Jessie Bellard Stands His Ground

[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, guys, another episode of the Parish circuit. We're hanging out with Jesse Bellard still for you, our listeners, it feels like we've been hanging out with him for a long time, but really it's been about 40 minutes. We're just doing several episodes. So we wanted to talk about the budget. So state's coming in. They've already come in, right? Like at this point, they've already come in, they've assessed the books, trying to figure out what to do, what to do next, what the next phase of recovery looks like here. So what's, what's happened? They've, they've come in. What, what's happened so far. [00:00:36] Speaker B: So of course, a lot of people. I say a lot of people. Take that back. A handful of people been hollering for the legislative auditor to come in. And look, I welcome that. And I was happy that they came in. [00:00:47] Speaker A: I remember you saying that I want you, I want them bring them, come look at the books. [00:00:53] Speaker B: And they came in and sat with them on the very first day. [00:00:56] Speaker A: Now, this is Wagus back, Right? Isn't that the guy, his crew? [00:00:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:00:59] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. [00:01:00] Speaker B: He had four people come in and we gave them access to everything that they needed. And whatever they didn't, I could make sure they had it anyway because I didn't want him to say why didn't look into this. I wanted to make sure they looked at everything. So they did everything. They looked at everything and they come back with some recommendations. And the recommendations basically is to watch the overtime, watch the travel, and watch spending and some of the normal things. Well, one of the recommendations is for us to look at the 1mil property tax for juveniles because that cost is skyrocketing. And they looked at our revenue and they said, Jesse, you have a revenue problem. Not really a spending problem. You got a revenue problem. The expenses are coming regardless, but you don't have the revenue coming in. And I said, yeah, we've been screaming that, but again, there's nothing I can do about it. And. Okay, so we, we, we did change up a couple of things. They came in and they made some recommendations, which was greatly appreciated. And one of the recommendations was the racino money that comes in from the, from the racetrack is to use that to, to pay down the debt on, on our general fund. So that money was in Rowan Bridge, but it was never dedicated through ordinance or anything. It was just always said to go there for the last 22 and a half years. That's where it went. [00:02:35] Speaker A: Okay. [00:02:36] Speaker B: Because that's. It was always Intended for the roads. [00:02:38] Speaker A: This is the money from the. [00:02:39] Speaker B: From the racino. [00:02:41] Speaker A: Got it. Okay. [00:02:42] Speaker B: So we move that into the general fund to pay offset that cost. Now, immediately after that bond is paid, the money is going back to road and bridge. [00:02:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:50] Speaker B: And then we're going to do it by ordinance to make sure it stays there. [00:02:52] Speaker A: Okay. [00:02:53] Speaker B: So we don't. So we don't have that ability to take it from there. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Okay. But the road and bridge is different than Smooth ride Home. That's two different things. [00:03:00] Speaker B: Two different things. [00:03:01] Speaker A: Okay. Just want to clarify that. [00:03:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Smooth ride home is its own fun. Road, bridge is its own fun. We have 53 different bank accounts. Yeah. You know, and every one of those have a purpose. You know, but in government and, and people don't understand this. Government finance is different than any other because the taxes don't come in at the same time for all the funds, but your expenses come in on a regular basis. [00:03:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:26] Speaker B: So you have to borrow from this and to pay this one throughout the year. [00:03:30] Speaker A: Okay. [00:03:31] Speaker B: And whenever that money comes in, you pay it back. Then you have some there. You got to pay here. So at the end of the year, you want to try to balance everything off. [00:03:37] Speaker A: Okay. [00:03:38] Speaker B: Some days are better, some days are not. But at the end of the day, we have to make sure that the people are receiving their services. Okay. [00:03:46] Speaker A: Okay. [00:03:47] Speaker B: And the way we have it structured now is people are still getting the same services because the permit office, we have a special fund for the permit office. And that fund is fund 113 and it pays for adjudication, adjudicated property cleanups, it pays for code enforcement and it pays for the permit office. Okay. So what we're doing with that is self sustaining fund to take care of those functions of government that. So that it doesn't rely on general fund monies. [00:04:18] Speaker A: Okay. [00:04:19] Speaker B: Then we have the event spaces that