October 7, 2024 • 39 mins
Jim Chapman sits down with Lt. Scobie of the DS Police Department and Alex Watts of the DS Fire Department discuss the proposed hotel tax on the upcoming ballot in Denham Springs. This tax that will not be a burden to the citizens of the City of Denham Springs aims to improve the salaries and benefits of both departments with no impact to local citizens. Lieutenant Scobie underscores the importance of educating the community on the tax’s purpose, while Watts shares the operational challenges faced by the fire department. They explain that the initiative addresses retention issues and competitive pay to attract skilled personnel. The episode highlights the tax’s strict allocation for compensation and its broader benefits for community safety and property values.
You can learn more about this tax by visiting
https://www.sosdenhamsprings.com
Timestamps
03:22 Proposed Hotel Tax Discussion
05:45 Understanding the Tax's Purpose
11:20 Exploring the Funding Mechanism
14:20 The Importance of Competitive Pay
25:20 The Impact of the Tax on Services
27:17 Voting on the Ballot
34:53 Final Thoughts and Call to Action
This episode is sponsored by Level Dumpsters You can learn more about Level Dumpsters by visiting:
https://www.leveldumpsters.com
SAVE 100.00 OFF YOUR DUMPSTER RENTAL JUST BY MENTIONING LOCAL LEADERS THE PODCAST!
You can learn more about this tax by visiting
https://www.sosdenhamsprings.com
Timestamps
03:22 Proposed Hotel Tax Discussion
05:45 Understanding the Tax's Purpose
11:20 Exploring the Funding Mechanism
14:20 The Importance of Competitive Pay
25:20 The Impact of the Tax on Services
27:17 Voting on the Ballot
34:53 Final Thoughts and Call to Action
This episode is sponsored by Level Dumpsters You can learn more about Level Dumpsters by visiting:
https://www.leveldumpsters.com
SAVE 100.00 OFF YOUR DUMPSTER RENTAL JUST BY MENTIONING LOCAL LEADERS THE PODCAST!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is Lori Johnson with Hancock Whitney Bank and
you're listening to Local Leaders the podcast. Visit Local leadersthepodcast
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Speaker 2 (00:14):
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(01:29):
Local Leaders the podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back to another
edition of Local Leaders the Podcast. And you may or
may not recognize these two gentlemen across from me, but
they are here from the fire department and the police
department here in the city. I'm gonna let him introduce themselves.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yes, sir, Lieutenant Scoby. Uh, you may know me a Scooby.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah you will come.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yes, I've been within a Spring the police department for
seventeen years now, fifteen years in a retirement system.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Wow, very good background.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I'm a lieutenant with them. I helped the chief run
the department of day to day Alex.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Wats dim Springs Fire Department, been there about five years now. Yeah,
come from along line of firefighters.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Oh very good.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Kind of falling into shoes.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Well, you fight what I fear when I run from
the fire. You go into the fire. So shout out
to you for that. Scooby.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I called you Scooby for a long time and my
wife would correct me because somebody you graduated with as
a good friend of hers, and she's like, it's Scooby,
not Scooby. I said, it's Scooby the school year.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
If if somebody calls me Keith, I'm looking for my mom. Yeah,
even if the mayor, I always say the mayor, the
sheriff for the chief. If they say, if you say
some cop named Scooby, they're gonna know who you're talking right,
all right. I don't know if I even hear my
real name around the office, it's Scooby.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, before we go any further, I want to thank
both of you for everything you do. As I said,
you go into places that I run from, and you
go to people that I run from. So that's that's
not to be taken lightly, and it really is. It
takes a special person to do what you guys do.
So I'm sure I speak for everybody in not only
(03:07):
Didnim Springs, but the entire state of Louisian And when
I say thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Sir, I appreciate that. We really do.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So we're going to get into what we're here to
talk about today, and that is a hotel tax. That is,
it will be proposed on the upcoming ballot, the presidential ballots.
We're going to explain how that works. What if any
effect on the citizens. And I guess Scoby will start
with you.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
It is going to be on a November ballot. It
was designed by that by legislation. We didn't have a
choice in that.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So I've done eleven of these talk so far. Yeah,
And I say my goal is is not you may
hear me say once during this podcast, you know, vote yes,
vote for us.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Other than that, my goal is just to get the
information out.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
If I can get that information out, and as a
citizen and as an adult that's voters and you make
a decision, I can sleep good at night.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I like that. And let me say this, I have
seen several of the talks that you've given and that
really is like half the battle right there. And I
do want to compliment you and compliment you for taking
the step of educating the voter. I think a lot
of these things that are great ideas. And I'll say
(04:16):
right off the top, I think this is a no brainer.
But I think these great ideas sometimes maybe they fall
short because of the education's just not there. It's not
the fact of the tax itself.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
And so that's what we know when people go to
that ballot, we all have lives, we all have families,
we all have work, we all have the things, and
they're going to go in that ballot and vote what
they what they want to vote. For Sure, when they
see tax that is alarming to people, and that is
a dirty word for some people. And I understand it.
I live in this pairs. I get it. My goal
is just to go when they see task go. Wait,
is this what Lieutenant Scobey talked about. Let me think
(04:51):
a little bit before I make my decision. It's my
only goal. And if you still say no after you've
been informed, then it's just no. I'll promise you this.
I have ten more years for I'm eligible to retire.
You won't see me again for the same tax. I
always fight for paying raise forty funders, but I won't
do this again other people. I've spoken, you know, right.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Very good, So let's get into it, and I guess
maybe let's start with you and talk about the reason
and the need for this. How did that transpire?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Well, it's really an alternative effort to increase salary and
benefits for fire and police. Yeah, without putting the direct
burden on the citizens themselves. So it's kind of a
creative approach to not put that burden directly on the citizens. Right,
So it's going to be for out of town or
staying in hotels, and it will just be an additional
(05:43):
tax on the people staying in.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Hotels, gotcha.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
So the chances of that being a citizen are very
very low, and that's why we went with that.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Approach, very good and scugby. One of the things that
I really like that is actually written into this bit,
I guess you could say bill, is the fact that
if there's a natural disaster or an emergency of some
sort that will require citizens to make use of these hotels.
And when I say citizens, Denim Springs residents, the tax
(06:15):
can be suspended by the mayor.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
So written into the bill, sover one transparent it is
for salary and benefits for police, fire and police and
fire for Denom Springs. That is written in. That doesn't
mean that the money can be used anywhere else. The
chiefs can't say I want a helicopter and use those funds.
