A special meeting Monday morning, June 28, in Oberlin, with a full quorum of the council, led to serious discussions about finances and the town’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022.
Mayor Joseph “Moochie” Manuel presented his budget to the council, and explained there were cuts across the board.
“I talked to department heads,” he said. “Nobody wants to be cut, and I understand. We can always amend it as we go.”
The mayor was referencing proposed increases they are expecting to see in October or November.
However, Councilman Romelzy Willis Jr. had issues because the proposed budget had a deficit of approximately $67,000. “If you want to make a budget with a deficit, it’s up to you,” he said as he cited two statues that explained the council would be committing malfeasance in office if the budget was not balanced. Citing R.S. 39:1315, Willis read the statue that dealt with violations where public finances are concerned, stating, “any public official or officer that violates, either knowingly or intentionally, the provisions of R.S. 39:1305(E), either through the adoption of an original budget or through amendment to a legally adopted budget, shall be a violation of R.S. 14:134 and shall be subject to the penalties contained therein.”
Willis also pointed that R.S. 39:1305(E) deals with public finances and budget preparation. The area he refereed to, states, “E. The total of proposed expenditures shall not exceed the total of estimated funds available for the ensuing fiscal year.”
He said if the council agreed to accept the budget and it was not in the black, then they would be violating the statutes on budgets.
Mayor Manuel said $103,000 had been cut out of the budget across all departments.
Willis said, “Yes he may have, referring to Buzz Ande, who prepared the audit, but we are still in the red.” Willis presented the mayor with a balanced budget he had worked on to put the town in black.
The mayor asked what would they do without their budget, and Councilman Bobby Thomas suggested they go over Willis’ proposed budget to see if they could agree on accepting a balanced budget.
Charlotte Artis, city clerk, said, “Buzz did recommend cuts across the board, but he gave no specifics.”
Willis said, “he made cuts, but he didn’t balance it.”
The mayor said he would call others to question the process. Willis said cuts across the board would have to be made, but he hoped it could be amended when more revenue was found throughout the fiscal year. He even discussed where he thought changes might occur including asking voters to increase the ad valorem tax. There was also a discussion that when the town received government monies for the pandemic, it may free allow them to move other revenue into other funds to help maintain the town’s balanced budget.
Some accounts in Buzz’ proposed budget was discussed for clarification as to office supplies, $12,000; and administrative supplies for $7,200. Arits explained office supplies involved paper and other supplies for office use. Nicole Duplechain, finance clerk, said the administrative supplies covered software updates, backup systems and renewals of those agreements.
Willis’ proposed budget cut office supplies down to $6,000 and took the administrative supplies budget down to zero.
“Hopefully the revenue picks up,” Willis said. “We will have to amend this several times,” he explained as the town found more revenue to pay for some of the times that were being cut in the budget to make it balanced.
The town technically will give a 30 percent raise across the board to its employees, because for the first time, retirement costs for the town’s employees will be added Apparently Ande discovered this oversight, which had never been brought to the council’s attention by previous auditors. Artis and Duplechain shared with the council information they had received from Ande as he worked on the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Prior to the meeting, the mayor explained it must have been cut by another administration, because this particular council had never dealt with retirement and none of the prior audits had indicated it wasn’t being addressed. He said before this proposed budget, this administration believed they were finally going to have a budget that didn’t restrain them as much as this budget would because they were going to have to find ways to meet these additional costs.
Willis’ budget added dollars back to the police budget that Ande had cut in his proposed budget. Councilman Chris Davis wanted to know why the police budget was not being cut like the other departments.
Thomas said the police budget had been cut by 50 percent from $425,000 to $216,000. In the previous year, he said Chief Grady K. Haynes had spent only $388,000 of his proposed $425,000 budget for 2020-2021.
Willis added Ande’s budget cut the police budget to $140,000 from the previous year’s $425,000. He said that was maintenance and salaries combined.
Manuel said he thought that only involved salaries. He did say Haynes never goes over his budget.
Davis asked about LACE tickets. He said in 2016, the police department brought in $152,944; in 2017, $37,000; in 2018, $3,700; and in 2019, $29,000. This year, they have about $19,000 so far, and he wanted to know why can’t the town get to $152,000 again.
It was explained ethics shut down the program when the town accused the chief of malfeasance in office. In the end the charges were dropped against the chief after the ethics board conducted an investigation. Haynes explained there is no quota on tickets but he was the one responsible for writing the majority of those tickets before the ethics investigation. He also questioned why it was his department to bail out the town. The mayor answered the chief was given a raise after the ethics violation case was dropped and the chief was going to start writing tickets again.
Thomas said they had to balance this budget. He said they listened to the mayor’s suggestions and studied Ande’s proposed budget. He said they listened and applied it to Willis’ budget. He said by hiring more people, including officers, and keeping them working under 30 hours so they would not require benefits that would cost the town more, the town could move forward until more revenue was available to return to regular operations.
He said the mayor proposed reducing its 11 full-time employees to six. There also anticipate hiring more part-time officers so they don’t work over 30 hours.
Artis asked when would the cuts take place, and Thomas said July 1.
Both Thomas and Willis said once more revenue was available to the town, then they could amend the budget to utilize that revenue.
The mayor said he would look at the whole picture again. He said he didn’t know how funding a retirement for employees had slipped through without being paid. Thomas said he agreed with the mayor, because he had never heard an auditor or CPA mention the item.
“I hope by October we can put everybody back on,” Manuel said.
Councilman-at-Large Wayne Smith said he was okay with approving Willis’ budget.
Thomas said, “Income, we can’t change; it had to be expenses.”
Willis said they would look at it again. “We’re just doing our best to get it balanced.” He believed the town could survive until October on this budget.
Both Willis and Thomas pointed out late fees should not be in the budget and avoided when paying bills. Thomas said late fees are not allowed by the state.
Willis said he didn’t understand Ande’s budget at first. He said he didn’t like it, but his was a balanced budget.” He said his proposed budget left the town with a surplus of $2,000 at the end of the year compared to Ande’s negative $86,000.
Ande’s budget had a total revenue of $756,175; expenditure of $824,084; a surplus deficit of $67,909; and a balance of negative $88,316.18.
Willis’ budget had a total revenue of $786,175; expenditure of $767,784; a surplus deficit of $765,767.82; and a balance of $2,016.18.
In the amended fiscal year’s budget of 2020-21, retirement contributions was $14,712. Ande’s budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year has $97,000 budgeted. With the proposed cuts to employees’ hours, Willis’ budget has $75,000 for retirement.
Willis’ proposed budget was approved by the council.
The council also approved the ending fiscal budget for 2020-2021, which had to be amended.
