The vote to incorporate St. George has raised questions about basic law enforcement services the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office has long provided to the City of Central at no cost, and whether St. George’s plan would mean they’ll also be receiving a level of law enforcement services at less than the actual cost.
That’s unfair to the rest of the parish’s taxpayers, say two opponents of St. George, who wrote a letter to an array of state and local officials laying out their objections.
The two, Mary Jane Marcantel and businessman Ben Taylor claim sheriff's deputies have been providing police protection to Central since its incorporation 15 years ago without any written agreement that would detail how and why the city is not paying more for dedicated services the Sheriff's Office doesn't provide to other municipalities in the parish with their own police forces.
"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 the city of Central...even when they do not live in that municipality," Marcantel and Taylor wrote last week in a letter addressed to the mayors of Baton Rouge, Zachary and Baker.
The letter was also sent to Sheriff Sid Gautreaux, Attorney General Jeff Landry, District Attorney Hillar Moore and the state's Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera.
Marcantel and Taylor have not said if they intend to pursue the matter further, or how.
Central Mayor David Barrow didn't receive the letter, even though it primarily focuses on his city's arrangement with the Sheriff's Office. He said he "really didn't have a comment" about the assertions made in the letter.
Gautreaux said in response that he has jurisdiction throughout the parish, including within the city limits of any municipality within East Baton Rouge Parish, in his capacity the chief law enforcement officer for the parish. He also noted that a significant portion of his office's day-to-day operations are paid for through three parishwide taxes all property owners pay.
Although it hasn't happened yet, an argument could be made every resident in the parish pay property and sales taxes that also benefit the Baton Rouge Police Department.
Linda Hunt, the city-parish's Finance Director, confirmed that some of the police department's more than $90 million budget is funded through the city-parish's general fund. And the more than $300 million in revenue the city-parish's general fund received this year primarily came from sales taxes, with 8.7% pulled in from the parish's 3.32-mill property tax all property owners in the parish pay.
If voters in the southeastern portion of East Baton Rouge Parish create a new city of St. George, the municipality will be required to have a …
The spotlight on policing in Central is rooted in the St. George incorporation, which 54% of the voters within the proposed city approved In October
Those in opposition of St. George, like Marcantel and Taylor, questioned the legality of organizers' plans to rely on the Sheriff's Office as their primary police protection in the proposed city of more than 86,000 people in southeast East Baton Rouge.
Even though the Sheriff's Office presently serves as chief law enforcement for the unincorporated parts of the parish, once an area is incorporated, they argue, state law mandates St. George have a police chief solely in charge of law enforcement and not serving in the capacity of a liaison between the city and the Sheriff's Office the way St. George’s organizers envision.
Opponents also criticized St. George's plan to allocate an additional $4 million to the Sheriff's Office, on top of the annual dedicated property taxes residents would still have to pay to the Sheriff's Office, saying it’s a fraction of the amount of money actually needed to provide police protection in a city with a population the size of St. George.
They estimated it would take between $25 million and $35 million a year for St. George to have its own police force.
St. George retorted there was no need to create a police department when they could just mirror Central's arrangement with the Sheriff's Office and save money in the process.
The letter penned by Marcantel and Taylor claims the sheriff some sort of verbal agreement with Central's leaders after the city’s incorporation in 2005 to do its policing for free and that the arrangement has continued since that time.
They said they filed public records requests to the city of Central and the Sheriff's Office for documents related to any written agreement and were never provided with any. They also found no evidence of payments made from Central to the Sheriff's Office for the deputies that serve as the city's primary police force.
"Central believes they have found a way to circumvent their obligations as a municipality...by getting free policing from the Sheriff's Office and enhancing that policing by hiring extra duty deputies instead of funding a full time working police department just as every other municipality in Louisiana does," the letter states. "Police services cost money that it appears that the city of Central does not want to spend."
The cities of Zachary and Baker each have their own police forces.
Baker's Finance Director Mary Sue Stages said the city annually allocates $1.7 million to support its police department and they have a half-cent dedicated sales tax that adds an additional $500,000 to the police protection. They have approximately 31 employees within the city's police department, she said.
Steve Nunnery, chief administrative officer for Zachary, said the city allocates about $4 million in revenue every year to support their police force, which has approximately 55 employees.
The letter also states the Sheriff's Office handled about 5,892 calls in Central on average each year between 2014 and 2018.
The letter goes on to point out Gautreaux's annual budget doesn't indicate how much of the revenue he collects each year from the parishwide dedicated taxes gets allocated toward police protection in Central.
A prominent Baton Rouge businessman and a conservative political action group have come out against an effort to incorporate a new city in sou…
"By law the sheriff is not legally responsible for this policing of the city of Central. The elected police chief for Central is," the letter states. "If the sheriff has 'extra money' to use for the exclusive benefit of the city of Central, maybe this tax needs to be reviewed to determine if it is necessary for the total operations of the Sheriff's Office for the entire parish of East Baton Rouge if he is giving away free policing to Central."
Gautreaux's office declined to get into the specifics of the various allegations and concerns Marcantel and Taylor posed in their letter. But his spokeswoman said the Sheriff’s Office provides supplemental police services to the other municipalities in the parish that have and pay for their own police forces as well.
"As the chief law enforcement officer of the entire parish, the sheriff responds to calls, hosts and attends community outreaches and conducts proactive enforcement efforts throughout the entire parish, regardless of city jurisdictions," Casey Rayborn Hicks said in a prepared statement. "His primary concern is, and always will be, the unincorporated areas that have no other means of protection."
Hicks also noted that extra-duty patrols are not isolated to just Central. She said deputies do extra patrols throughout other parts of the parish as well for various neighborhood associations and crime prevention districts.
In his response to the letter, the sheriff reiterated he intends to do whatever he can to support the vote to incorporate St. George.
"I will always do what is best for the safety of our collective community which often means supplementing other jurisdictions including Baton Rouge, Baker, Zachary and Central," Gautreaux said. "I will not let any supplementation or support of a city jurisdiction affect services to the unincorporated areas. If this becomes the case, we will require further compensation to provide such services."