It's got to be for police salary. So it's earmark
that's in there. As far as some of my talks
and maybe some other people mentioned that the mayor can
(06:39):
do it with a city council, it would be brought
before them. So we discussed this, me and the mayor
personally before I put words in his mouth and wanted
to make sure it was correct. And he believes with
the vote of the council that he could pause that
for those disasters, for hurricanes and things like that, if
his citizens need to seek shelter in those motels. Yeah,
that is beyond my capability. I catch bad guys for
a living, sure, So if he's telling me that that's
(07:00):
something that they can do as a counsel in him,
than by all means I believe him.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah. And I think it's very important to uh for
everyone to grasp the fact that this is not a
tax on the citizens, uh unless you're staying in the
hotel and you living denim and that may raise an
eyebrow or.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Two, right, right, So you know, I spoke at the
school board lives in parish and they recently had something
come up on the ballot for a sales tax. Sure,
And I think in this parish, I truly believe in
this paris that we can all agree that teachers, first
responders probably need to.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Make more sure.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Where we're disagreeing. In my opinion is is where is
that money coming from? And how much is it? I
think in this parish everybody wants to see those those
entities taken care of. We have to do a better
job of explaining where that money is going, how much
it is, and hold true to what that law is
and where it's going to permanently go. So I spoke
to the school board and and I got ate up
for this and and some some news outlets that I said,
(07:59):
we had to get creative. It's my job to figure
things out that are difficult.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I got no problem with being creative.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
I appreciate.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I think that thinking outside the box has kind of
led you to where you're at with this.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I would hope. So it's just that sentence got picked apart,
and hey, that's that's their their prerogative, that's where they
live in America, right. But I wanted to touch base
on getting creative. Wasn't mean I'm getting creative on how
to tax our citizens and look at that in a
bad like getting creative was I heard you. I heard
you when you voted no for a sales tax, and
I heard you when you say you're tired of sales tax.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, I heard you.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
When Jeff Taylor comes on your podcast says, hey, get ready,
the mills are going up. We're doing recent.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I hear that.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
I listen. I pay attention. It's my job to think
outside the box, get creative. Take it however you want
with that verbiage. But we had to come up with
something else, and we came up with a occupancy tax
for our motels and hotels.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I think it was a great idea. And you know,
I say to my wife all the time, there's more
than one way to get to Florida Boulevard. There you go,
you know what I mean. So if you if you
go one way and there's a lot of traffic, maybe
you take a side street. What you did here was
that I think is just genius. As you figured out
a way to get the funding that you needed. But
(09:13):
you were you're enabling yourself to do that without being
a burden on the citizen.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yes, and I've been asked, hey, why isn't the city
fund y'all's raises and salary and benefits? And you gotta look,
the city has a city to worry about. And I'm
talking about a street, Department of water, Department of Maintenance,
billiing utility permits, they have animal shelter, they have a
whole entity. I had a discussion with the mayor one
year after the flood and said, hey, Scoby, you know,
(09:39):
three hundred thousand dollars would do wonders from my pay scale,
would do wonders. That's reoccurring. I need that every year. Yeah,
he says, water pump went down at whatever station. My
citizens need to fluster toilets and have water. You have
to undred thousand dollars, sir. So I understand where he's
coming from as managing this whole city. Fire and police
is just some of that. And you have to to
(10:00):
have a grown up conversation with your leaders and the
other bosses to come together and figure out a solution.
And the city is for us put in on a
ballot for the citizens to vote.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I agree. And you know you mentioned fire, and I'll
tell you people may not think about this when it occurs,
but the fire department is right there, hand in hand
with the police. Many times, the fire departments first people
on scene, you know, for some of these emergencies. And
so one of the things with this particular ballot item
(10:34):
that is going to be up on the ballot. Is
the fact that you're splitting this money fifty to fifty,
which I thought was pretty cool. You know that y'all
must get along a little bit.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
No, Look, I promised that when we're in this room,
I wouldn't put my hands on him. He wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah right. I want to keep no battle of the
badge going on here.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
We have a you know, fire and police have there.
We have that banter, and but we know when it's
time to come together for calls and it it's written
in the law that way. They can't get sixty percent.
We can't get sixty percent. It's written fifty to fifty
split between us. For those two reasons. Love that and
why hotels we had to think us out of the box.
We had to figure out how are we going to
(11:13):
retain people. This all comes to retaining fire and police
and paying for salary and benefits to keep good quality
applicants here. We picked hotels and motels because this is
not something new. We didn't think of this three weeks ago.
This has been two years in the making for me personally.
The state capital. Other places do this exact same thing
with the occupancy tax our numbers show that we spend
(11:34):
a lot of time at the nine motels and hotels
inside the city limits.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
In the New Springs. Yes, we just do.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
If people don't want to accept that or it's hard
to hear, I'm sorry, I speak facts. We spend a
lot of time between US fire and police there. Sure,
so our residents are kind of paying for that the
city limits of Dinner Springs. Residents are paying for us
to spend a lot of time at those hotels and motels.
So we're looking at altering how we receive funding for that.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Sure, that's what I came up.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
We came up with thought.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I think in luck you mentioned it there, but you're
not reinventing the wheel. This is not something that is
uncommon in other parts of the country and including Louisiana.
Is it going to be termed an occupancy tax or.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
It is an occupancy tax? It's up to six point
seventy five Yeah, so is that a high percentage if
we were talking about sales tax? Oh yeah, you know,
Oh yeah, it's an occupancy tax. So it's going to
go off of we we we tossed around the idea of,
you know, a set three dollars per room. But as
you know, three dollars five years ago, three dollars now
everybody now, So we had to do a percentage, and
(12:41):
we did the law up to so if there is
four more hotels and we get you know, five story
luxury hotels and we have an abundance of money, we
can just roll back the percentage.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Right, Let's talk about where this money is going. So
what what directly would this be used for? I'm I'm
gonna turn to you first on that.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Particularly for us, we need to fix our pay scale,
especially with inflation. It's really killing us as far as
being competitive down the road. Our start and pay is
very comparable to most departments around here. But when you
look at a Baton Rouge's pay scale over time, when
they put in twenty twenty five, thirty years, they're going
(13:20):
to be making a whole lot more. So that's what
we're trying to get competitive with. And then you have
to look at it from the standpoint. Last time we checked,
there were thirteen hundred civil service scores that we could
pull from, and that's from the whole state. So you're
competing with all these other departments that have better long
term pay scales than us, and we're losing because of that.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Wow, and what about yours?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
I'll touch base on the fire department too. That they
have a local district fire company that makes way more
their pay scale is something I'm jealous of. And that's
you don't have to uproot mister Watson to take his
family and change schools and move. He can just drive
four miles down the road to that department and just
make more than what he's doing now.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Right.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
That is hard. That is hard for that agency to
deal with. And I've said this before. When we have
our employees and when you do maybe an exit interview,
they don't ever say that they don't like policing in
them springs. None of my officers complain that, oh this
is so hard, we don't like it. We don't like it.
They don't ever say that they like them springs. They
either grew up here, they want to stay here. They
want to keep it the way it is. It's just
(14:29):
the finances, it's the benefits, it's the insurance. It's I
had a kid, but my wife can but the kid.
It's those technical things, man, you know, we have to
fix that. Why am I losing applicants? Or losing officers
a year two years in we train to get them
post certified and trained to do the job, and then
they go seek a different employment at one of these
various agencies that just we just can't compete.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
With, and that training is expensive, and it's an it's
not only an investment monetarily, it's an investment in that
person with time and training and all these things that
you do to make sure that they are are ready
to go out on the right and police right.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
I say this all the time. Do you want the
upset officers showing up to your doorstep to take your complaint?
When you call nine on one and you have one
of us there, it's probably a low point. You're having
a bad day. And do you want the officer who's
just upset because he's working mandatory over time because the
shifts are short. No, you don't want that guy. I
understand that I lived inside the city for many years.
(15:30):
I flooded in the city with everybody else with you.