we have. That's also a separate fund. It's gonna be self sustaining. If it doesn't make enough money, then it doesn't exist. [00:04:30] Speaker A: Got it. [00:04:30] Speaker B: So it does not take off a general fund. [00:04:32] Speaker A: Okay. You're talking about like the Delta Grand. [00:04:34] Speaker B: The Delta in the country club. [00:04:37] Speaker A: Okay. Got it. So they don't pay for themselves. Yeah, they're out. [00:04:41] Speaker B: It's been good. I mean, we've been very fortunate. And it is paying for themselves, but it needs to stay like that to survive. [00:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. [00:04:50] Speaker B: So that. We're very happy with that part. So general fund as it sits now is mandated expenses only. [00:04:59] Speaker A: Okay. [00:05:00] Speaker B: And any revenue associated with that is in that fund. [00:05:04] Speaker A: Okay. [00:05:05] Speaker B: So we hoping by cuts and everything else, we're going to make that work, but it's not going. It's going to be almost impossible because there's more expenses and mandates than in revenue. [00:05:21] Speaker A: So right now, would you call the budget balanced as far as expenses to revenue? [00:05:28] Speaker B: Only because we utilize in funds like the racino and the video Pokemon to offset some of those expenses. [00:05:34] Speaker A: So you've. You've changed. So those. That money, which is supposed to go somewhere else. [00:05:38] Speaker B: Right. [00:05:38] Speaker A: Is now going to the general fund. Right now it balances out. [00:05:41] Speaker B: Right. [00:05:42] Speaker A: And it was the state auditor that [00:05:43] Speaker B: told you to do that on the racino side? [00:05:45] Speaker A: Yeah, on the receipt. [00:05:47] Speaker B: Video poker. We had already moved it over. [00:05:48] Speaker A: You already moved video poker over? Yeah. And the. Where did the video poker money normally go to? [00:05:52] Speaker B: Road and bridge. [00:05:53] Speaker A: It all went to road and bridge. Oh, dang. So road and bridge is suffering right now. [00:05:58] Speaker B: Yep. [00:05:59] Speaker A: Okay. [00:05:59] Speaker B: And it goes back to one other thing that people don't know. There's no mandate for me to go fix your road or dig your ditch. [00:06:07] Speaker A: Okay, okay. [00:06:08] Speaker B: Like, I don't have to go fix your road. I don't have to go dig the canals. I ain't got to do nothing with anything like that because the law doesn't make me do it, but the law makes me make sure that we have a jail, make sure we have the judicial system, make sure we take care of the inmates, make sure we take care of all the other mandates that's required. Yeah, but your roads. Hey, you know, dang, it's sad. It's sad. [00:06:33] Speaker A: So what's the fix, Jesse? Like, so dead serious. So it seems like the state came in, they said, get your books right or else? And then they actually walked into the office and dialed that back and said, oh, you don't have any money. And you were like, I know. We've been saying that for a long time. How do we fix the expenses to revenue? Like, is. You referenced overtime pay. Like, how. How big of a deal is that? [00:07:00] Speaker B: So. So this is what. This is how I'm fixing the overtime stuff. And I'm. And I'm doing it in a way where, of course, I have to work a lot more. I take all the calls. Every call that comes into the parish comes to me. So, like, Sunday night, I was on Grant Row. [00:07:16] Speaker A: Why do you want this job? [00:07:18] Speaker B: I keep asking myself, like, why do [00:07:21] Speaker A: you want this job? Good grief. Okay, sorry. Go ahead. [00:07:24] Speaker B: So. So I went out Sunday night, and then I removed for road. Simcoe was there to fix the power lines, and I went Back yesterday morning and take the tree up out of the ditch and get it off and finish with that. That it took a couple of guys to go do, you know, overtime. A couple hours each. [00:07:40] Speaker A: Overtime because it's a weekend. [00:07:41] Speaker B: Because it's. Yeah. After hours. And then again on like normal, the next workday they should be going take the tree out of the ditch. So. And of course every. Every animal control call, you know, people hollering about the above, the trail rides. So Saturday morning at 6 o' clock, I get a phone call. There were seven bulls on 190 in front of the aggregator. We had a rodeo Friday night. Those seven bulls were on 190. And I was catching my horse to go work my cattle that morning. So we just came over here with my horses and we started looking for me in the woods and then we pulled our horses and then they went work my cattle and I stayed over here with the owners of the bulls and his crews and stuff. From 6:30 that morning till 7:00 clock that night, the bulls were in the woods behind Agarina and all that back there from burr street to 190, back and forth and they couldn't catch them. Yeah. So that went on until 12 o' clock Sunday. [00:08:44] Speaker A: Okay. [00:08:44] Speaker B: Till we caught him. [00:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah, but see, that's not sustainable, man. You know, like you. What I'm saying is like, so I want to live in St. Landry