Two Baton Rouge citizens are requesting a formal review of the way East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux provides law enforcement protection to the city of Central—an issue that has implications for the proposed city of St. George.
Downtown neighborhood activist Mary Jane Marcantel and downtown businessman Ben Taylor sent the letter today to Gautreaux, Attorney General Jeff Landry, District Attorney Hillar Moore, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor and the mayors of Baton Rouge, Baker and Zachary requesting a “review and explanation” of how Gautreaux provides police protection to Central “without being paid compensation for this dedicated policing.”
Gautreaux has acknowledged that under an informal agreement inked by his predecessor, Elmer Litchfield, the EBRSO provides police patrols to Central much as it did when the city was unincorporated—in other words, with funding from the parishwide millage that pays for all EBRSO services but not by a dedicated millage paid only by Central taxpayers.
As a practical matter, that means taxpayers in the cities of Baton Rouge, Baker and Zachary—all of which pay dedicated millages to support their own municipal police departments and also pay property taxes to support EBRSO operations—are subsidizing Central’s law enforcement services.
Organizers of St. George say they plan to have the same sort of arrangement with Gautreaux as does Central once their new city is up and running, hence the significance of the issue now that voters in St. George have approved incorporation.
“I think there are some issues that need to be addressed and no one is addressing them,” Taylor says, explaining why he co-authored the letter. “This should warn them.”
The 14-page letter also points out that while Central sales tax dollars have gone to fund additional patrols to Central as it has grown over the years, those dollars are paid directly to off-duty EBRSO officers, who are working as 1099 contract employees. The funds are not going to the department to help cover its expenses related to the jail, courthouse, property tax services or equipment and patrol cars.
“The taxpayers of East Baton Rouge Parish have a valid complaint for unfairness to them since they have been subsidizing the cost for the policing that has been given to Central for 13 years,” the letter concludes.
Gautreaux told Daily Report last week that if and when St. George is incorporated and it comes time to negotiate a contract for services with the new city, he will have to also meet with Central officials to renegotiate the deal he has been giving them.
“Everybody pays the sheriff the same taxes and it covers the courts, the jails, serving all the papers, Gautreaux says. “It’s more than just patrols. The people in Baton Rouge pay us and they have their own police department, and so do Baker and Zachary. At the end of the day if all this comes to fruition we will have to come to some sort of figure. And I am going to have to sit down with Central and say I can’t do this for one and not do the other.”
In their letter, Marcantel and Taylor say they want the EBRSO to draft a formal agreement with Central that will require the city to start paying its fair share, noting that “any determination about the city of Central’s way of handling policing will impact the proposed new city of St. George.”