I understand those things. So we have to keep those
applicants happy. We have to keep them wanting to stay here.
We have to keep their knowledge and continue to grow
where they have fifteen sixteen seventeen years and make lieutenant
where they're not making lieutenant with four years. You don't
get that education that comes with it.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
In all the knowledge, one hundred percent agree with that.
And we have this conversation off camera. I think it's
worth saying on camera. You know, you may look at
this and say, well, it doesn't really affect me. Maybe you,
maybe you live in in a really nice subdivision. You
don't hardly get any calls, any complaints. Uh, it affects
all of us because if your police department goes down,
(16:13):
if your fire department goes down, uh to a substandard level,
your schools go down to a substandard level, it's going
to drop your property value. That's why it's so important
that your police departments and your fire departments in your
schools because even if it may not directly affect you
because you don't live next to a hotel technically or
(16:35):
something like that, it affects you. It just affects you
in a different way.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
You know property values. You want to keep your property value.
Pay your police, pay your fireman, pay your teachers. That
would be my advice right off the bat, and I'm
not you know, the teachers haven't paid me to promote this,
but I love teachers.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah, and we all because how many people said they
move to lives in parish for their public schools. Yeah,
well that says that said something. So I encourage that
school board to try to figure out a way to
keep them teachers happy. My kid is in a public
school and Livingston Parish and he special needs, and the
programs are nice and the teachers are great. I want
that to continue. So I encourage them to think outside
(17:13):
the box and find some information and get some things done.
As we have, and my little committee has. It's difficult.
You're talking about a tax. Nobody likes you when you
talk about a tax. I'm sitting here today knowing that
I'm going to have feedback about another tax. I understand that,
but it has to be done. We have to have
a discussion, and it's very important.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
It's not it's a tax on people that are staying
in hotels. It is not something you're going to pay
when you go to Walmart and buy your grocery or
you buy a vehicle or anything like that. This is
something that people coming in they're paying what is a
common tax all over the place. I stayed in Florida recently,
(17:53):
and it was a pretty high occupancy tax. I believe
it was over ten percent at that particular hotel. Uh
this one at six point something five.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Yes, you know, and they do have some taxes on
that I can see for the hotels already, and we
would be adding to that. So obviously, the hotel owners
they're they're they're against me. And I understand that if
this is something that's going to affect their Christmas or something,
I do understand that. I do believe they would probably
just pass it on. It's all, but I don't run
(18:25):
their business.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Then they run their back to this point on the
verbiage of creativity, we were getting creative for the citizens
to keep that money from coming out of their pocket.
That's why we use that term in the first place. Yes,
we wanted to do what we could to not put
this tax on the people themselves.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I love it and I think it's important. Look, you
got outside the box. That's the great thing about what
you've come up with. It was that second way to
get to Florida Boulevard without affecting people that already live here.
I can't hammer that down enough. It's probably the most
important statement on this particular podcast, and.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
That's why we're all on board with it, because it
feels very considerate from us, Yeah, to consider the way
they voted in the past on these tax increases, and
we get it. We pay taxes to that's why it's
more of a situational tax for and it's going to
affect people coming out of town more so than the
citizens themselves.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
So and that's what I really like about it.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
And I would imagine from both your standpoints, the calls
that you're getting to the hotels now are prevalent relative
to where they were maybe ten years ago, five years ago,
common to currents.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
So would you say you can contribute out to more
hotels and hotels Russian Road has seen in the last
ten years, probably with at least those three taller ones.
And we are responding. And so as fire and the
overdoses are high, the suspicious people around those areas and
walking that interstate, those calls are high. And then when
we deal with you as a fire police and it
(20:02):
is an overdose or suspected criminal activity and we pull
your id and you live local, why are you staying
in our hotels committing crimes? And you have an address
a few miles down, right, So that's that's concerning. It's
usually typically not the person from Iowa, Florida passing through
that I'm dealing with. It's somebody who is using those
to shelter their criminal activity.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah. I actually this is a little side story, but
something people might find entertaining. At what At one point
I went to uh one of the hotels and then
I'm one of the uh Hampton I think it was,
and our AC was out. My wife doesn't stay in
the house when there's a c so I go get
(20:44):
the room and the lady looks and she says, you
love and Denim, And I'm like, it's not like that.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
My wife's in the car's excited. Yeah, yeah, AC's out.
But so sometimes it does happen. But I'll go ahead,
pay the six boys up vibe a big deal.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Uh. It's better than the miss is getting very hot
inside the house, that's for sure. But so it's very important,
very important that those people pay for the services that
they're using, you know, at these hotels. If I will,
if I were calling the police department, the fire department
(21:20):
two times a day or even one time a day,
I should pay more than someone that never calls the
police or fire department. Right, it just seems like we.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Have residents in our city that have paid their dues
and their mills, and their taxes and their sales taxes,
and they've never utilized our service. They're still paying for that,
and then we have people who aren't paying for the service.
And in twenty twenty one, we had close to one
thousand calls between both of our agencies, but close to
nine hundred and eighty somewhere around there. Close to one
thousand costs multiple times a day, every day, three hundred
(21:51):
and sixty five days a year. That's a lot for
our city.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Of those calls when it is an overdose, a lot
of times it comes through as pay should not breathing.
So you're already sending two trucks. So you have two
trucks tied up in a city that has three stations,
and there's one truck per station that's manned. Right, So
two thirds of your city's out of commission working something
where they would possibly have to be performing CPR. That's
(22:17):
why you have the manpower down there. So you have
one truck running calls for the whole city in that
thirty minutes to hour stretch that that call may take.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Wow, and that's expensive, I would imagine, right that ain't cheat, No, and.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Then you know, so somebody else goes down, then you
just have one truck. You have to probably get some
kind of mutual aid assistance from another department.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Right, and let me ask you from both of your perspectives,
this is going towards salaries and benefits specifically?
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Yes, yes, So our goal is is we have to
fix our retention problem. We have to stop stop the bleeding,
as they would say, so we have to fix those
pay scales, salary and benefits. My goal at the is
to at least fix that pay scale to retain people,
and then we'll entertain using some of those funds to
hire additional people. People have questioned me, hey, are you
going to beef up the police department with these funds?
(23:11):
Because it can go to salary and benefits. You can't
buy the unit, can't buy the laptops, can't buy the uniform,
so that the city's gonna have to come up with
that funding. There's a lot of moving parts. Sure, but
what good is it for me to beef up the
police department through a thirty four man department when I
can't fill the thirty that we have.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, well you got to fix step one before you
can move to step two. And step one is retaining them,
because you know, if you have the money there to
hire additional people, but you're still not where you need
to be on pay, they're still gonna leave. It's not
going to stop them from doing that. And these are
good officers in some cases, people you'd like to retain,
(23:48):
but you know, we're I'm a business owner and if
somebody left me for more money and better benefits, yeah,
I hate to see them go, but I get it. Jim.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
How about this When they leave you and they don't
seek a different kind of employment because they didn't like
the job, but they leave you to another employment that's
doing the exact same thing you were doing. That means
to tell me that that's not being a police officer.