parish until I'm dead, You know, I want to make stuff great here. The Lord's blessed our business. We're having success in that. And through the, through the work that we get to do, we're actually bringing money into the parish from all over the world, which is awesome. And I want to keep that going. So that means I'm invested. Like how do we set up our parish so that we're not upside down anymore? What do we do? Well, is it just about getting new businesses here? Like, what does that, what does it look like? [00:09:22] Speaker B: So even, even to that extent, if the businesses come into the parish and they stay in the rural areas of the parish and they become taxpayers of the. Of the parish, Not a municipality, just at the parish. [00:09:36] Speaker A: Okay. [00:09:36] Speaker B: Then we can get that revenue. [00:09:38] Speaker A: Okay. [00:09:39] Speaker B: If a business comes in and it goes into a municipality, it doesn't go to the parish. [00:09:44] Speaker A: What if people who live in parish lines, people who live outside of cities, is that revenue that, that the parish receives? [00:09:52] Speaker B: Yes, if they. Yeah, the tax money that we get is from. From the taxes that they pay on their, on their property tax. [00:09:58] Speaker A: Yeah. What do other parishes do? Like how do they. How do they pay their bills? [00:10:02] Speaker B: They do the same thing we do as robbing Peter to pay Paul and that general fund. [00:10:07] Speaker A: Really. [00:10:07] Speaker B: Now, we did a road by Lafayette Parish. We overlaid the road a few months back, and some of that road kind of leaned into Lafayette Parish. It was a big old problem. So we looked at the assessments, and there was two houses that was paying our taxes, but they were technically should be in Lafayette Parish. [00:10:28] Speaker A: Okay. [00:10:29] Speaker B: So then they had to change their assessments within a week. They call back, we want to go back to your Paris, because the taxes in Lafayette Paris are so much higher. But they tax you for mosquito control. They tax you for every little service. We don't do that here, you know, but you don't get that service either. Like, I had a phone call this week about mosquitoes. We can't do mosquitoes. We don't have the money to do mosquitoes. It's just a lot of expenses that we don't have the tax structure for. And in Lafayette Parish, you go pay the taxes. [00:11:00] Speaker A: See, that's interesting that people call the government about mosquitoes. I would just go buy some stuff from the store and go deal with mosquitoes. I think that's a different podcast episode, though. That's something that David and I have noticed. Like, there's this quickness to. I would prefer this tax structure. Let me say that out loud. Like, let's go low taxes, humanly possible. You know, I like that. In terms of government, I prefer a small government. Right. But I also, at the same time, am recognizing that the state keeps mandating expenses that we can't necessarily afford. So there's something happening. There's a dynamic going on here that either needs to be. At some point, can we just look at the state and be like, too bad we're not going to do it. Can we do that? Like, is that allowed? [00:11:48] Speaker B: I'm going to try very hard not to do that. What are the cuts that can be made? So we made all the cuts that we could in our office by personnel and making them making one person do, like, a three job. [00:12:05] Speaker A: So you're talking about layoffs. [00:12:06] Speaker B: Yeah, we did some layoffs. [00:12:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And how many? [00:12:10] Speaker B: We did probably six this year. [00:12:13] Speaker A: Okay. [00:12:13] Speaker B: Across the board in different areas. But what's left now is providing a service to the people that if I cut that person out, then I got to cut the whole service out. [00:12:24] Speaker A: You got to cut the whole department? [00:12:25] Speaker B: Yeah. So what we've been doing is having that one person run that department and then getting help from other departments. To come help them with that. Like code enforcement for instance. [00:12:34] Speaker A: Okay. [00:12:34] Speaker B: It's a one man show. But the code enforcement takes care of a lot of pieces of property in our parish. So we got to get somebody from public works and somebody from here, somebody from there to come and help cut grass and then clean up the property. [00:12:47] Speaker A: And then you deal with the overtime problem again. [00:12:49] Speaker B: Right, exactly. [00:12:50] Speaker A: It sounds like it's just this vicious cycle where I can do some layoffs but then I'm going to pay this person overtime. [00:12:56] Speaker B: The nurses at the jail, prime example. They were hollering about the nurses at the jail, but they within budget. But go find a nurse that wants to work in a jail. That's our problem. And we're paying. I want to say it's hard to [00:13:08] Speaker A: find a nurse that wants to work at a hospital. [00:13:10] Speaker B: You're right. Yeah. I think we're paying 28 an hour for an LPN to work in our jail. And it attracts the people to get to the, to the application and even come to