Lafayette Consolidated Government and the Sheriff's Office are at odds over money for jailhouse services.
Sheriff Mark Garber is asking for an additional $1.8 million on top of the $2.4 million proposed for courthouse funding. The Advocate is reporting that Garber would use this money to pay for more than three dozen positions, including mental health professionals, food service workers and GED instructors.
Mayor President Joel Robideaux's chief administrative officer, Lowell Duhon, questioned Garber's timing.
"We had Sheriff Neustrom pay for this before. We had Sheriff Garber pay for it the first few years. Now this year we get hit with a $1.7 million increase," Duhon said at the hearing. "Why this year? Why in the past has this never been an issue?"
The conflict between LCG and the sheriff over funding isn't new. In December, Garber presented a proposition to the parish that would have raised $25 million for law enforcement operations in the parish. Lafayette Police was the only parish police agency that didn't support it, and it failed.
Last year, council members tried to put a proposition on the ballot that would have funded jail operations, but Robideaux said it wasn't needed.
To read more details, check out this story in The Advocate.