They're wearing another sheriff badge or another agency because they
didn't they still wanted to be a police officer. They
left for that. That hurts me, going, man, we didn't
(24:19):
do what we needed to do here because they still
are a police officer and been for I know many
for years after they left us, they're still unemployed at
the place that they left us.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
And same on your end, same on our end.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
It's a little different because, like I said, our start
and pay is comparable to most departments around. But where
it hurts is you're not increasing like you would a
barage or another neighboring department. So you end up losing
guys with ten years experience because they should be much
(24:52):
further along than they are. They have more kids and inflation.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
And that's the ones you want to keep exactly.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
So then you're losing experience, and then you have to
a lot of times we don't get somebody coming from
another department. A lot of times we get a green employee, right,
and that cost four to five thousand just to train them,
and then three thousand in gear. Wow, and that comes
from the budget. Yeah, so it hurts us with the
(25:17):
guys who have the experience and everything leaving.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, that's.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
That can't be replaced for a long time, just in
terms of experience, you know.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Right, So makes sense, and Scoby, So let's let's give
you a scenario here. Let's do it all goes as
it should go. If this gets passed with flying colors,
is it going to fix a problem.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
I would like to hope, so can I. I can't
see the future. Sure, I know there's there's even I
wouldn't say fights, but there's discussions we have to have.
If this passes, we have to worry about the dollar
amount that's going to come in. I can see tax
is not set every year that they're going to pay
the same every year. So I can't ask the city
to give me x amount of funds when they don't
(26:04):
know how many people are gonna rent hotel rooms for
the next year. It's going to be reoccurring. Whenever I
create a pay skill and the city council has to
vote on that, that that's that suckers there, yea, So
their worry would be Okay, hold up, we use this
amount of money off of this projected occupancy. But those
hotels didn't get filled in twenty twenty six like they should,
so we have to agree to a safe number. We're
(26:26):
trying to agree on fifty percent ocupancy. So let me
go off of what that. If that tax does pass,
the ocupcy of fifty percent, use those numbers to create
a new pay scale. There's a lot of things, but
it would least make us comparable with the other agencies.
It would least give us an argument when we do
these interview in these higher boards where they're like, wait,
how much what is it? You know, I need some
(26:48):
ammunition to go. Hey, let's let's reinterview this guy. Let's
offer him something that another agency can offer him. Sure,
as you know, when Sean Kelly got murdered and passed
away for US Corporate Kelly last year, we didn't get
any applications, right, we were probably seven down. Nobody wants
to do a job when they see a cop get murdered,
and then you have a less competitive pay skill, and
(27:09):
then they really don't want to do it.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, and that's just what I have to deal with.
It's important to also mention that this is on a
pretty big ballot. It's on a ballot with a president.
You know, we've got a presidential election for those of
you out there that have been living under a rock,
maybe the presidential election that day, and a ton of
other stuff on that ballot. This being with it, how
(27:33):
will it be termed on the ballot? Are you aware
of that yet?
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I'm not aware of that. Hotel tax I do have
the verbiage of the tax, but I don't know what
the ballot number is yet. I'm not aware on that.
I know legislation put it on the November ballot. It
wasn't our choosing, it was the state level.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
That right, right, And so it will be something that
if you're a Denim Springs resident you'll have the opportunity
to vote for. So you have to live in the city.
It's correct, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
On it doesn't apply to the parish. It only applies
that incorporated city limits and Dinner Springs, and it only
affects the hotels and motels in the city limits in
the Springs, so not the parish, not walker, none of
them are affected citizens or the hotels.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah. So if you, I know a lot of you
out there, the lesson you have a Denim Springs like address,
but you may not be in the city limits. I
know people get confused on that all the time, so
I like to clarify that if it's if you're in
the city limits, you'll see it as you vote, you'll
see it on there. If you don't see it, don't panic.
You may not live in city limits. You may be
(28:35):
outside of Sydney limits, but have that Denim Springs address,
and so that's why you wouldn't see it, and it's
something that will only affect I'm glad you brought that
up Denhim Springs Hotels. So if it's a Walker hotel,
they got their own deal, correct, right, They might copy you,
but they got there, and I don't know.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
We had we had a feel day legislation at state level,
and I don't know if they are are concerned of
people copying and seeing that this may be he is
a good idealer Avenue.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yeah, that's not my job.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
I'm not a legislator.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I mean, you know, I think it's a no brainer.
This is just a great idea for this city and
to get the people that deserve it, the policeman, the fireman,
some more money in there so these people can be paid.
This is something I don't you know, Jim Chapman doesn't
want to chase criminals. I just don't want to do
(29:26):
it because it takes a special human being like you
to do that. I sure ain't running into fire. I'm out,
yeah you know, I ain't even grabbing the water hose.
I'm getting out and calling you at bottom line, So
I think those people should be paid. I don't think
you could ever pay you folks enough to do what
(29:47):
it is you do. But this is just to get
you competitive. You're not gonna be millionaires off of.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
That's right, That's what I was going to say. We're
not even getting starting pay up to twenty five hours hour.
We're maybe first police responder, first police officer, that's seventeen
dollars hour. I'm trying to get it up to nineteen
twenty this if this passes that people are looking at
men six point seventy five and all these hundreds of
thousand dollars, it doesn't go that long because I have
to pay into those retirements. Also, we have to cover
(30:12):
all aspects of it. So we're not going to be millionaires.
I'm just trying to get us to buy some more groceries.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Right, We're trying to create stability in our departments.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
And be competitive with other departments. What's wrong with that.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
There's nothing wrong with that. And this mayor this city,
he loves the city and loves the citizens in the city,
and people a lot of time blame us for things
that are out of our control. I've taken a blame
for what they're doing in South Range Avenue. I can guarantee, Lieuteniscob.
We had nothing to do with the plans of South
Range and the medians that they're.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
You didn't come up with that.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
I did not come up with that. But people are
going to blame the police because, hey, look what you did.
We just worked the accidents. We were forced to write
the citations whenever you make that turn, whenever it says
you can't turn on red. Now, I didn't come up
with that, but I got to do my job, or
my officers have to do their job. But a lot
of times, just because of misinformation, they blame us. We didn't.
(31:05):
I drive the road just like you do. And I'm
looking like, okay, maybe.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
This was a good idea.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Maybe it wasn't a good idea, right, but we're here recently.
I did this according to the public. No, no, I
no say so about side frames Avenue.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Scoby's changing the whole traffic.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
And to be clear, there's no animosity towards the hotel
owners in Dentim. It's just the nature of the beast. Yeah,
it's there's no ill will or anything like that. I
understand they're running a business. I completely get that. I
run a side business as well. I just wanted to
put that out there.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, no, and that's right. I mean, nobody's picking on
them for sure. Six point five percent is this tax.
I don't think that's a heavy ask for anybody. I
would imagine that being someone that's a business person. If
that were me, you know, I'm just raising my rate
six percent. It's not major four bucks.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
I didn't bring that up here at night. We did
the studies on all the hotel room rates, and we
made sure when we when the legislation wrote this, and
it is up to six point seventy five, we didn't
price them out of business. Yeah, we added that too.
If they priced it to the consumer, they're still comparable
to the other hotels and hotels and back breach. We didn't.