interview. Then when you sit down and they say I'm not doing that because you in the situation every single day, you know, it's dangerous in there and nobody wants to, you know. So the crew that I have now, I mean it's really working out well. I'm short one and I'm hoping that we can get that feel pretty soon again. This stuff that you got to do is. You don't have the manpower to do it, but it's required of you. [00:13:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:47] Speaker B: And. And we do our best that we can. You know, as one thing I can't go do is be a nurse. So call me over there. I can't help you with that. [00:13:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I can catch cows. [00:13:57] Speaker B: I can go catching bulls. I can go and I can dig a ditch or I can go remove a tree or go take. [00:14:03] Speaker A: I mean, I guess you could stitch somebody up, you know, if you had to. [00:14:06] Speaker B: Yeah. It probably wouldn't work too well. Yeah, I probably get sued, so. But what I'm saying is there's a lot of, of services that we provide to the people of this parish that the people don't pay nothing for. You know, their property taxes that they pay. If they look at it and really look at that 33.62 meals and look at where that money goes. They going to see where Paris government gets at the bottom of that list. [00:14:32] Speaker A: Yeah. The vast majority of it goes to school board. Isn't that right? [00:14:35] Speaker B: 61%. [00:14:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:37] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah. So are there. I mean I'll just, I'll Just ask [00:14:41] Speaker A: it because I'm sure there's some people wondering it. Let's go. [00:14:43] Speaker B: Can you get, could you get more vicious with the cuts? Are there any non mandated services? You're talking about having to make layoffs, but if you made more, it could cut that whole service or department. Right. [00:14:55] Speaker A: Are any of those non mandated? [00:14:58] Speaker B: So let's go to the permit office. So the permit office is an ordinance and that, that we have to permit the people. Okay. The state requires us to do the inspections and everything else. [00:15:11] Speaker A: That's right. [00:15:12] Speaker B: So you have to, you have to have that. Yeah. But it makes enough money to help do adjudication, pro. Do the adjudication process. And then adjudication sales itself is making enough money every year now to support itself. So that comes into play as well. And code enforcement, there's no money for that, but they'll probably want it. Besides the road division, code enforcement division is our next biggest and the busiest department because we go and take care of the complaints. The more you do, the more they call. [00:15:45] Speaker A: That's the guys who go out and cut the grass at houses that have been abandoned. Is that code enforcement? [00:15:51] Speaker B: Whenever somebody calls and said they got cars parked and the grass is tall and everything else, we gotta start that process by lawyer. You gotta give so many Ds, you know, if they don't do it, then we go cut it. Then we put a lien on the property. Okay. [00:16:04] Speaker A: For the amount of money of the maintenance. [00:16:06] Speaker B: Right? [00:16:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And maybe they'll pay it, maybe they won't. [00:16:09] Speaker B: Yeah. So what we, what we are trying to do right now and the law allows it, is to ask our tax assessor to put it on the tax rule. [00:16:17] Speaker A: The property that's abandoned. [00:16:18] Speaker B: Right. The actual lien. [00:16:21] Speaker A: Oh yeah, I see. [00:16:23] Speaker B: So whenever they come pay their taxes, [00:16:25] Speaker A: they have to pay the lien. [00:16:26] Speaker B: Pay the lien. [00:16:26] Speaker A: Oh yeah, that seems like a no brainer. [00:16:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So. And the law allows it. The law. And we pass an ordinance this year to allow that. So we're hoping that we can get it on the tax roll which is going to pay us back for what we did so we can keep using that same money to keep cleaning up the parish, you know. [00:16:42] Speaker A: But again, but isn't there like a law in Louisiana, correct me if I'm wrong here, isn't there a law in Louisiana that if there's a property, there's a piece of property next to you that's abandoned and you maintain it, that you have rights to that property, is that correct? [00:16:56] Speaker B: On adjudication on a Judicial. If a piece of property is adjudicated to the parish. [00:17:00] Speaker A: Okay. [00:17:01] Speaker B: And you come and swear out an affidavit to us saying that over the last year I maintained that property, which [00:17:08] Speaker A: is basically means cut the grass, right? Yeah. [00:17:10] Speaker B: Maintaining basically just cutting the grass. [00:17:12] Speaker A: You're not like fixing leaky pipes. Okay. [00:17:15] Speaker B: So you have at that, at that time you have the ability to. To buy the property without going to a public sale. And what we've been doing with those properties still got to go through the ordinance form and still has to go through