The Advertiser: Lafayette sheriff cutting employees due to “budgetary constraints”

LAFAYETTE, La., (Daily Advertiser) — The Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office is cutting an undisclosed number of employees “to address budgetary constraints,” according to LPSO spokesperson Lt. John Mowell.

The decision comes after Lafayette’s City-Parish Council rejected LPSO’s $1.7 million request for money to fund 35 positions at the parish jail was in July, and follows Lafayette Parish Sheriff Mark Garber’s decision to sue Lafayette Parish and Lafayette’s Consolidated Government in October to determine whether the parish government or the sheriff’s office is responsible for multiple costs at the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center.

Garber claimed in his lawsuit against Lafayette Parish and LCG that the sheriff’s office pays for multiple programs that it is not required by law to fund, totaling millions of dollars every year and threatened to eliminate certain programs to free up funding for services it claims LCG is responsible for paying for.

Most recently, LPSO announced on Nov. 15 that it would be closing the parish’s Juvenile Assessment Center, which provides treatment diversions in addition to tutoring and community service hours to juveniles who are arrested and escorted on citation by a local law enforcement agency throughout Lafayette Parish.

In an August memo to Lafayette’s City-Parish Council members, Garber wrote that the JAC costs $587,000 annually to operate, which LCG is under an agreement to provide $267,000 a year for.

In announcing the JAC’s closure, LPSO announced that LCG had not provided its annual payment for the center’s operations since 2017, which LCG interim Chief Administrative Officer Cydra Wingerter confirmed, saying the payments were held up because of a legal issue with invoicing.

Mowell wrote in a statement Thursday that further information about the layoffs will be released once all the employees expected to be impacted are notified.

“We are currently undergoing a financial reorganization of the agency as well as streamlining our programs and services to address budgetary constraints,” Mowell wrote.

“The financial health of the Sheriff’s Office goes hand in hand with the health and safety of the people we serve.  For that reason we are committed to undertaking the measures necessary to provide for that security.

“Out of respect for all parties involved, the Sheriff’s Office will release further information regarding this restructuring only when everyone who will be affected by the changes has been notified,” he added.

KATC reported that at least a dozen sheriff’s office employees were given layoff notices on Wednesday.

LPSO has about 740 active employees, according to its most recent annual financial audit.

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