We're not trying to put them out of business. It
only helps us if they stay at one hundred percent
(32:22):
in occuracy, If the citizens vote for this.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
And a message to them out there that because I
know they're going to be listening to this, I can
guarantee you a message to them. This benefits you because
a good fire department and a good happy police department
are going to protect your hotel. They're going to keep
it cleanse they're going to keep the referaf out of there,
(32:47):
and you should want that. As a business owner of
a hotel, I don't want refraff at my hotel. If
I am one, you should.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
And they did oppose me at the city council when
I spoke there, and the hotel owners did come to
state level and oppose me, And I get it. They're
fighting for their business, sure, But like I asked the
city council to put it on their agenda, it's not
a vote for fire and police and against the hotel owners.
I'm just asking for a vote for the citizens to choose.
That's all I was asking for. At the state level
(33:14):
the city level was hey, can you say yes to
put this on a palot so our citizens can make
up their mind. That is what I truly believe America
is about. And let them decide.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Absolutely. Let the people have the say, and the people
will have to say. But I will say this. A
businessman sat down in this chair across from him one
time and he said, you know a lot of things
I say as a business person I don't necessarily agree
with as a personal human being. And it's true, business
(33:45):
owners for hotels or whatever, are going to say something
looking at it from a business perspective that from a
personal level they might say this is probably the right
thing to do.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
So.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
And I refuse to believe that anybody out there would
think the police don't deserve to be paid and competitive,
Like I said, no, but he's being millionaires off this,
but just competitive, be able to retain your people. I
can't hammer that down enough.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I think they they're just worried about Okay, if I say, yes, Scooby,
where is that money going, I'm telling you, it's in
the law where it's got to go. Yeah, it has
no sunset date. We mean that it's there. Legislation can
pass to change it later on down the line. I
can't control what they do, but there is no sunset date.
But it's written in the law. We can't go buy
(34:33):
new vehicles and remodel the PD and put two stories
on it. And it's got to go to our guys
and girls pay and benefits.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
That's right, that's right. And to wrap this up, this
is not a tax on the citizens of Denim Springs
unless they were to stay in the hotel and they
live in Denim. That's the only way they're going to
end up paying this tax. Correct sir, Okay. Good for
(35:00):
everybody out there that has questions about this. I'm going
to put some links into the video here that you're
watching or if you're listening into the audio, where you
can get more information on it. I'll be posting. I
have some flyers and I'm going to be posting on
the Facebook page so you can check those out as well.
(35:23):
And again, early voting starts on October eighteenth. Everybody go
out there and early vote. Look, this is going to
be a busy election. It is busy election.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
I see the library with early voting on Florida Boulevard.
The line start at all the other elections, so you
can imagine this one.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah, a lot of stuff going on, a lot of
stuff going on. So if you can early vote, early vote,
because it's going to be a line a mile long
on election day. Now, I've always had a tradition personally
voting on election I don't know why that is, but
I'll sit out in my line for hours, and I
think that's kind of cool. I love it that, you know,
(36:00):
we all love this parish, and I love it that
we all, uh, you know, get together and exercise at
least every four years with a presidential election. We need
to be better at voting on every election. But we
get out there and we exercise our right to vote.
And many of us have military people in our family
and people that have died for the right for us
(36:21):
to do that. I can't tell you how important that is.
And and I love to see people out there voting.
And this is going to be on that ballot. Any
final thoughts from either one of you on what's to come.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
I think you can hit the nail the nail on
the head with with it's not attacks on our citizens.
We did try to think of an alternative other than
that seals tax again and those meals that Jeff Taylor
are bringing up that's coming, So you kind of touch
base on all that. Like I said when I started
this thing, I'm not saying yes or no. I hope
my job says you know, I kind of kind of
(36:53):
want some help to relief, but uh, I'm just here
to educate. So when you do get to that button,
think about it felt what's in your heart, and make
a good decision. And if it's still no, I'm still coming.
When you call it on one, it doesn't change anything.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, And any from me.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
Same thing. The fact that it's not a tax on
the people. I think that's our biggest point that we
want to get cross.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Very good.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
But yeah, I mean to create the stability in our
apartment that is much needed, especially with the guys that
are going to be leaving the next five years retiring.
We really need a good wave of new hires coming
in and who will be there for the long term.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
I appreciate it. And look, before we get out of here,
I want to reiterate and say again how much I
appreciate both of you and all of your colleagues that
go out there every day and do what you do.
I really mean that. I'm pro police and I'm profied
more than anybody, and you just can't you know, in
my mind, you can never pay some money enough to
(37:54):
do what you do. But I think this is more
than reasonable. Awesome job coming up with it. And look,
I don't usually tell people how I'm gonna vote, but
I'll tell you what I'm gonna vote yes on this
one for sure. So if you got any questions, reach
out to me. Reach out to I'm sure if they
send you an email, you'll be happy to figure it out.
(38:15):
I'll give you the facts of it and that's it.
So thank you very much, Thank y'all for coming on.
I appreciate all of you for listening and watching. Look,
we're coming up on one million views on YouTube, which
blows my mind every day, I know it. I can't
believe it. But it's really the guest I have on Look.
(38:36):
They hear me talk every day. It's people like y'all
coming on here that they want to listen to. But
super blessed over here. So thank you to everybody. Please
share this podcast. This is one that's very important to
share so that we can make sure people understand what's
going down with this tax and so thank you so
(38:57):
much for coming on. And until next time, I'm Jim
Chapman reminding you love your community, support local business, local police,
local fire departments, and keep leading. Thank you very much,
Hi, this is Lori Johnson with Hancock Whitney Bank and
you're listening to Local Leaders the podcast. Visit Local leadersthepodcast
dot com for previous episodes or for information on peering
on the show.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
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(01:29):
Local Leaders the podcast. Hey everyone, welcome back to another
edition of Local Leaders the Podcast. And you may or
may not recognize these two gentlemen across from me, but
they are here from the fire department and the police
department here in the city. I'm gonna let him introduce themselves.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yes, sir, Lieutenant Scoby. Uh, you may know me a Scooby.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah you will come.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yes, I've been within a Spring the police department for
seventeen years now, fifteen years in a retirement system.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Wow, very good background.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I'm a lieutenant with them. I helped the chief run
the department of day to day Alex.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Wats dim Springs Fire Department, been there about five years now. Yeah,
come from along line of firefighters.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Oh very good.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Kind of falling into shoes.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Well, you fight what I fear when I run from
the fire. You go into the fire. So shout out
to you for that. Scooby.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I called you Scooby for a long time and my
wife would correct me because somebody you graduated with as
a good friend of hers, and she's like, it's Scooby,
not Scooby. I said, it's Scooby the school year.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
If if somebody calls me Keith, I'm looking for my mom. Yeah,
even if the mayor, I always say the mayor, the
sheriff for the chief. If they say, if you say
some cop named Scooby, they're gonna know who you're talking right,
all right. I don't know if I even hear my
real name around the office, it's Scooby.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, before we go any further, I want to thank
both of you for everything you do. As I said,
you go into places that I run from, and you
go to people that I run from. So that's that's
not to be taken lightly, and it really is. It
takes a special person to do what you guys do.
So I'm sure I speak for everybody in not only
(03:07):
Didnim Springs, but the entire state of Louisian And when
I say thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Sir, I appreciate that. We really do.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So we're going to get into what we're here to
talk about today, and that is a hotel tax. That is,
it will be proposed on the upcoming ballot, the presidential ballots.