the council. [00:17:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:28] Speaker B: But whatever the assessed value is of that property, that's what we sell it for. So. [00:17:33] Speaker A: Okay, so you don't have to go through assessed value. Now that's a big deal for people to hear because the assessed value is going to be way less than the actual sale value. Yeah, Dang. Okay. [00:17:46] Speaker B: And that way is not us as a parish deciding on what the cost is. So really assessed by the tax assessor as whatever. So if you want that property, you can swear the affidavit and come to us. We're passing an ordinance and we'll say that property. But it's going to be a dedicated value. [00:18:02] Speaker A: And this is any property in the rural area of the parish. [00:18:08] Speaker B: Any property in this, in the whole [00:18:09] Speaker A: parish, even if it's in a city? [00:18:11] Speaker B: Yes. We have a lot of property in the city that's adjudicated to the parish. [00:18:15] Speaker A: Really? [00:18:15] Speaker B: Yes. [00:18:16] Speaker A: So I could go find me some lots in Opelousas and just start cutting the grass. [00:18:21] Speaker B: You have to be an adjoining landowner. [00:18:23] Speaker A: Oh, man. Okay. Dang. [00:18:24] Speaker B: Yeah. What about. I wish it was across the street. [00:18:27] Speaker A: Does that count? Does that count? That has to touch. Property lines got touched. [00:18:31] Speaker B: I tried that already because they had one across the street. I said, well, technically, you know, the middle of the road is your property. You know, I mean, come on, guys, [00:18:39] Speaker A: we gotta line that up. But see, this is a huge opportunity. See, I appreciate this because this is incentivizing people to do something themselves and then there's benefit that they can receive on the other side of it, rather than burdening the government to do this. Like, I like, I like this. This sounds great to me. Let's get more of this going. Hey, go cut the grass. Go crush your neighbor's crack for a [00:19:03] Speaker B: year and come if you want to buy. That's the opportunity. Now you get a non warranty cash sale for that property. [00:19:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:10] Speaker B: But as long as you're not trying to resell it, if next to your property more than the chances of that you probably not go sell it, you know. [00:19:18] Speaker A: So what does that mean? You can't sell it? [00:19:21] Speaker B: No, you can, you can't just not as easy to sell because it's not a, it's not a title. You don't get the title on the property, but you can quiet the title by going to the courts and follow the procedures and stuff. [00:19:32] Speaker A: So you got to pay some legal fees. [00:19:33] Speaker B: Yes. [00:19:34] Speaker A: Yeah, you got to pay, you got to find a title attorney and a [00:19:37] Speaker B: lot of extra stuff. But if you're not planning on selling it, then you got, if you don't go through that legal process, it just like it's just absorbed by your property. [00:19:47] Speaker A: Basically. [00:19:48] Speaker B: It's your property. It's just your property. [00:19:49] Speaker A: Well, it's yours. But if you die, I think there's probably going to be some complications, you [00:19:54] Speaker B: know, when it comes to a clear title. [00:19:56] Speaker A: Right. Because who's going to inherit, how do they inherit it? You don't have to have the title on the property. [00:20:00] Speaker B: And that brings up another point of family. That leaves their property to their heirs. [00:20:07] Speaker A: Okay. [00:20:08] Speaker B: And if they don't all agree and it just gets overgrown and if you got to send out these Mennonite notices to everybody and everybody has to, oh, it's just a mess. So if you can get it sooner rather than later. [00:20:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:24] Speaker B: It's a shame how these family, these families worked all their lives to have something, to leave it behind and it just turned to nothing because the kids don't care. [00:20:32] Speaker A: Wow. [00:20:33] Speaker B: Or they out of state and they don't come see about it. [00:20:35] Speaker A: They moved to somewhere else, they don't [00:20:37] Speaker B: pay their taxes and it becomes government property and it becomes a headache for us. We got over 1100 pieces of property in the parish. [00:20:44] Speaker A: Well, I mean, one of them is in my neighborhood. I drive past it all the time and I, if I was next to it, I would be cutting that grass. I'd be cutting that grass like hardcore. [00:20:56] Speaker B: Yep. [00:20:57] Speaker A: Man. Okay, so Jesse, let's think through this big picture. St. Landry Parish to become tax stable. I want to pull a full blown Ron Swanson and just gut the government. Just gut it front to back and say, no, we do essential services only. Which I don't even know what essential services would be. [00:21:21] Speaker B: I guess mandated services. That's it. That's it. [00:21:23] Speaker A: I guess that's it. Yeah. But even part of me would want to just look at the state and say we don't make enough money to do that. So figure it out. So, because I mean are. Sorry. The auditor