Finance Committee reviews May finances, proposes reallocating road capital outlay and outlines jail corrective plan

The Livingston Parish Finance Committee reviewed year-to-date financial statements through May 31, 2026, and discussed steps to address an audit finding and improve budget reporting.

Deputy Finance Director Gail Housley presented the packet and reported, “For the month of May, we received $2.8 million,” noting that of that total roughly $700,000 was attributable to the jail and about $2.1 million to road funding. Housley also provided the month’s check register and an update on a corrective action tied to an audit finding on prisoner housing costs. To improve annual budgeting for prisoner housing, she said the parish will obtain an updated prisoner count from the Livingston Parish Detention Center at the end of each November and use that figure to estimate January–February housing costs more accurately.

Housley told the committee the finance office is proposing a budget amendment to move two capital outlay accounts out of the road fund (fund 145) into an existing capital outlay fund (fund 201). She said the two expenditures in fund 201 are $9 million and $35 million (a $44 million amendment request) and that moving these capital outlays to fund 201 would prevent those one-time capital expenditures from being included in routine budget-variance calculations. “Although the budget will be prepared for these projects for 201, the capital outlay expenditures do not calculate into the budget variance,” Housley said, describing the change as an intra-fund movement intended to improve compliance with a 5% budget-variance requirement identified in the audit.

Gina Miller, senior staff accountant, gave an update on the Better Roads program. She said package 26-1 is in construction with a notice to proceed issued May 18, package 26-2 has been awarded but its notice to proceed has not yet been issued, and package 26-5 has completed design and will go to bid on July 9. Miller reported program-to-date spending of about $1,581,000 and noted the program has contracted approximately $37 million. On invoicing and start dates, staff explained there is commonly a roughly 30-day lag between bid award and issuance of a notice to proceed; once work starts, invoices are paid monthly after project-engineer reconciliation.

Committee members said the fund transfer and the spreadsheet summaries help prevent inadvertent budget variance breaches caused by retainage and invoice timing. Members emphasized the spreadsheet’s role in tracking the roughly $80 million program and noted that contracts cannot be overspent except by change order.

A committee member reported an initial meeting with architect Grace Hebert and the sheriff about the parish’s jail project; the sheriff reportedly proposed design changes that could allow 150 beds instead of the originally planned 128. The speaker said the projected completion date is September of next year and that occupancy would follow; however, transcript figures about annual savings or debt-service impact were unclear and not specified in the meeting record.

No formal committee vote on the proposed budget amendment was recorded in the Finance Committee discussion. The committee made a motion to adjourn, and the Finance Committee meeting ended; the parish council meeting was scheduled to begin shortly thereafter.