We're going to explain how that works. What if any
effect on the citizens. And I guess Scoby will start
with you.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
It is going to be on a November ballot. It
was designed by that by legislation. We didn't have a
choice in that.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So I've done eleven of these talk so far. Yeah,
And I say my goal is is not you may
hear me say once during this podcast, you know, vote yes,
vote for us.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Other than that, my goal is just to get the
information out.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
If I can get that information out, and as a
citizen and as an adult that's voters and you make
a decision, I can sleep good at night.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I like that. And let me say this, I have
seen several of the talks that you've given and that
really is like half the battle right there. And I
do want to compliment you and compliment you for taking
the step of educating the voter. I think a lot
of these things that are great ideas. And I'll say
(04:16):
right off the top, I think this is a no brainer.
But I think these great ideas sometimes maybe they fall
short because of the education's just not there. It's not
the fact of the tax itself.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
And so that's what we know when people go to
that ballot, we all have lives, we all have families,
we all have work, we all have the things, and
they're going to go in that ballot and vote what
they what they want to vote. For Sure, when they
see tax that is alarming to people, and that is
a dirty word for some people. And I understand it.
I live in this pairs. I get it. My goal
is just to go when they see task go. Wait,
is this what Lieutenant Scobey talked about. Let me think
(04:51):
a little bit before I make my decision. It's my
only goal. And if you still say no after you've
been informed, then it's just no. I'll promise you this.
I have ten more years for I'm eligible to retire.
You won't see me again for the same tax. I
always fight for paying raise forty funders, but I won't
do this again other people. I've spoken, you know, right.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Very good, So let's get into it, and I guess
maybe let's start with you and talk about the reason
and the need for this. How did that transpire?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Well, it's really an alternative effort to increase salary and
benefits for fire and police. Yeah, without putting the direct
burden on the citizens themselves. So it's kind of a
creative approach to not put that burden directly on the citizens. Right,
So it's going to be for out of town or
staying in hotels, and it will just be an additional
(05:43):
tax on the people staying in.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Hotels, gotcha.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
So the chances of that being a citizen are very
very low, and that's why we went with that.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Approach, very good and scugby. One of the things that
I really like that is actually written into this bit,
I guess you could say bill, is the fact that
if there's a natural disaster or an emergency of some
sort that will require citizens to make use of these hotels.
And when I say citizens, Denim Springs residents, the tax
(06:15):
can be suspended by the mayor.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
So written into the bill, sover one transparent it is
for salary and benefits for police, fire and police and
fire for Denom Springs. That is written in. That doesn't
mean that the money can be used anywhere else. The
chiefs can't say I want a helicopter and use those funds.
It's got to be for police salary. So it's earmark
that's in there. As far as some of my talks
and maybe some other people mentioned that the mayor can
(06:39):
do it with a city council, it would be brought
before them. So we discussed this, me and the mayor
personally before I put words in his mouth and wanted
to make sure it was correct. And he believes with
the vote of the council that he could pause that
for those disasters, for hurricanes and things like that, if
his citizens need to seek shelter in those motels. Yeah,
that is beyond my capability. I catch bad guys for
a living, sure, So if he's telling me that that's
(07:00):
something that they can do as a counsel in him,
than by all means I believe him.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah. And I think it's very important to uh for
everyone to grasp the fact that this is not a
tax on the citizens, uh unless you're staying in the
hotel and you living denim and that may raise an
eyebrow or.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Two, right, right, So you know, I spoke at the
school board lives in parish and they recently had something
come up on the ballot for a sales tax. Sure,
And I think in this parish, I truly believe in
this paris that we can all agree that teachers, first
responders probably need to.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Make more sure.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Where we're disagreeing. In my opinion is is where is
that money coming from? And how much is it? I
think in this parish everybody wants to see those those
entities taken care of. We have to do a better
job of explaining where that money is going, how much
it is, and hold true to what that law is
and where it's going to permanently go. So I spoke
to the school board and and I got ate up
for this and and some some news outlets that I said,
(07:59):
we had to get creative. It's my job to figure
things out that are difficult.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I got no problem with being creative.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
I appreciate.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I think that thinking outside the box has kind of
led you to where you're at with this.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I would hope. So it's just that sentence got picked apart,
and hey, that's that's their their prerogative, that's where they
live in America, right. But I wanted to touch base
on getting creative. Wasn't mean I'm getting creative on how
to tax our citizens and look at that in a
bad like getting creative was I heard you. I heard
you when you voted no for a sales tax, and
I heard you when you say you're tired of sales tax.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, I heard you.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
When Jeff Taylor comes on your podcast says, hey, get ready,
the mills are going up. We're doing recent.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I hear that.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
I listen. I pay attention. It's my job to think
outside the box, get creative. Take it however you want
with that verbiage. But we had to come up with
something else, and we came up with a occupancy tax
for our motels and hotels.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I think it was a great idea. And you know,
I say to my wife all the time, there's more
than one way to get to Florida Boulevard. There you go,
you know what I mean. So if you if you
go one way and there's a lot of traffic, maybe
you take a side street. What you did here was
that I think is just genius. As you figured out
a way to get the funding that you needed. But
(09:13):
you were you're enabling yourself to do that without being
a burden on the citizen.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yes, and I've been asked, hey, why isn't the city
fund y'all's raises and salary and benefits? And you gotta look,
the city has a city to worry about. And I'm
talking about a street, Department of water, Department of Maintenance,
billiing utility permits, they have animal shelter, they have a
whole entity. I had a discussion with the mayor one
year after the flood and said, hey, Scoby, you know,
(09:39):
three hundred thousand dollars would do wonders from my pay scale,
would do wonders. That's reoccurring. I need that every year. Yeah,
he says, water pump went down at whatever station. My
citizens need to fluster toilets and have water. You have
to undred thousand dollars, sir. So I understand where he's
coming from as managing this whole city. Fire and police
is just some of that. And you have to to
(10:00):
have a grown up conversation with your leaders and the
other bosses to come together and figure out a solution.
And the city is for us put in on a
ballot for the citizens to vote.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I agree. And you know you mentioned fire, and I'll
tell you people may not think about this when it occurs,
but the fire department is right there, hand in hand
with the police. Many times, the fire departments first people
on scene, you know, for some of these emergencies. And
so one of the things with this particular ballot item
(10:34):
that is going to be up on the ballot. Is
the fact that you're splitting this money fifty to fifty,
which I thought was pretty cool. You know that y'all
must get along a little bit.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
No, Look, I promised that when we're in this room,
I wouldn't put my hands on him. He wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah right. I want to keep no battle of the
badge going on here.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
We have a you know, fire and police have there.
We have that banter, and but we know when it's
time to come together for calls and it it's written
in the law that way. They can't get sixty percent.
We can't get sixty percent. It's written fifty to fifty
split between us. For those two reasons. Love that and
why hotels we had to think us out of the box.
We had to figure out how are we going to
(11:13):
retain people. This all comes to retaining fire and police
and paying for salary and benefits to keep good quality
applicants here. We picked hotels and motels because this is
not something new. We didn't think of this three weeks ago.
This has been two years in the making for me personally.
