St. Martinville City Council tables utility hike

Published 8:16 pm Monday, May 16, 2022

The St. Martinville City Council tabled a decision to raise utility fees in the city following a recommendation from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor.

In the 2021 audit report, the LLA reported that the city experienced an operating loss in their water and wastewater departments in the amount of $98,886 and $372,678, respectively, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021.

After heated discussion from audience members and the members of the council, Councilman Craig Prosper made a motion to increase the utility fees for city residents by 15 percent.

Prosper prefaced the motion by saying that the hike in utility fees would still not be enough to compensate for the operating loss St. Martinville utilities are facing and that St. Martinville currently has some of the cheapest utility rates in the city.

“I think we’re still going to be short even with this,” Prosper said. “We’re going to have to do some unique things but this will help moving forward.”

With a new administration and city council to be coming in the next few months, Prosper said the future administration could make a decision to reduce the increases after they take office but an increase in utility fees was needed now to make up for the operating losses.

Lisa Nelson, a city resident, spoke up against the motion saying that there had already been a utility increase that the audit had not accounted for because it had gone into effect following the end of the fiscal year date.

“I’m opposed to this because there was an increase that’s not in the audit,” Nelson said.

Prosper said the cheap rates the city currently had would mean that city residents would still have cheap rates comparatively.

“When you’re bleeding, you have to do something,” Prosper said.

Before a vote could be made, Councilman Juma Johnson made a substitute motion to table the agenda item so that more time could be spent looking at the budget and the points brought up during the discussion.

That vote led to a 2-2 tie, with Mayor Melinda Mitchell breaking the tie by choosing to table.

“I’m choosing to table it so we can see what the increases are and where we actually are with the budget,” Mitchell said.