Louisiana news briefs

Public defender’s office
ex-worker arrested
COVINGTON (AP) — A former employee of the St. Tammany Parish Public Defender’s Office has been arrested on a felony theft charge.
Covington Police Chief Tim Lentz said 26-year-old Latoya Perkins, also known as Latoya Barnes, was arrested Monday. Perkins, of Franklinton, was the receptionist for the Public Defender’s Office. It was unknown if she has an attorney.
Perkins’ arrest comes on the same day that an independent audit noting a misappropriation of more than $8,000 at the office was made public by the Legislative Auditor’s Office. The audit does not name the employee involved with the alleged misappropriation but notes the office was investigating a decrease in its probation revenue and discovered the theft. The audit says an employee had taken about $8,150 in fees.
Lentz said the arrest warrant was issued in July 2013 after the office, located in Covington, reported an internal theft. John Lindner, the chief public defender, said the office does monthly reports and the drop-off in revenue was noticeable.
Local revenue sources such as court fees, bond forfeitures, probation fees and application fees make up about 52 percent of the office’s revenue, he said. The rest of the office’s annual budget of about $2.5 million comes from the state.
The audit recommends that the office review its internal controls over those funds and take steps to strengthen them. Lindner said he has done so by moving the responsibility for collecting the money up the chain of command. Now, only the comptroller can collect those payments, he said.
“With the funding problems I have, I’ve got to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

St. Bernard officials to consider higher water rates
CHALMETTE (AP) — St. Bernard Parish officials plan to hold a town hall meeting to explain a scheduled vote on increasing water and sewer rates by 70 percent.
The Parish Council has discussed increasing the rates for most of the past year.
The town hall meeting is set for Jan. 5. The council will meet the next day and could vote then on the proposal.
Residents using 8,000 gallons of water each month would see their combined water and sewer bills rise to $59.41 per month, up from $34.94 a month at present.
A consulting firm hired this year to evaluate the parish’s water system found that water rates are too low by almost a third and sewer rates are 80 percent below operating costs.

Covington police give drivers $100 from Secret Santa
COVINGTON (AP) — What at first seemed like bad luck for Covington resident Annie Williams turned out to be a “blessing.”
She had just turned on to her street in The Groves subdivision Tuesday when Sgt. Russell Spinks pulled her over for failing to use her turn signal. After Spinks checked her license and registration he let her off with a warning — and then he handed her a $100 bill, telling her “Merry Christmas” and that the gift was from the department and an anonymous Secret Santa.
Spinks was one of eight officers participating in the event that’s fueled by a donor who gave the department several thousand dollars.
Williams’ jaw dropped when Spinks gave her the money.
“I am very grateful,” she said. “Shocked.”
Williams said she’d spend the $100 on Christmas presents for her six grandchildren. The money was a blessing, she said.
When Spinks stopped Roy McCann of Madisonville for failing to use his turn signal, McCann initially said he was confused. As Spinks explained he actually was just trying to make his Christmas brighter, McCann said, “This is the best blessing. Thank you, officer.”
Chief Tim Lentz said the Secret Santa event was a “big step” in helping the police department forge a better relationship with the community.
“To me, this is so important to us in our mission, because every day when we go to work we build what I call ‘social capital,’” he said. “We build our relationships with our community, so God forbid should something like Ferguson happen here in Covington, our citizens hopefully will give us the benefit of the doubt because we spend all year long building our relationships.”

Third suspect arrested
in fatal shooting in Gray
HOUMA (AP) — Terrebonne Parish sheriff’s deputies say a third suspect has been arrested in the fatal shooting of a man last week in Gray.
Capt. Dawn Foret said 21-year-old Damien Wagner, of Thibodaux, was booked with second-degree murder in the death of 33-year-old Sheddrick Arcement, also of Thibodaux.
Foret says deputies responded to Mobile Estates Drive last Monday night and found Arcement lying in the road with multiple gunshot wounds.
Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said Arcement was pronounced dead Tuesday morning at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center.
The other suspects are 25-year-old Christen Fletcher and 18-year-old Travontae Williams, both of Thibodaux.

Pre-K revamp funds uncertain
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Despite landing a $32 million federal grant this month, child care advocates say they are stumped on how Louisiana will pay for sweeping changes in its early childhood education system.
Jonathan Pearce, president of the Child Care Association of Louisiana, said money is the biggest issue, and right now, there is no
The worries focus on a 2012 law pushed by Gov. Bobby Jindal.
It is supposed to replace a preschool setup that critics contend is plagued by inequities in funding and quality and is confusing to par-ents.
But the measure became law without any appropriation attached, and backers have spent months asking how the state can provide better-qualified teachers, serve more children and offer better oversight without additional dollars.
The issue surfaced again last week during a joint meeting of the House and Senate Education committees.
State Superintendent of Education John White, responding to questions, said four options are worth exploring.
He said they include raising private dollars and reallocating existing state resources.
White said local districts can also blend a wide range of state and federal aid to offer more seats to 4-year-old students from impover-ished homes, which he said has been done well in the West Baton Rouge Parish and West Feliciana Parish school districts.
“Of course, the state has no money,” White said in an interview a few days later.
State services face a $1.4 billion shortfall for the financial year that begins on July 1 to maintain spending at current levels.
That means any kind of major funding injection for early childhood education is highly unlikely in 2015 and probably beyond that.
The state recently landed a federal grant of up to $32 million to provide new and improved classes for about 10,500 youngsters in New Orleans and elsewhere. However, the assistance in the first of four years is just $2.4 million, and it applies only to 4-year-olds.
“That will be very helpful, so that is great,” said Melanie Bronfin, executive director of the Policy Institute for Children in New Orle-ans. “But that is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Bronfin has been sounding alarms for nearly a year about how the early childhood overhaul will be financed.