The state capital. Other places do this exact same thing
with the occupancy tax our numbers show that we spend
(11:34):
a lot of time at the nine motels and hotels
inside the city limits.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
In the New Springs. Yes, we just do.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
If people don't want to accept that or it's hard
to hear, I'm sorry, I speak facts. We spend a
lot of time between US fire and police there. Sure,
so our residents are kind of paying for that the
city limits of Dinner Springs. Residents are paying for us
to spend a lot of time at those hotels and motels.
So we're looking at altering how we receive funding for that.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Sure, that's what I came up.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
We came up with thought.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I think in luck you mentioned it there, but you're
not reinventing the wheel. This is not something that is
uncommon in other parts of the country and including Louisiana.
Is it going to be termed an occupancy tax or.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
It is an occupancy tax? It's up to six point
seventy five Yeah, so is that a high percentage if
we were talking about sales tax? Oh yeah, you know,
Oh yeah, it's an occupancy tax. So it's going to
go off of we we we tossed around the idea of,
you know, a set three dollars per room. But as
you know, three dollars five years ago, three dollars now
everybody now, So we had to do a percentage, and
(12:41):
we did the law up to so if there is
four more hotels and we get you know, five story
luxury hotels and we have an abundance of money, we
can just roll back the percentage.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Right, Let's talk about where this money is going. So
what what directly would this be used for? I'm I'm
gonna turn to you first on that.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Particularly for us, we need to fix our pay scale,
especially with inflation. It's really killing us as far as
being competitive down the road. Our start and pay is
very comparable to most departments around here. But when you
look at a Baton Rouge's pay scale over time, when
they put in twenty twenty five, thirty years, they're going
(13:20):
to be making a whole lot more. So that's what
we're trying to get competitive with. And then you have
to look at it from the standpoint. Last time we checked,
there were thirteen hundred civil service scores that we could
pull from, and that's from the whole state. So you're
competing with all these other departments that have better long
term pay scales than us, and we're losing because of that.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Wow, and what about yours?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
I'll touch base on the fire department too. That they
have a local district fire company that makes way more
their pay scale is something I'm jealous of. And that's
you don't have to uproot mister Watson to take his
family and change schools and move. He can just drive
four miles down the road to that department and just
make more than what he's doing now.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Right.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
That is hard. That is hard for that agency to
deal with. And I've said this before. When we have
our employees and when you do maybe an exit interview,
they don't ever say that they don't like policing in
them springs. None of my officers complain that, oh this
is so hard, we don't like it. We don't like it.
They don't ever say that they like them springs. They
either grew up here, they want to stay here. They
want to keep it the way it is. It's just
(14:29):
the finances, it's the benefits, it's the insurance. It's I
had a kid, but my wife can but the kid.
It's those technical things, man, you know, we have to
fix that. Why am I losing applicants? Or losing officers
a year two years in we train to get them
post certified and trained to do the job, and then
they go seek a different employment at one of these
various agencies that just we just can't compete.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
With, and that training is expensive, and it's an it's
not only an investment monetarily, it's an investment in that
person with time and training and all these things that
you do to make sure that they are are ready
to go out on the right and police right.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
I say this all the time. Do you want the
upset officers showing up to your doorstep to take your complaint?
When you call nine on one and you have one
of us there, it's probably a low point. You're having
a bad day. And do you want the officer who's
just upset because he's working mandatory over time because the
shifts are short. No, you don't want that guy. I
understand that I lived inside the city for many years.
(15:30):
I flooded in the city with everybody else with you.
I understand those things. So we have to keep those
applicants happy. We have to keep them wanting to stay here.
We have to keep their knowledge and continue to grow
where they have fifteen sixteen seventeen years and make lieutenant
where they're not making lieutenant with four years. You don't
get that education that comes with it.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
In all the knowledge, one hundred percent agree with that.
And we have this conversation off camera. I think it's
worth saying on camera. You know, you may look at
this and say, well, it doesn't really affect me. Maybe you,
maybe you live in in a really nice subdivision. You
don't hardly get any calls, any complaints. Uh, it affects
all of us because if your police department goes down,
(16:13):
if your fire department goes down, uh to a substandard level,
your schools go down to a substandard level, it's going
to drop your property value. That's why it's so important
that your police departments and your fire departments in your
schools because even if it may not directly affect you
because you don't live next to a hotel technically or
(16:35):
something like that, it affects you. It just affects you
in a different way.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
You know property values. You want to keep your property value.
Pay your police, pay your fireman, pay your teachers. That
would be my advice right off the bat, and I'm
not you know, the teachers haven't paid me to promote this,
but I love teachers.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah, and we all because how many people said they
move to lives in parish for their public schools. Yeah,
well that says that said something. So I encourage that
school board to try to figure out a way to
keep them teachers happy. My kid is in a public
school and Livingston Parish and he special needs, and the
programs are nice and the teachers are great. I want
that to continue. So I encourage them to think outside
(17:13):
the box and find some information and get some things done.
As we have, and my little committee has. It's difficult.
You're talking about a tax. Nobody likes you when you
talk about a tax. I'm sitting here today knowing that
I'm going to have feedback about another tax. I understand that,
but it has to be done. We have to have
a discussion, and it's very important.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
It's not it's a tax on people that are staying
in hotels. It is not something you're going to pay
when you go to Walmart and buy your grocery or
you buy a vehicle or anything like that. This is
something that people coming in they're paying what is a
common tax all over the place. I stayed in Florida recently,
(17:53):
and it was a pretty high occupancy tax. I believe
it was over ten percent at that particular hotel. Uh
this one at six point something five.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Yes, you know, and they do have some taxes on
that I can see for the hotels already, and we
would be adding to that. So obviously, the hotel owners
they're they're they're against me. And I understand that if
this is something that's going to affect their Christmas or something,
I do understand that. I do believe they would probably
just pass it on. It's all, but I don't run
(18:25):
their business.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Then they run their back to this point on the
verbiage of creativity, we were getting creative for the citizens
to keep that money from coming out of their pocket.
That's why we use that term in the first place. Yes,
we wanted to do what we could to not put
this tax on the people themselves.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I love it and I think it's important. Look, you
got outside the box. That's the great thing about what
you've come up with. It was that second way to
get to Florida Boulevard without affecting people that already live here.
I can't hammer that down enough. It's probably the most
important statement on this particular podcast, and.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
That's why we're all on board with it, because it
feels very considerate from us, Yeah, to consider the way
they voted in the past on these tax increases, and
we get it. We pay taxes to that's why it's
more of a situational tax for and it's going to
affect people coming out of town more so than the
citizens themselves.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
So and that's what I really like about it.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
And I would imagine from both your standpoints, the calls
that you're getting to the hotels now are prevalent relative
to where they were maybe ten years ago, five years ago,
common to currents.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
So would you say you can contribute out to more
hotels and hotels Russian Road has seen in the last
ten years, probably with at least those three taller ones.
