St. Martinville council to consider layoffs during teleconference Tuesday

Published 6:41 pm Monday, April 13, 2020

ST. MARTINVILLE — The St. Martinville City Council scheduled a teleconference for Tuesday evening in place of a standard council meeting in order to discuss potential layoffs within the city’s operations.

The phone call was initially set for Monday afternoon but was rescheduled at the last minute due to concerns over public meeting law notification requirements.

As opposed to other municipalities, which are dealing with the fallout from a decline in tax revenue due to the shutdown of many commercial establishments as a result of the stay-at-home order Gov. John Bel Edwards put in place last month, St. Martin Parish governments are also dealing with the loss of video poker revenue as those operations closed due to social distancing concerns.

Gaming revenue alone makes up approximately  $40,000 in revenue for the city each month.

If layoffs are put in place, it is expected the city will have to take between five to eight employees off the payroll until tax revenues revive after the coronavirus pandemic.

The teleconference will begin at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. 

Anyone wishing to comment the potential layoffs, which is the only topic of discussion on the agenda, must e-mail the substance of their comments to Executive Administrative Assistant Lorrie Poirier at lpoirier@stmartinville.net before 3 p.m. Tuesday.