City eyes fees for records requests

During an otherwise routine meeting Monday night, the Rayne City Council proposed an ordinance which would establish an intricate fee schedule for public records requests.
“All this is based on the fee schedules used by the state,” explained Mayor Charles “Chuck” Robichaux.
According to state law, a public records request must be responded to within 72 hours, which often requires employees to abandon their routine daily duties to fulfill the requests.
“In order to accommodate such requests for this time, there needs to be a schedule including minimum administrative charges,” the ordinance points out.
The city does not currently have a uniform administrative policy addressing the cost of handling public records requests and providing the requested documents.
If ultimately adopted, the schedule will address everything from single black-and-white copies to CD/DVD/USB reproductions and document transcriptions for both city hall and for the Rayne Police Department.
The ordinance was introduced Monday night by Councilman-at-Large Lendell “Pete” Babineaux. A public hearing on the proposal will be held during the Dec. 11 regular city council meeting.
In presenting the fiscal year-end financials, City Clerk Annette Cutrera noted that some budget amendments will be necessary to bring “actuals” to within the state-mandated 5 percent of estimates.
“There were some underestimates of both revenue and expenses and some unexpected items like the Youth World Series Championship this year,” Cutrera told council members. “We will be doing an amendment revision due to exceeding the 5 percent threshold in some of the funds.”
In the Maintenance and Operations Fund, Cutrera noted the wholesale cost to purchase electrical power was $869,000 more than expected. However, the revenue increased by $647,000.
The General Fund, the city’s primary source of day-to-day funding, “ended ... a little shy of break-even,” Cutrera said, “but still within the 5 percent threshold” with a $413,994 surplus
The city ends fiscal 2016-2017 with “a very healthy ending fund balance of $12.7 million,” Cutrera said.
Before closing, Robichaux announced that a major “pothole repair” program is expected to begin around the beginning of the new year.
Robichaux also announced that the city, in cooperation with the social media group Rayne Remembered, will be hosting a “Breakfast with Santa” event on Dec. 16 at the Rayne Fire Station on South Adams Avenue.
“This event is free and open to the public, but we will only have 250 tickets available,” Robichaux said. “We’re hoping to make this an annual event and move it to the civic Center where we can grow and involve more kids.”
Tickets for the event will be available at city hall in the near future. All children ages 2 through 12 will be invited.
Robichaux also noted that the annual Rayne Christmas Parade will roll on Tuesday, Dec. 5, beginning at 6 p.m.
Lineup begins at 5:15 at the Rayne Civic Center.

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