said they were coming in in six months. Are they still coming? Like are we still looking at a state takeover or that's. [00:21:41] Speaker B: No, no, that's, that, that's not going to happen because number one, we, we, we got the extension on our loan. [00:21:48] Speaker A: Oh, we did? [00:21:48] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [00:21:49] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:21:50] Speaker B: All that's done. But the main thing is they want to see progress. They want to see where we're cutting. Okay, okay. Well, last year we cut $700,000 out of the budget. Okay, so that's progress. But then this year it's going to be that much or more. Okay. So our problem is with all the cuts that we did, we won't see that reflection until the bonds paid, which is going to be paid before next April. Okay, so after that bonds paid for, then you're gonna see what's left. Basically. This is how much revenue you got coming in. Less the racino, less the video poker. Okay. This is how much the expenses. And let's see how we can play ball with that money. Okay, now with the solar farm that's coming in that they came in, and by plaisance, that's an additional 30 something thousand dollars a year that we get on pilot payments. Plus the tax revenue from the land goes from farm to commercial. So that's starting to show in the advalon tax side. And then the other one that was actually approved through the feds this last week, the one over there by Leonville, that was approved to sale. So that's happening and they're going to start breaking ground as soon as they can actually turn the money over to the new, to the old company that is also going to come in as a red, as an ad valorem or pilot advalorum tax. [00:23:16] Speaker A: Okay. [00:23:16] Speaker B: And that's another 15 year pilot program. Walmart distribution is also doing their stuff starting next year and then that's another 12 year pilot program for them. [00:23:31] Speaker A: Okay. [00:23:32] Speaker B: All that combined, you look at a couple hundred thousand dollars of tax revenue coming into the parish without us having to provide any more services for them. So it's kind of, kind of a net, you know, so to speak. Took a lot of work to get it here, but it's going to be done. And of course, other things that's happening that we can't disclose just yet, that's going to bring in some money. And I'm just going to give an example of I went to West Feliciana Paris a couple of weeks ago, look at something over there and they build in a data center. [00:24:04] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:24:05] Speaker B: So that data center over there is their pilot payments to the parish is $30 million a year. [00:24:12] Speaker A: What? What? [00:24:14] Speaker B: It doubled their budget. [00:24:16] Speaker A: Wow. So it sounds like we need to get out of solar panels, a data center and into. Data center. [00:24:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:23] Speaker A: Where are they at? Are they calling yet? We need to like, we need to find those people. [00:24:26] Speaker B: Well, they. Well. Oh, yeah, well, you know how that goes. I'm gonna just tell you, I didn't go to West Feliciana Paris for nothing. [00:24:34] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. Okay. We might be figuring some things out here. [00:24:38] Speaker B: Yeah. We've been very, very fortunate to deal with a company that's, that's working on something for our parish that's going to be a big thing is people are worried about the water and electricity, but the water is going to be not a big issue because they have the closed loop system now with the data center. So you don't have to waste all this water. [00:24:58] Speaker A: Right, I've seen that. [00:24:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And then the electricity is going to be powered by their own plants. And so it's the way it's looking at like over there, there's 1200 acre area in West Feliciana. I'm sorry, 1600 acre in West Feliciana. The site that we're looking at here is 1200 acres. [00:25:15] Speaker A: Let's go. [00:25:15] Speaker B: So. [00:25:17] Speaker A: So $20 million, I'd be good with 10. [00:25:21] Speaker B: You know, I don't want them to know, but. Yeah, yeah. But we definitely in talks with some stuff that's happening that's going to be a great incentive for our parish over there in that parish, they're using their money to overlay every road in their parish. Right away, they're not thinking twice about it. They go overlay every road and add bike paths and all kind of other stuff that's extra, that's not really needed. But since they have the money to do it. So we pushing for that. [00:25:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Cool. That sounds great to me. [00:25:54] Speaker B: Yeah, we. And so to, to answer the question as how we move forward, I think once the bond is paid before next April, then the revenue source that's coming in is going to be able to sustain what's left in mandates. [00:26:10] Speaker A: Okay. [00:26:11] Speaker B: You know. [00:26:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:13] Speaker B: Because I pulled, like I said, I pull permits out. I pulled