911 chairman calls rent proposal unfair

The chairman of the St. Mary Parish Communications District made an apparently unsuccessful appeal April 10 for Parish Council members to vote against charging the district rent.
The district, which operates 911 emergency communications service in the parish, shares a parish-owned building at 1200 David Drive, Morgan City, with the Public Health Unit and Sanitarian Services Offices. The district currently pays no rent.
But that could change.
The parish administration is looking for ways to either raise non-tax revenue or make cuts amounting to $2.5 million, the amount by which Parish President Sam Jones has said the parish will fall short of covering the rest of the budget year.
About $1.6 million has been identified. But one of the revenue-raising proposals is to charge the Communications District $812 a month in rent.
District Chairman Edward Smith asked the council members to vote against that amendment.
The money that would otherwise be used for rent has instead gone into an equipment fund that has been accumulating for 26 years, Smith said.
The fund made it possible for the district to afford communication upgrade.
“We’re the only ones being asked to pay rent …,” Smith said. “If you want to charge everybody rent, then we could talk about that.”
The council eventually passed an ordinance amending its lease agreement with the district by a 10-1 vote.