The Tangipahoa Democrats hosted a political forum focusing specifically on three issues facing voters in the Oct. 19 election: a library millage renewal, a proposed sales tax and the 21st Judicial District Family Court Judge.
Library System Director Barry Bradford briefly discussed the importance of renewing the Tangipahoa Parish Library millage, which he said was not new.
According to Bradford, the library runs off of a $3 million budget deriving from two property taxes, a 2.81 millage and a 3.0 millage. Each millage is active for a 10 year period.
While 3.0 mills will be up for renewal in five years, 2.81 mills must be renewed by the city in order to rake in the $3 million for the library. Without the 2.81 mills, according to Bradford, the library would lose roughly $1.4 million from its budget.
Also, Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards attempted to convince voters why a new half-cent sales tax is necessary to fund the renovation and enlargement of the parish prison.
Edwards told voters the new jail would be able to house parish and municipal prisoners and that there would be sufficient space based on the anticipated population growth over the next 30 years.
A parish jail fund would be created, if voters approve the sales tax increase, and it will be maintained and administered by the jail, according to Daniels. The city’s existing jail operates on a $6 million budget.
The fund would repay debt, which is essentially the jail construction, fund jail operations and any remaining surplus would be split between Tangipahoa Parish government and the sheriff’s office.
The current jail was built in 1982 and has not had any additions made to it since 1990. There are approximately 526 beds in the prison, though the parish population has jumped from 85,754 in 1990 to 122,571 in 2013, an increase of 51.9 percent.
With the new additions Edwards is pushing for, there would be an increase in beds, totaling 330, and making for a total of 856 beds; a net increase of 200 percent in capacity. There would also be additional space for training, education and rehabilitation, designed to reduce recidivism.
Edwards said that in no case will the total number of non-parish prisoners be more than 25 percent of the total number of prisoners.
Furthermore, democratic family court judge candidates Lila Hogan and Vanessa Williams answered questions from voters on 21st Judicial District Family Court.
Hogan, a family law specialist and pro-life democrat, said she is solely running for the seat to protect the goodwill of the children involved in family matters.
“I’m running to stop the destruction in our courtrooms,” said Hogan. “If you tear apart each other in the middle of a courtroom and you try to rip up the other side, grandparents, the cousins, the aunts, the uncles, you are ripping apart the child. You’re slinging mud on the walls and you’re forgetting that this is your child. If you tear apart a parent, you’re tearing apart the child. We’ve got to stop that.”
Williams, though agreeing with Hogan on keeping the child’s interests in mind, said the seat does not call for her to police parents.
“I can’t tell grown adults how to act,” said Williams. “They’ve been raised already. My job is not to raise adult people. My job is to encourage them to act with the best interests of their child. And that’s exactly what I will do.”
Both Hogan and Williams told voters that when child-support is ordered by the court and parents disregard it, they will hold those parent’s accountable with jail time if necessary.
“A lot of times if you put somebody in jail for six hours, they come up with the money,” said Hogan.
On the issue of allowing the child to make decisions in the court, Williams said she would not allow children to run her courtroom.
“We don’t let children make decisions because they are children,” said Williams. “Their minds aren’t developed well enough. I will not allow them to manipulate the court like we see happening sometimes.”
Hogan, though, said she would prevent children from testifying at all costs because it “not only messes children up, it messes up their families.”
Tangipahoa Parish does not currently have a family court like surrounding parishes such as St. Tammany and East Baton Rouge.
Hogan and Williams will face off with republican candidate Jeff Oglesbee on Oct. 19. Oglesbee was not invited to the forum.