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.
Gautreaux delivered a letter to the mayor Tuesday informing him he’ll be meeting with local law enforcement heads to discuss their 25% cut of the grant funds. Holden responded to the letter Wednesday, outlining the terms he says were verbally agreed upon but never put in writing. Holden’s terms, as spelled out in his response letter, are:
• Twenty-five percent of the grant dedicated to law enforcement will be shared on a pro-rata population basis, and Gautreaux will not seek veto power over the distribution.
• Gautreaux will not seek veto power over the funds dedicated to homeland security.
• Gautreaux will sign off on previous GOHSEP expenditures for which the city-parish is seeking reimbursement.
Gautreaux says in his letter to Holden he will sign off on previous expenditures so long as “it meets the requirements set forth in the grant.” The sheriff could not be reached this afternoon for further comment.
