Along with voting down a host of controversial proposals to reform the Baton Rouge Police Department, the Metro Council on Wednesday deferred a vote on a contract Mayor Kip Holden is pursuing to privatize health care at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.
The council put off a vote on the contract after nurses and doctors working for the parish prison said the one-year, $5.2 million contract with Georgia-based ConnectHealth is actually worth roughly $6.6 million—much more than the $5.5 million budgeted for prison health care next year.
“How can the city pay for this? This is over the annual operating budget,” B. Stines, who has worked at the parish prison as a nurse for seven years, asked the council.
Stines outlined the services she contends ConnectHealth would not provide under the contract in a presentation to the council, which included what she called “hidden costs” in the company’s draft proposal agreement.
Stines told the council ConnectHealth will charge the city-parish $2.90 per inmate, per day, or about $1.41 million total on top of the $5.2 million.
Parish prison nurses and doctors also said the contract could open up the city-parish to potential lawsuits that it’s currently not liable for because it contracts with physicians who are personally insured against malpractice lawsuits. William Daniel, Holden’s chief administration officer, refuted each of the claims about costs and services offered up by the nurses and doctors.
“This contract is better for the prisoners, better for the parish and better for the taxpayers,” Daniel said, adding that he will be happy to go over the contract with the councilmembers and the parish prison staff so everyone understands it. The council will now take up the contract at its next regular meeting on Nov. 22.
Also Wednesday, the Metro Council struck down five of Councilwoman Chauna Banks’ police reform proposals, with the exception a resolution asking the mayor to budget money for a consultant to help the department with marketing strategies and recruitment of minority officers. The funding resolution, however, is simply a request and does not mean any money will actually be allocated.
In an interview this morning, Banks says she will bring “simple” reform proposals, such as a community advisory board, back to the council in the next month or two.
The Metro Council on Wednesday also unanimously approved a film industry sales tax rebate program in hopes of making Baton Rouge more competitive with other cities in the state that already have such rebate programs.
—Alexandria Burris and Sam Karlin
