Even when it’s a good year and his office’s annual budget is $2.2 million, city-parish Constable Reginald Brown has had to go before the Metro Council and request surplus funding for his 37 deputies, chief deputy and office staff. And it’s never easy.
“There is not a complete understanding of what our office does,” Brown says.
To give Mayor Kip Holden’s office and the Metro Council a better understanding, Brown is asking them to form a committee to study the duties he and his staff are tasked with each day. Brown says he’d like them to have the study completed in time to be presented to the Metro Council by Jan. 31 so that his office won’t get brushed aside when surplus funding in the future is distributed.
In better budgetary times, more than 10 years ago, Brown says his office had about 50 deputies. It has had fewer than 40 deputies for about the past eight years, and Brown says it routinely faces budgetary shortcomings for overtime when deputies have to work court trials that go beyond the normal end-of-business hour of 5 p.m.
“And we’ve taken on more responsibilities,” says Brown, noting four staff members teach the DARE program in local schools.
Deputies in the constable’s office serve official documents including subpoenas, warrants and evictions; they also transport prisoners to and from the courts for the parish jail system.
“We are averaging 15 to 20 prisoners a day that we bring downtown for the five courts,” says Brown, not counting the 40 prisoners his staff guarded and processed Tuesday morning for a first appearance before a judge via video camera and TV.
Creating a five-member committee to study the constable’s office is an agenda item tonight for the Metro Council. The council meets at 4 p.m. on the third floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. The full agenda is here.
