Ard, Wentzel push student safety in proposal of half-cent sales tax for school resource officers

LIVINGSTON -- Student safety should rank as top priority for voters when they decide on a perpetual half-cent sales tax to fund placement of school resource offers on the 45 public school campuses across the parish, according to two top officials promoting the measure.

Heightened concern about student safety in the wake of a string of school shootings -- including a Feb. 14 massacre in Parkland, Fla. -- has added to the urgency for more resource officers, Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard and Livingston Parish School Board Superintendent Rick Wentzel said in an interview with The News.

The proposition on the Nov. 6 ballot authorizes collection of the tax for an estimated $9.8 million for the entire year, beginning April 1, 2019, in perpetuity, "upon sale, use, lease, rental consumption of tangible property  and upon the sale of services within the district."

It also stipulates that the proceeds of the tax "will be used exclusively for "the purpose of providing additional funding for the operations of the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office, including, but not limited to, the stationing Sheriff deputies in public schools throughout the Parish of Livingston in order to provide for provide for the safety and security of the students and faculty therein."

The parish's law enforcement district wrote up the language for the election. The district serves as the taxing authority of the sheriff's office, Ard said.

It is created by statute to continue after any sheriff has left office. It also gives the sheriff's office the ability to take on debt or levy taxes that will last even once a new sheriff takes office.

The district is comprised of the sheriff and his appointees. The entity makes the sheriff's office a governmental district, Ard said.

The Livingston Parish school system has 46 sites -- 45 schools and the central office -- and a parishwide student population of roughly 26,000 students.

Ard plans to hire between 50 and 55 SROs if voters approve the proposal. Each must have two years of full-time law enforcement experience and undergo two weeks of mandatory SRO training.

He said he already has 12 potential hires, he said.

"I thought I'd have less because the tax hasn't passed yet, and we're doing it by word of mouth. I've been a little bit shocked by the numbers," he said. "The original goal was to have at least 30 applicants -- we may be actually above that number by that time next year."

Some deputies have asked Ard about transferring to the program.

Figures culled from recent sales tax intake show the SRO tax would generate between $8 million and $9 million per year.

Ard estimated a cost of $111,000 per resource officer if voters support the measure.

The tax would cover the costs of the vehicle, equipment, mandatory training, salary, insurance, retirement and uniforms. It would require extensive training for certification as a resource officer.

If approved, the work to begin the program would start immediately. The prospective officers must undergo POST training for school resource officers.

The officers would serve for more than security purposes, Ard said.

"They're on campus to make sure they're secure, but I also like for them to serve as mentors with kids, I like to see them eat lunch with the kids, patrol around the school," he said. "I also like for them to be involved in day to day activities and stay aware of the events and surrounding in the school system."

SROs will also be staffed at ballgames and other school-related events. If they are assigned to elementary schools, it will make them available for help in afterschool functions in other schools.

During the summer, they will work PARDS, summer school, advanced placement courts, summer sporting events and offseason training drills.

"School, in many ways, is a year-round event these days," Superintendent Wentzel said.

It's not only the summer activities that would keep them busy, Ard said. SROs would undergo mandatory training, including 40 hours of instruction -- half of which is required by the state.

SKEPTICISM 

Ard and Wentzel both said they have received strong support as they promote the measure, but the proposal also has its share of critics. The measure heads to the polls amid skepticism by some voters who have used social media to question the need for the tax.

Several calls to "Call and Comment," as well as letters to The News have questioned the purpose for perpetuity, while others take issue with the "not limited to" clause.

Despite skepticism on social media and in the press, Ard does not consider the proposal an uphill battle. He said he received mostly positive response.

"We have people who have been vocal against it on social media -- some not surprising -- and they have a right to their opinion, but this has been a well thought-out plan not only the superintendent and I came up with, but also the school board and other elected officials and leaders of this community," he said. "We didn't hide this (vote) for a cold, rainy day. We put this on the biggest ballot they have and to allow people to have their opinion, and I feel the majority of the people want this -- that's the feedback we're getting. I feel pretty good about it."

The perpetuity stipulation on the tax has fueled much of the skepticism from voters.

The plan for a perpetual tax would enable Ard to keep the program going without concerns every 10 years that it would fail with voters and lead to layoffs.

"We're hoping that it settles at $8 million and doesn't go below that," the sheriff said. "We have to prepare for the worst years -- not the great years -- but the floods and hurricanes and riots we have to deal with are things that can hurt your budget, and also cause (economic) depression, and suddenly sales tax goes to an all time low, you have to go about borrowing money and not being able to meet your payroll, and all that affects the safety of our kids."

Ard said he also would not want to see a failed renewal lead to the program's elimination. Funding of the SRO program is the primary purpose of the tax proposal, Ard reiterated, but it could also help ease the brunt from years of weak tax collection, natural disasters or other hardships LPSO would face.

"In 10 years, if this thing was not to pass and we had 55 SROs in the school system, and this thing does not renew, that puts me in the position of making a decision to lay off," he said. "Is it going to come from the uniform patrol? Is it going to come from the school system?"

"Put it on their perpetually, and I don't have to worry every 10 years about laying off employees or keeping schools safe," Ard said.