the, the rental facilities. Not to let people think that general funds subsidizing them keep it on their own where it's easy to see that it's not. [00:26:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:27] Speaker B: It's doing its own thing. [00:26:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:28] Speaker B: And still provide services to the people, you know, but if I had to cut anything, it would have to be code enforcement because it's not required that we have it, even though we have an ordinance saying that this is what we're going to be doing, but in the state, law doesn't require us to have it. [00:26:44] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's the one that could go. [00:26:47] Speaker B: Yes. And that's one of the busiest and one of the most demanding services that [00:26:52] Speaker A: we provide because it's code enforcement that shows up like it. So tree falls down in a storm. Is that the code enforcement guys that [00:26:59] Speaker B: show up for that Public works. [00:27:00] Speaker A: That's public works. That's different. Okay. Code enforcement is just the guys who [00:27:04] Speaker B: go out there and enforce ordinances that does put in place, like, mainly right now is going to be above the properties. The properties next door to people. Yeah. [00:27:14] Speaker A: Adjudicated. [00:27:14] Speaker B: And then not. Not. Not necessarily adjudicated. So adjudicated is not a problem. We take care of it ourselves. Yeah, we got a lot not keeping up their properties, things like that. Yeah. The personal properties that people. Oh, wow. [00:27:25] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:27:26] Speaker B: So adjudicated property. Somebody calls and it's our property, we go clean the pot. We don't have to go through the process. [00:27:31] Speaker A: Oh, I see. [00:27:31] Speaker B: Right. But if it's somebody's personal property, you got to give them 15 days. You got to do a lot of different things. [00:27:37] Speaker A: Okay, but I got it. [00:27:38] Speaker B: You got to have somebody to do all that. Now, one thing we did put in place this year is a hearing officer. So the ones that are not adhering to the policies or the ordinances, we give them a citation. [00:27:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:50] Speaker B: They can come to the. To the hearing officer and either fight it. And if they win, Fawn. If they don't win, they got to pay the ticket. Just last week, we had. We had a hearing on some dogs. I think it was twelve hundred dollars, a fine, and they paid it. [00:28:07] Speaker A: Oh, wow. But this is. [00:28:08] Speaker B: This is the ongoing battle with that person. What I'm saying is, before, we didn't have that leverage. [00:28:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:14] Speaker B: You know, because it's a civil citation, you know, so it's a different process. [00:28:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:21] Speaker B: But now we have a hearing officer to hear those civil citations. And so whenever we give a ticket out, you got a date to come to court, and then you can. You can pledge your case. But if you. If you guilty and you got it, then you got to pay your civil citation. Now, if they don't pay it, then it becomes a matter for us to bring to the. To the 27 JDC and bring it as a matter of them not paying it, then it becomes a criminal process. But I see we're trying to. We try to work with people we don't want to give out no citations, you know, just clean your yard or cut your grass or keep your dogs in your yard. [00:28:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:58] Speaker B: You know, it's too much stuff that they can do on their own without us intervene, you know, and I'd rather not go and give a ticket. [00:29:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:03] Speaker B: But whenever they get a ticket is because we worked for them for a long time. Yeah. [00:29:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Jesse, let me ask you this. So we'll wrap it up. But if there was something you wanted to say to. If you could say something to the people in St Landry parish, what about the state of affairs currently with the budget, what would you say to them? [00:29:22] Speaker B: So I know that we don't have the revenue that we need to have. I mean there's no, there's no doubt about it. The demand for services is there, but not the, not the revenue. And I'm not going to be asking the people to pass no tax because it's. I don't. Let me, let me fix what we have and then work within our. Whatever our means may be. It may be that we have to cut some of these mandates to a certain point and everybody has to live within the means that we have available to us. But that 1mil property tax that the legislative officer's office is recommending is, is that is the only mandated expense that the state gives us and they actually give us a mechanism to, to collect. Okay. The only way it's done is by 2/3 voted to council, not a voter to people. So I'm not in favor of that. I mean this. And if, and I'm not bringing it to the people. If 2/3 voted to council passes a tax on somebody without their voice being heard, I'm not crazy