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The Grambling Town Council has been getting a lot of heat lately for draining the pocketbooks of Grambling’s taxpayers in an extremely opportunistic fashion.  It’s been said “If you want to be amongst the highest paid aldermen in Louisiana for the least amount of work, go to Grambling!”  And according to a comparative analysis of 11 municipalities in north Louisiana, this might be an unfortunate but well deserved reputation.

In the year of 2009 the pay per alderman or council member in Grambling was just behind those of Monroe and Shreveport.  The population of Grambling is just under 5,000; Monroe’s population is 54,370 and Shreveport’s population is 201,059.  But more importantly, Grambling does not have a tax base generated by industry when compared to these much larger cities, yet the POTENTIAL for Grambling councilmen to get paid more  than those of Monroe and Shreveport exists due to an anomaly: the unique manner in which they get paid.

In most local municipalities, the aldermen get paid a flat rate for services. Except for the tiny next-door-neighboring Village of Simsboro where the aldermen are paid only $50 each per Regular Meeting plus $50 more for Special Called Meetings (which are hardly ever required in Simsboro), amongst those surveyed Grambling is the only other municipality where the alderman receive additional pay for each Special Called Meeting.  And this appears to be just one of many ways that Grambling’s taxpayers are being taken to the bank.  According to George Marretta of the Louisiana Municipal Association, there is NO pay cap for aldermen/council members in the state of Louisiana.

All the other municipalities in our survey pay their aldermen a flat rate salary no matter how many additional Special Called Meetings may be required.  But the additional amount Grambling councilmen get paid for each Special Called Meeting is equal to half their normal monthly Regular Meeting pay.  This is especially significant considering that Grambling held an astounding and rather unprecedented number of 18 Special Called Meetings in 2009, and if that same trend continues in 2010 Grambling will have the highest paid aldermen in northern Louisiana; higher than the aldermen of Monroe and Shreveport.

According to the public record availability of each municipality, the following is a chart indicating the monthly pay for aldermen/council members, the Mayor Pro Temp (MPT)/Chairman of the Council, additional Special Called Meetings (SCM) Cost and the Total Paid in 2009: first figure is for aldermen, 2nd is for the Mayor Pro Temp (MPT).

In order to properly view this chart – you may have to adjust your computer resolution by zooming in or out.

CITY               Pay Method      Alderman              Mayor Pro Temp                 SCM Cost          Total Paid in 2009 (MPT)

Arcadia                 Flat rate                  $650                           $700                                    $0                             $7800 (8400)
Jonesboro              Flat rate                  $500                           $500                                    $0                             $6000 ($6000)
Ruston                    Flat rate               $799.92                      $799.92                             $0                              $9599.20 ($9599.20)
Simsboro                Per meeting            $50                               $50                                   $0                                 $600 ($600)
Grambling            Per meeting           $700                          $1400                                 $4300                      $10600 ($14800)
Bossier City          Flat rate                  $900                          $1000                                 $0                               $10800 ($12000)
Shreveport           Flat rate                $1269                          $1469                                 $0                              $15225 ($17625)
West Monroe       Flat rate                  $900                            $900                                  $0                               $10800 ($10800)
Monroe                 Flat rate                $1000                           $1500                                 $0                               $12000 ($18000)
Minden                Flat rate                 $1000                           $1000                                $0                               $12000 ($12000)
Spring Hill         Flat rate                  $749                              $811                                  $0                                $8988 ($9732)

As shown above, in some cases the mayor pro temp of a given municipality gets paid the same or just slightly more than regular aldermen.  Grambling is the only municipality in which the MPT gets paid double and the current pay structure in Grambling where the council gets paid for each additional Special Called Meeting made it possible for Grambling’s mayor pro temp to get paid just behind the mayor pro temps of Shreveport and Monroe in 2009 and above those of Bossier City, West Monroe, Minden, and Ruston.

Under the Lawrason Act, Special Called Meetings can be called by either the mayor or the aldermen/council and during 2009 in Grambling the vast majority of them were called by the council for reasons that Mayor Martha Andrus says very well could have and definitely should have waited to be handled at Regular Meetings.  The Grambling Town Council consists of Mayor Pro Temp Edward R. Jones, and Council Members Alvin Bradley, Toby B. Bryan, Roy Jackson & Roosevelt Bryant Jr.

Before the pay raises took effect in July 2009, Grambling held 10 Special Called Meetings, 6 of which were deemed ‘Emergency.’  During the last 6 months of 2009, Grambling held 8 more Special Called Meetings, 1 of which was again deemed ‘Emergency’ for a total of 18 Special Called Meetings.  In each ‘Emergency’ meeting called for 2009, Mayor Andrus said that no emergency factors of man-made/natural disaster or epidemic had taken place and each of those so called ‘emergency’ meetings which were called by Grambling’s Council were held in violation of Louisiana’s Open Meeting law.

When the 2009 pay increases took place in Grambling, the council member pay increased from $350 to $700, the mayor pro temp’s pay increased from $350 to $1400 per Regular Called Meeting, and each of the Grambling’s council member’s pay increased from $150 to $350 per Special Called Meeting.  Grambling’s mayor vetoed against both the pay raises that the Council enacted and the amended budget in which these salaries were increased, but her vetoes were overridden by the Council.

The additional pay to Grambling’s council members for Special Called Meetings in 2009 is broken down as follows: $1500 for the first 6 months for each councilman including the mayor pro temp before the pay raises, plus another $2800 for each councilman after the pay raises.  The cost for Special Called Meetings in Grambling for 2009 consisted of $4300 being paid to each of the 5 council members for a total taxpayer cost of $21,500.

In relation to Grambling, the neighboring city of Ruston has much in the way of industry to create a viable tax base which keeps Ruston’s residential property taxes low.  Ruston generates it’s own electricity which also reduces the typical Ruston property owner’s cost of living. By virtue of the fact that Grambling has very little industry to create a tax base, and Grambling does not generate it’s own electricity, Grambling residents pay significantly more than Ruston residents to live in Grambling and their property taxes are amongst the highest in the state of Louisiana.

Can a city of just under 5,000 population like Grambling afford to pay their council the same salaries and in some cases even more money than neighboring municipalities ranging from 4-40 times their size?  “Either the citizens of Grambling are content with the current system or they are being fully taken advantage of without knowing what’s going on” said one municipal officer we interviewed, “and if nobody wants it changed, it’s the taxpayers of Grambling who’ll keep paying out their noses.”

–The Fount Copyright 2010

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