The Hurstville Security District may be able to increase the amount of extra police patrols in the neighborhood thanks to a surplus in their annual budget, board members said Wednesday night.
The district is funded by a $460 fee on each of the more than 750 parcels within its boundaries, which run roughly from Nashville Avenue to Jefferson Avenue between Magazine Street and Loyola Avenue but includes a handful of other adjacent blocks. The district had been spending roughly $187,00 a year to hire off-duty New Orleans Police Department officers for 15 hours of extra patrol per day, but even after insurance, administrative costs and contributions to a reserve fund for emergencies, the district is still running about a $40,000 annual surplus, said president George Young.
Shelley Landrieu, the executive director for the district, attributed the surplus to two causes. First, in reviewing its finances, the city had found money owed to the district from previous years, but Landrieu said this was only a “couple of thousand” dollars. The bulk of the suprlus, she said, is the fact that the fee is being collected from more parcels in the neighborhood than the district had anticipated.
To add an extra hour of patrol every day for a year costs about $16,000, and board members considered adding either one or two, effectively bringing the patrols to 16 or 17 hours per day, Young said.
“We want to spend all the money coming in, but we don’t want to overspend,” Young said.
Board member Alan Philipson cautioned against allocating the entire surplus immediately, suggesting that the board add one hour first and then reevaluate, while Marshall Page suggested that the additional time on the street be applied to holidays, such as Mardi Gras and Christmas. Ault Hootsell suggested the district research exactly how large an emergency fund is needed – in case of a disaster that drives most neighborhood residents from their homes and requires 24-hour patrols, for example.
“The conversation ought to be how large the cushion is,” Hootsell said.
No decision was reached at the Wednesday evening in the living room of Young’s Octavia Street home. Instead, the board decided to invite NOPD Lt. Carl Perilloux, who coordinates the Hurstville patrols, to offer his recommendations at a second meeting on the topic set for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27.
