The Rotary Club of Ville Platte heard from Sheriff-Elect for Evangeline Parish Charles Guillory at its meeting Tuesday. Guillory stated he has been sworn-in as an executive officer and sits on departmental meetings as well as executive meetings, administrative meetings, and patrol meetings.
“My foot is in the door,” he said, “but I can’t make any changes or get rid of anybody.
Guillory went through his plans for the office once he officially takes over on July 1. “I’m moving ahead,” he said. “I’m looking at the books right now, and, so far, everything looks good. I have $1.5 million to make it to the end of the year, and we’ll be in the black, too.”
He continued, “I can possibly hire two or three more people, but my goal is to have seven people per shift.”
Guillory, later in his remarks, expressed he is open to ways of finding more funding for the sheriff’s department.
“I am a conservative Republican,” he stated. “I voted for one tax my entire life, but the millage for the sheriff’s office is 5.5 mills which was set in 1977. We’re behind times. Acadia Parish is at a $10.2 million budget, Allen Parish is at a $9 million budget, and Avoyelles is at a $7 million budget. My budget is $2.4 million.
The new sheriff is looking to renegotiate contracts with the prisons in Pine Prairie and Basile which will increase money coming into the sheriff’s department. He will also look to collect everything he can from fines to traffic tickets.
“I’m not saying it’s time to pass a tax, but I need a few extra million dollars. It costs money for protection.”
He added there has never been a sales tax passed in the parish for law enforcement.
“DeSoto Parish passed a sales tax only for law enforcement,” Guillory said. “The sheriff told me he has a $51 million surplus. DMV wanted to get out of DeSoto Parish because the building was falling down. The sheriff built them a building where one side is for the DMV and the other side is a sub-station.”
Guillory then quipped, “Can I build a building? No! Maybe a shed.”
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Tony Marks
Editor