about that part. So. [00:30:30] Speaker A: Agreed. [00:30:30] Speaker B: You know, I think the people should have their own vote. And how's a 1mil? It's not a lot of money, but it's still a tax. The law allows us to do it, but I'm not in favor of it. And. But they made the recommendation as it be a council action. But I'm going to ask that we don't. Let's see how we can do without it. And then if we can justify it later on, then bring it to the people. Let the people decide on that, not us. We're not there to do that part. Yeah, I don't think we are. So I think once we lay everything out on the table and do everything that has to be done, I think we're going to be fine. I think. I know we're going to be fine. And the Money that we use from the road, the Smooth Ride Home program is going to be replaced probably by February of next year with interest. [00:31:15] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:31:16] Speaker B: So. And that's only because we working with people to bring them to our parish, you know, and we feel real good about the people that are coming. We feel real good about the business that are coming. As long as they stay where they say they're going to stay at and it generate the revenue we're going to need to have. I think we're going to be fine. You know, within a year from now, people are going to not even notice what's happening in our parish. In fact, the. That one particular business that's coming in, their main concern was that they not gonna be annexed in any municipality. They say, we want to work with you and the parish and stay out in the rural areas. That's a no brainer for me. You know, I mean, I know the municipalities have to survive as well. [00:32:07] Speaker A: Sure. [00:32:08] Speaker B: But the municipality survived by the people from the parish going into the municipalities buying their goods. [00:32:13] Speaker A: Sure. [00:32:13] Speaker B: You know, I mean, so it's a, it's a big, that's a big a snowball effect. And we want everybody to do what they have to do. But this is talking about a lot of money coming to that parish and it's going to get here and it's going to be done the right way. But my main concern is to make sure that the road fund is funded properly. [00:32:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:33] Speaker B: And bring that money back from where it's at now and bring it back to the road and bridge fund and secure it there by ordinance. Okay. So we can keep the road division operating and maintaining roads and ditching and everything else that's not required by law. Yeah. You know, but it's a service that obviously we have to have. Yeah. You know, and of course, you know, you got people who want to run for Paris president, you got people who want to work for Paris council. So they always gonna have these negative things. But at the end of the day, there's not a person in this parish that can come sit in my chair and do my job. That I can promise you. Because it ain't sitting in my chair, it's sitting on that machine. It's sitting on that horse to go catch that bull. It's sitting on everything that you got to sit on. It's not sitting behind a desk. So I welcome anybody who wants to run and I welcome to a debate. I would love to have a debate with people in regards to what they talking about out there, because I promise You. The stuff that they saying is not true. There's no facts behind anything that they saying. And I'm good. I'm ready. That's one thing I do know is our government inside and out. [00:33:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So, like, if somebody reached out to us as a result of this episode and said, I debate, Jesse, any day you'd be ready to go. Like, we. We'd facilitate it. [00:33:52] Speaker B: I'm good. [00:33:53] Speaker A: And we could put y' all both in a chair and. [00:33:54] Speaker B: And hit and when he's dealing with Paris government. Anybody. [00:34:00] Speaker A: Okay. [00:34:00] Speaker B: And that's not being. [00:34:01] Speaker A: Y' all heard that? [00:34:02] Speaker B: Yeah. That's not being what they call that. He's arrogant. No, no, I'm not arrogant. I know this government. I know how it runs, and I know every little piece of it. So if somebody said they can sit across and debate me on that, on those issues that we have in Paris government, let them come. [00:34:20] Speaker A: Okay. [00:34:21] Speaker B: I'm good with that. [00:34:21] Speaker A: Well, if somebody reaches out to us, I'll let you know. Let me know, and we'll make it happen. Okay, Done. [00:34:26] Speaker B: Appreciate it. [00:34:27] Speaker A: Well, Jesse, thank you so much for coming on, giving us your afternoon today to be able to talk through these things. Appreciate the work you're doing. Looking forward to seeing a good. A future outcome from all this budgetary stuff and see what can come on the other side. I appreciate it, guys. Thank you all so much for listening to another episode of the Parish Circuit. You go to the parish circuit.com to find more information and support, download podcasts, read articles, all that kind of cool stuff, and we appreciate you being here along for the ride. Thank you all for listening, and we'll see you next time.