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Police Jury wrong to raise its pay
When the 2011 election cycle rolls around Concordia Parish voters would do well to remind themselves that some members of the Police Jury were so impressed with their job performances they gave themselves a pay raise.
At issue was a vote by the Police Jury last week in which jurors signed off on raising their monthly pay from $1,200 to $1,600, the maximum amount allowed by state law. The pay hikes will cost the Police Jury, or ultimately the taxpayers, $43,200 annually. Throw in the additional money the Police Jury president will collect each month--$400 on top of the $1,600 -- and the pay raises the Police Jury approved will total some $48,000 annually.
The amount of money involved in the pay raises is not the issue, though.
As we said in the not-to-distant past, we do not question the need to raise the monthly salary members of any Police Jury across the state collects. After all, a good police juror spends a great deal of time on the job, and the demands of the job far outweigh a monthly salary of some $1,200.
However, members of the Concordia Parish Police Jury who sought the positions they hold today knew well what the job paid when they qualified to seek voter approval for the privilege of serving in an elected capacity. If they were not happy with a $1,200 per month salary, they should not have sought the positions in the first place.
We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge that two members of the Police Jury voted against the pay raises. They were Whest Shirley and Randy Temple. Shirley and Temple should be commended for the positions they took. They clearly acted in the best interests of the taxpayers.
The Police Jury could have acted in the best interests of the taxpayers had it approved pay raises for its members effective following the next Police Jury election, or when a new Police Jury is seated in January 2012.
Instead, members of the Police Jury -- except Shirley and Temple -- voted to line their own pockets at the expense of the people. |
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