Sales tax figures for the LPSO have ebbed since the $9.8 million intake in 2017. Ard said he's hoping the numbers downturn will stop around the $8 million mark.

"But maybe it won't," he said. "We'll need plenty of funds to run this program, and I don't know what it's going to be until we get it, but I know there's a lot of things we need to do with our school system before we do anything else."

The "not limited to" stipulation has drawn concerns that the tax could become a fund for however the department wishes to use it.

"We're going to make sure there are extra funds for unexpected circumstances, things that might come up that we need on the law enforcement side we can use it for," he said. "We're in a parish that's growing every day, and there are a lot of demands on our sheriff's office and those demands continue to grow as well.

"Our focus is on the school system, and making sure the school resource officer is on ground and on campus and do what's right by making the school safer," he said. At the same time, we want to make sure we can keep up with the growth of the schools, as well, by adding school resource officers as necessary."

If extra funds exist, it would allow the use of funding for other needs, the sheriff said.

"As long as we can get the schools safe, keep them safe and plan for the growth of the school system, and if we have extra funds in there, obviously we want to utilize that if equipment is needed or for whatever it takes for them to be able to do their job better," Ard said.

"On bad years, we want to make sure it's a guarantee that we can take care of that, and it gives us funds to do other things with the SRO program, including educational outreach," Ard said.

Wentzel believes a sales tax represents the most justifiable means to fund the SRO program.

"This half-cent sales tax won't just be paid by people in Livingston Parish, but by everyone driving through this parish," he said. "To me, that's the best case scenario to provide safe havens for our children in school.

"In my mind, there's no value you could place on any child's life, in my opinion," Wentzel said.

"Everyone has children and grandchildren in schools, and they understand our reasoning," he said.

"It's not the way it was 20 years ago when you'd see a police officer in front of the school and people would say "Oh, my gosh, what's going on." -- they'd expect them to be there."

BEHIND THE CONCEPT ...

Wentzel said the Parkland Massacre convinced him it would be unwise to ignore the possibility of a similar incident in Livingston Parish. The socioeconomic makeup of Watson, for example, matches that of Parkland, Fla., and Newtown, Ct., site of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre on Dec. 14, 2012.

Watson is a largely middle class, mostly white community of approximately 26,000. Parkland has a population of 23,962 and Newtown, 27,865.

"Look at the scenarios, and you'll see they have basically the same socioeconomic makeup -- almost identical to us," Wentzel said.

Ten SROs currently bounce from around the 45 sites across the parish since Ard instituted the program in 2012. Federal grants enabled LPSB to staff SROs at Denham Springs and Walker high schools as far back as 2003, Wentzel said.

"They've become a part of the fabric in school systems across the nation," he said.

Wentzel requested the additional officers, but Ard has said the measure was cost-prohibitive without new revenue. The measure heads to the polls amid skepticism by some voters who have used social media to question the need for the tax.

The benefits of the tax are a no-brainer, Ard and Wentzel said.

"There are a lot of parents and grandparents with kids in the school system, and they're asking for this and they want this, and in my heart, I know what I'm doing is right," Ard said. "Every call I've gotten has been a positive, from people thanking us for what we're doing."

"We rely with his people to help us with situations, and sometimes we need them quickly," Wentzel added.

Many of the security issues on school campuses in Livingston Parish and across the nation do not stem from members of the student body, Ard said.

Instead, they come from parents.

"People don't realize that one of the biggest challenges we face comes when someone walks out of the courtroom and they've just lost custody of their child, and guess where they head: the school," he said. "They go to that school and get them out of the school."

It happens on a weekly basis, and it is not concentrated to one area of the parish, Ard said.

The custody issues have led to heated confrontations between the noncustodial parent and school personnel. They have not led to violence, but the school system cannot afford to keep its guard down, Wentzel said.

"You'll have a parent saying "Do not let "so-and-so" pick up my child from school", and then they're they are in the office, ready to check them out," he said. "And then you have the principal having to tell the dad they can't have their child, and it becomes a hostile environment the principal doesn't need to be in.

"A lot of times, we can't get a deputy there fast enough, and with student resource officers spread out everywhere, we can't get them there fast enough," Wentzel said. "People don't realize how often this occurs."

Larger schools would likely dictate the need for more than one SRO, Wentzel said.

Denham Springs, Live Oak and Walker high schools -- all of which have head counts of 1,200 or more -- continue to grow, Wentzel said.

"Denham Springs High School, for example, is a huge campus -- too big for just one officer -- so we'd probably have two," he said.

Ard said he has added 42 enforcement officers to his crew -- a total of around 300 -- in the time since he succeeded Willie Graves in 2012.

Attrition and reduction in the number of clerical workers on payroll enabled the increase.

"It also gave me the ability to add the first resource officer," Ard said.

The large geographical spread of the parish would make it difficult to pull 55 officers from the force to safeguard each campus.

"We've done everything we can to add resource officers to every campus, but I know we're stretched to the limit," he said. "We can't sit back and hope we're safer. We have to do things to make us safer.

"We're trying ... we're heading down the direction we feel we need to go, and it will be people of this parish who will give us the answer, " Ard said.