As East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux prepares to meet with area law enforcement officials to discuss their share of grants from the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, Mayor Kip Holden says he’ll be speaking with state and federal homeland security officials soon to try to resolve the ongoing debate. The Metro Council received a report on GOHSEP spending for the past six fiscal years on Wednesday, but tabled further discussion to a special meeting set for 2 p.m. May 11, prior to the regular meeting at 4 p.m. that day.
The sheriff and mayor have been at odds for months over application details on roughly $4 million in GOHSEP grants awarded in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. The money—of which 75% is to go to local homeland security operations and 25% to local law enforcement—has yet to be released because the applications have not been submitted with the sheriff’s signature as required by GOHSEP. Holden contends he hasn’t given the applications to the sheriff for a signature because the GOHSEP rules requiring the sheriff’s signature, effective since 2009, were put in place without necessary legislative approval. Gautreaux claims the mayor is reneging on a verbal agreement reached at an April 14 meeting that would allow the sheriff to sign off on the grant applications. Holden says he agreed to certain terms with Gautreaux, but says the sheriff never put the agreement in writing as requested. Read the full story here. —Steve Sanoski
