ST. MARTINVILLE — So far, the bulk fuel provider has cut them off. The chlorine supplier has stopped taking orders. The police department’s account for ammunition is frozen. The two biggest vendors it deals with, its solid waste collection contractor and the electric company that provides its wholesale electricity, are on a negotiated settlement basis.

With all that said, for the first time in almost two years the city of St. Martinville has a plan to raise its utility rates for electricity, water and sewage high enough to get the three operations out of the red and start providing income for the city’s general fund.

“The administration refused for a long time to fix the situation,” said Mayor Pro Tem Craig Prosper. “It was unclear to me what the problem was. It took a lot of digging, a lot of time. But now I am convinced that I know how we got here and how we can get out of this.”

Prosper said that the city has traditionally run its water and wastewater operations at a loss, making up the difference with its income from the electric utility. But when the city signed its latest contract with CLECO for wholesale electricity, it lowered rates as well, eliminating the additional income that had been covering the losses in other operations.

The issue came to a head in June, when members of the council, along with the city’s department heads, had to make cuts in the budget before it could be adopted because Mayor Melinda Mitchell was not available.

“We were $1.3 million out of that budget before the budget year even started,” Prosper said. “I reached out to the department heads and told them they had to make the cuts or I would, and they would not like it if I had to do it.”

Mitchell, who has been adamantly against raising any rates since she took office, was largely silent during the discussion Monday night. When the city passed its budget last year, which included a utility rate increase in order to balance, she took to local radio and social media to decry the hikes and to distance herself from them. She even held a rally at the city’s Adam Carlson Park Pavillion to denounce the increases.

Those increases, although counted on in the budget, were never implemented. That, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional contractor fees for forensic accounting and auditor help incurred recreating the city’s books after the nine-month tenure of previous CAO Shedrick Berard, left a gaping hole in the budget that the council had to address before the budget could legally be passed.

“We sat down at a budget hearing and cut a million dollars out of the budget,” District 1 Councilman Mike Fuselier said, taking aim at Mitchell and District 5 Councilman Edmond Joseph, who missed both the budget hearing in June and Monday’s meeting. “It’s easy when you don’t show up.”

The solution passed Monday night, with the blessing of the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, includes raises to the city’s electric, sewage and water rates. That, according to Prosper, will add up to about $16 a month for residents using 2,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and 4,000 gallons of water a month.

The end result of the increases will bring just over $500,000 annually into the city’s coffers.

The plan also includes going to the Louisiana State Bond Commission in order to float a $250,000 loan against the new revenues in order to pay current vendors so the city can continue to operate.

“I don’t see where the city has any alternative but to make a rate increase,” City Legal Counsel Allan Durand said. “The Louisiana Legislative Auditor called me last week. If LLA comes in, they aren’t going to come in and say, ‘Raise the rates,’ and go back to Baton Rouge. They are going to bring in an administrator and stay until they are sure the city is on a solid footing. The Legislative Auditor doesn’t come in with a scalpel. It comes in with a hatchet.”

The St. Martinville City Council also:

• Approved a request from Manuel Robertson to hold a Stop the Violence Rally.
• Approved leasing a portion of the J.B. Talley building adjacent to the Festival Grounds.
• Approved hiring a full-time police officer and a part-time crime scene photographer.

Even with its $5.66 per 1,000 kWH increase, the city of St. Martinville is still charging the lowest electric rate in the state. Here’s a sampling of costs from various Louisiana utilities in May, 2021:

• St. Martinville: $80.98
• St. Martinville (w/increase): $86.64
• Claiborne: $93.58
• SLECA: $94.77
• Washington-St. Tammany: $94.81
• Northeast: $95.53
• SLEMCO: $99.10
• DEMCO: $101.56
• Concordia: $102.06
• Pointe Coupee: $102.44
• Jeff Davis: $107.27
• CLECO: $112.25
• Beauregard: $113.20
• Entergy Gulf States: $113.29
• Entergy Louisiana: $122.06
• SWEPCO: $132.52
• (SOURCE: Louisiana Energy and Power Authority)