St. Tammany Parish president, sheriff at odds over finances

SLIDELL, La. -- St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis delivered a letter to State Legislative Auditor Steve Theriot Thursday, asking Theriot to investigate financial irregularities in the St. Tammany Sheriff's Department.

"I need the legislative auditor to review it," Davis said. "I'm not insinuating anything. Let them make the decision -- can you take dedicated sales tax and use it for other things?"

Davis said in 2006, Sheriff Jack Strain took $3.2 million dedicated for the jail and spent it to help build the sheriff's new facility in Slidell.

"To make these assertions that somehow the Sheriff's Office has inappropriately spent the money's of the jail," Strain responded, "I think, shines poorly on him, to say the very least."

Strain said it costs roughly $17 million a year to run the jail, and there is simply not enough money in the current budget to pay for it.

Davis disagreed.

"Yes, I would believe there is enough money to run the jail."

Strain said auditors have seen his books the past few years and found no irregularities.

"I hope that at some point that this crazy assertion that me, and our external auditors and the legislative auditor have been blind for years, and his office somehow stumbled over these numbers, we're not talking about some conspiracy that he uncovered, these things have been in our audited finances."

"If you were taking money out," Davis responded, “if that was ok, you were taking money out to do something else when it really wasn't jail activity, and now, you're telling me you need more money for the jail, wait a minute, something just doesn't add up with all of that."

Late Thursday afternoon, Strain sent a letter to the state legislative auditor that read, in part, "I have absolutely not used sales tax dollars for anything but the operation of the parish jail. I am confident any inquiry by your office will affirm this."

Under an agreement with the Sheriff's Department, the parish turns the revenue stream that pays for the operation of the jail over to the Sheriff's Department. But beginning in January, Davis said, the parish will take back control of that money, and only pay the bills for which it is responsible.

Strain said if that happens, he would reduce revenue to the point where he would have to release up to 60 pre-trial prisoners.

"In my opinion, if we follow this mandate, it has the potential to release inmates back on the street," Strain said. "I hope the parish president reconsiders."

"We're going to have to get some legal assistance to make sure those things don't happen,” Davis said.

For now, the St. Tammany Parish Jail houses State Department of Corrections inmates.

Davis said, "We need to remove the 500 State Prisoners, because no longer are they profitable."

The sheriff disagreed, saying because state prisoners perform services around the parish, they are profitable.

"We have proven that we can run a jail in the most efficient capacity, "increase the number of people that we keep in jail, and reduce the cost to the taxpayer,” Strain said.

Both Davis and Strain contend this battle isn't personal.