Webre v. Wilson

672 So. 2d 1124, 1996 WL 155297
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 4, 1996
Docket95 CA 1281
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 672 So. 2d 1124 (Webre v. Wilson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Webre v. Wilson, 672 So. 2d 1124, 1996 WL 155297 (La. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

672 So.2d 1124 (1996)

Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig WEBRE
v.
Steven D. WILSON and the Lafourche Parish Council.

No. 95 CA 1281.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

April 4, 1996.

*1125 Frank R. Rathle, Donald F. Harang, Jr., Thibodaux, for Plaintiff-Appellee Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre.

Linda S. Atchin, Baton Rouge, John L. Lanier, Thibodaux, for Defendants-Appellants Steven D. Wilson and the Lafourche Parish Council.

Before CARTER, PITCHER and CRAIN, JJ.[1]

PITCHER, Judge.

Defendants, Stephen D. Wilson, the Lafourche Parish President, and the Lafourche Parish Council, appeal from a judgment of the trial court granting the relief sought in a petition of mandamus filed by plaintiff, Craig Webre, the Sheriff of Lafourche Parish.[2]

BACKGROUND

In 1976, the Legislature passed an act which allowed for the creation of a law enforcement *1126 district in each parish (except Orleans) for the purpose of providing financing to the sheriff's office, and the sheriff was designated ex officio the chief executive officer of the district. (LSA-R.S. 33:9001). Under LSA-R.S. 33:9003 (entitled "Method of taxation; referendum to increase taxes beyond initial authorization"), funding for law enforcement districts was limited to ad valorem taxes. However, LSA-R.S. 33:9003 was amended in 1982 to add Subsection C, which enabled the law enforcement districts to levy and collect sales taxes.[3]

In 1980, the Lafourche Parish Sales Tax District No. 1 (the taxing entity for the Lafourche Parish Council) proposed and passed a one-half of one percent (½%) sales tax for a ten-year term. The tax revenues were to be dedicated and used to provide additional funds for law enforcement purposes in the Parish of Lafourche in accordance with the following priorities:

1. To the governing authority of the Parish of Lafourche, State of Louisiana, for the purposes of paying the cost of constructing, operating and maintaining jail facilities and minimum security facilities in the Parish, including the cost of feeding and transporting prisoners and medical care therefor, the following percentages of the net revenues of the tax:
0% the first year;
10% the second year;
15% the third year;
20% the fourth year;
25% the fifth year and thereafter.
2. To the Sheriff's Department for the purpose of implementing a law enforcement pay plan together with employee benefits for the Sheriff's Department, which will permit a salary schedule for officers and employees, together with employee benefits ...;
3. To the Sheriff's Department for the purpose of paying the cost of acquiring, operating and maintaining equipment for said Sheriff's Department.

On November 16, 1989, the Lafourche Parish Law Enforcement Sub-District No. 1 was created. According to the evidence introduced at the hearing, the Sheriff of Lafourche Parish at the time, Duffy Breaux, planned to call a sales tax election on behalf of the Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff also intended to omit giving any tax revenues to the Parish Council. Because of Sheriff Breaux's plan to exclude the Parish from receiving any tax revenues, the "parish" decided to oppose the tax. Subsequently, a meeting was held between Breaux, Vernon Galliano (the president of the Lafourche Parish Council at the time), Benny Musso (the business manager for the Sheriff's office), and Steve Gremillion (the parish administrator at the time). At this meeting, an agreement was allegedly reached between Sheriff Breaux and the Lafourche Parish President, Galliano.[4] The alleged agreement stated that the revenues from the 1990 sales tax election were to be distributed as follows:

1. The Sheriff will give to the Lafourche Parish Council 25% of the collections on a monthly basis not to exceed $275,000 annually.
2. In the event the proceeds from the sales tax collections exceed $2,000,000 within the sales tax fiscal year, the proceeds will be distributes [sic] at the rate of 25% on that portion of the collections which exceed $2,000,000.

The $275,000 figure contained in the alleged agreement purportedly was based upon the amount of tax revenues actually collected from 1980-1990.

*1127 The proposition submitted to and passed by the voters in 1990 provided, in pertinent part, as follows:

Shall Law Enforcement Sub-District No. 1 of the Parish of Lafourche, State of Louisiana (the "District"), ... be authorized to levy and collect, and adopt an ordinance providing for such levy and collection, a tax of one-half of one per cent (½%) (the "Tax") upon the sale at retail, the use, the lease or rental, the consumption, and storage for use or consumption, of tangible personal property and on sales of services in the District, ... for a period of ten (10) years from August 1, 1990, with the proceeds of the Tax ... to be dedicated and used for the purpose of providing additional funds for law enforcement purposes in the District, including the cost of acquiring, operating and maintaining equipment for the Sheriff's Department, it being provided, however, that the sum of $275,000 annually, plus 25% of all annual net revenues derived from the Tax in excess of two million dollars shall be dedicated for the purposes of constructing, improving, operating and maintaining jail facilities and minimum security facilities in the Parish, and paying the cost of feeding and transporting prisoners and medical care therefor? (Emphasis ours).

It is undisputed that, from 1990 until July of 1994, tax revenues in the amount of $275,000.00 were remitted annually to the Parish Council by the Lafourche Parish Sheriff. The Parish Council also budgeted this amount yearly and paid all of its obligations to the jail and its prisoners.

In July of 1994, Sheriff Webre stopped sending tax revenues to the Parish Council. At the same time, Sheriff Webre also submitted invoices to the Parish Council for expenses related to feeding, transporting, and providing medical care to prisoners.

The Parish Council refused to pay these invoices.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On October 4, 1994, the Sheriff of Lafourche Parish filed a petition for mandamus, asking that the Lafourche Parish Council and its President, Wilson, be ordered to pay the invoices submitted for July and August of 1994, in compliance with its statutory duties set forth in LSA-R.S. 15:703; 33:1430 and 33:1432.

Attached to the petition for mandamus was an order requesting the issuance of an alternative writ compelling and directing Wilson and the Parish Council to pay the Sheriff a total of $56,735.76 or to show cause why a writ of mandamus should not be issued.

Instead of signing the order attached to the petition, the trial court issued an order setting the matter for trial and setting forth the following issues to be addressed by the parties in memorandum submitted to the court:

1. Does the cost of operating the jail, as set out in the sales tax proposition which generated the disputed funds, include the cost of salaries of the personnel working at the jail?
2. Does the statute that created the law enforcement district, LSA-R.S. 33:9001, et seq, require that either the sheriff or the parish council have possession of the disputed funds?
3.

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672 So. 2d 1124, 1996 WL 155297, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/webre-v-wilson-lactapp-1996.