Sheriff, Covington mayor clash over tax

Butting heads for the second time in four years over new taxes to fund emergency personnel salaries, Sheriff Jack Strain and Covington Mayor Candace Watkins continued to duel Wednesday over Watkins’ proposed 1/2-cent sales tax increase on the Nov. 4 ballot.

But this time Strain offered a truce of sorts: increase salaries of Covington’s first responders with or without the tax by year’s end and “you’ll never hear from me again,” he said.

“My critics may say this is bad timing, that I’m getting her back” for Watkins’ public opposition to a similar tax measure by Strain to increase deputy pay that failed in 2004, he said. “But if she believes I’m being sinister then prove me wrong, Pay them. If she does that, mark my words, you will never hear another word from me. It’s over.”

Strain said his involvement in the city issue started after hearing how little Covington police, part of what he called his brethren of law enforcement officers, are paid despite $11 million of unspent taxpayer money in the city’s general fund. While Watkins said that money is accounted for, Strain said the city routinely favors spending it on other projects and is now leaving the taxpayers to shoulder the burden.

“At the end of the day I want to advance a profession that I care about regardless of who is wearing the uniform,” he said. “I don’t want to see any law enforcement anywhere in the food stamp line. This is my parish, too.”

Earlier this week that sentiment spurred Strain to offer Watkins a tongue lashing over the proposed tax expected to generate $900,000 annually and dedicate a quarter for every $100 spent in Covington solely to Covington police and firefighters. In a letter he walked to her office across the street from his own, Strain said Watkins has ample money in city coffers — $11 million currently in a general fund — to fund the increases.

“While Mandeville and Slidell were tightening their belts and prioritizing spending in order to increase police and fire pay, you were focused on finding creative ways to pay for a lavish trailhead, air conditioned tractors and new city buildings,” Strain wrote in the letter. “Your ability to fund these projects is evidence you had the money for first responders. You simply chose not to pay them.”

Meanwhile, seven officers in the past 17 months, including the Covington Police Department’s chief of detectives, a canine officer and a DARE officer, have all left the department, some on the verge of tears, to chase fatter paychecks elsewhere, Covington Police Capt. Jack West said.

Today, the department remains the lowest paid in all of St. Tammany with rookie patrolmen earning $26,894 a year, less than $30,292 in Mandeville, $31,054 in Slidell and roughly $40,000 with state incentive pay at the Sheriff’s Office.

Watkins fired back on Wednesday, saying those projects, such as the trailhead, were built as an economic development measure and funded with years of savings, not money out of the city’s general fund that’s allocated for crucial services such as sewer and water.

As is, Watkins said, the city’s entire $16 million budget can’t afford the $448,000 annual financial shot for pay raises, much less fix all the city’s aging pipelines that haven’t been upgraded in at least 20 years. As the city expands, so does its needs, she said. The money is simply not available, she said.

In fact, Watkins said, she’s already nixed from the budget her $24,000 car allowance and hasn’t accepted the money for five years. She also opted not to buy upgraded office furniture or take a pay raise this year until emergency personnel get raises first, she said.

On Wednesday she spent an hour flipping through the budget, scanning for other places to cut.

“That’s the thing,” Watkins said. “What are you going to cut? There’s no fluff in our budget. It’s very bare bones. When people say we need to tighten our belts, they need to listen to our story because there are holes in our belt.”

But Strain believes the general fund has sufficient money. In 2004 the fund collected roughly $5 million. In 2007 that figure more than doubled to $11 million, according to a state issued audit report.

He sees no reason to expect a downturn in the near future and said that yearly influx would adequately fund the annual salaries without a tax measure. A shift in priorities could make that happen, he said, and he even offered to help coordinate response calls and aid Covington police when needed.

“I know the passion and commitment of those officers,” said Strain, who in the 1980s worked for three years at Covington Police Department. “And I think it’s a shame that a politician will play games with their careers. With that said, I’d do whatever I can to help.”

Watkins, meanwhile, said she has confidence in voters.

“I’m putting my money on the voters,” she said. “They’re very smart and understand were not going to ask for anything that we don’t need.”