unanimously to have Denia Kately serve a one-day suspension for failing to communicate with her supervisor during the testing of all city hall employees two weeks ago.

As the meeting closed, Joseph argued that the city needed to close down city hall and have it professionally cleaned after Mitchell had tested positive for COVID-19 in June.

“Y’all say this COVID stuff is important, but you want to just have the janitor do the cleaning,” Joseph said. “You need to get a professional in here. This building has been contaminated.”

The council adjourned without taking action on Joseph’s suggestion.