And we are responding. And so as fire and the
overdoses are high, the suspicious people around those areas and
walking that interstate, those calls are high. And then when
we deal with you as a fire police and it
(20:02):
is an overdose or suspected criminal activity and we pull
your id and you live local, why are you staying
in our hotels committing crimes? And you have an address
a few miles down, right, So that's that's concerning. It's
usually typically not the person from Iowa, Florida passing through
that I'm dealing with. It's somebody who is using those
to shelter their criminal activity.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah. I actually this is a little side story, but
something people might find entertaining. At what At one point
I went to uh one of the hotels and then
I'm one of the uh Hampton I think it was,
and our AC was out. My wife doesn't stay in
the house when there's a c so I go get
(20:44):
the room and the lady looks and she says, you
love and Denim, And I'm like, it's not like that.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
My wife's in the car's excited. Yeah, yeah, AC's out.
But so sometimes it does happen. But I'll go ahead,
pay the six boys up vibe a big deal.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Uh. It's better than the miss is getting very hot
inside the house, that's for sure. But so it's very important,
very important that those people pay for the services that
they're using, you know, at these hotels. If I will,
if I were calling the police department, the fire department
(21:20):
two times a day or even one time a day,
I should pay more than someone that never calls the
police or fire department. Right, it just seems like we.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Have residents in our city that have paid their dues
and their mills, and their taxes and their sales taxes,
and they've never utilized our service. They're still paying for that,
and then we have people who aren't paying for the service.
And in twenty twenty one, we had close to one
thousand calls between both of our agencies, but close to
nine hundred and eighty somewhere around there. Close to one
thousand costs multiple times a day, every day, three hundred
(21:51):
and sixty five days a year. That's a lot for
our city.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Of those calls when it is an overdose, a lot
of times it comes through as pay should not breathing.
So you're already sending two trucks. So you have two
trucks tied up in a city that has three stations,
and there's one truck per station that's manned. Right, So
two thirds of your city's out of commission working something
where they would possibly have to be performing CPR. That's
(22:17):
why you have the manpower down there. So you have
one truck running calls for the whole city in that
thirty minutes to hour stretch that that call may take.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Wow, and that's expensive, I would imagine, right that ain't cheat, No, and.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Then you know, so somebody else goes down, then you
just have one truck. You have to probably get some
kind of mutual aid assistance from another department.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Right, and let me ask you from both of your perspectives,
this is going towards salaries and benefits specifically?
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Yes, yes, So our goal is is we have to
fix our retention problem. We have to stop stop the bleeding,
as they would say, so we have to fix those
pay scales, salary and benefits. My goal at the is
to at least fix that pay scale to retain people,
and then we'll entertain using some of those funds to
hire additional people. People have questioned me, hey, are you
going to beef up the police department with these funds?
(23:11):
Because it can go to salary and benefits. You can't
buy the unit, can't buy the laptops, can't buy the uniform,
so that the city's gonna have to come up with
that funding. There's a lot of moving parts. Sure, but
what good is it for me to beef up the
police department through a thirty four man department when I
can't fill the thirty that we have.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, well you got to fix step one before you
can move to step two. And step one is retaining them,
because you know, if you have the money there to
hire additional people, but you're still not where you need
to be on pay, they're still gonna leave. It's not
going to stop them from doing that. And these are
good officers in some cases, people you'd like to retain,
(23:48):
but you know, we're I'm a business owner and if
somebody left me for more money and better benefits, yeah,
I hate to see them go, but I get it. Jim.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
How about this When they leave you and they don't
seek a different kind of employment because they didn't like
the job, but they leave you to another employment that's
doing the exact same thing you were doing. That means
to tell me that that's not being a police officer.
They're wearing another sheriff badge or another agency because they
didn't they still wanted to be a police officer. They
left for that. That hurts me, going, man, we didn't
(24:19):
do what we needed to do here because they still
are a police officer and been for I know many
for years after they left us, they're still unemployed at
the place that they left us.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
And same on your end, same on our end.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
It's a little different because, like I said, our start
and pay is comparable to most departments around. But where
it hurts is you're not increasing like you would a
barage or another neighboring department. So you end up losing
guys with ten years experience because they should be much
(24:52):
further along than they are. They have more kids and inflation.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
And that's the ones you want to keep exactly.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
So then you're losing experience, and then you have to
a lot of times we don't get somebody coming from
another department. A lot of times we get a green employee, right,
and that cost four to five thousand just to train them,
and then three thousand in gear. Wow, and that comes
from the budget. Yeah, so it hurts us with the
(25:17):
guys who have the experience and everything leaving.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, that's.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
That can't be replaced for a long time, just in
terms of experience, you know.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Right, So makes sense, and Scoby, So let's let's give
you a scenario here. Let's do it all goes as
it should go. If this gets passed with flying colors,
is it going to fix a problem.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
I would like to hope, so can I. I can't
see the future. Sure, I know there's there's even I
wouldn't say fights, but there's discussions we have to have.
If this passes, we have to worry about the dollar
amount that's going to come in. I can see tax
is not set every year that they're going to pay
the same every year. So I can't ask the city
to give me x amount of funds when they don't
(26:04):
know how many people are gonna rent hotel rooms for
the next year. It's going to be reoccurring. Whenever I
create a pay skill and the city council has to
vote on that, that that's that suckers there, yea, So
their worry would be Okay, hold up, we use this
amount of money off of this projected occupancy. But those
hotels didn't get filled in twenty twenty six like they should,
so we have to agree to a safe number. We're
(26:26):
trying to agree on fifty percent ocupancy. So let me
go off of what that. If that tax does pass,
the ocupcy of fifty percent, use those numbers to create
a new pay scale. There's a lot of things, but
it would least make us comparable with the other agencies.
It would least give us an argument when we do
these interview in these higher boards where they're like, wait,
how much what is it? You know, I need some
(26:48):
ammunition to go. Hey, let's let's reinterview this guy. Let's
offer him something that another agency can offer him. Sure,
as you know, when Sean Kelly got murdered and passed
away for US Corporate Kelly last year, we didn't get
any applications, right, we were probably seven down. Nobody wants
to do a job when they see a cop get murdered,
and then you have a less competitive pay skill, and
(27:09):
then they really don't want to do it.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, and that's just what I have to deal with.
It's important to also mention that this is on a
pretty big ballot. It's on a ballot with a president.
You know, we've got a presidential election for those of
you out there that have been living under a rock,
maybe the presidential election that day, and a ton of
other stuff on that ballot. This being with it, how
(27:33):
will it be termed on the ballot? Are you aware
of that yet?
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I'm not aware of that. Hotel tax I do have
the verbiage of the tax, but I don't know what
the ballot number is yet. I'm not aware on that.
I know legislation put it on the November ballot. It
wasn't our choosing, it was the state level.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
That right, right, And so it will be something that
if you're a Denim Springs resident you'll have the opportunity
to vote for. So you have to live in the city.
It's correct, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
On it doesn't apply to the parish. It only applies
that incorporated city limits and Dinner Springs, and it only
affects the hotels and motels in the city limits in
the Springs, so not the parish, not walker, none of
them are affected citizens or the hotels.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah. So if you, I know a lot of you
out there, the lesson you have a Denim Springs like address,
but you may not be in the city limits. I
know people get confused on that all the time, so
I like to clarify that if it's if you're in
the city limits, you'll see it as you vote, you'll
see it on there. If you don't see it, don't panic.
You may not live in city limits. You may be
(28:35):
outside of Sydney limits, but have that Denim Springs address,
and so that's why you wouldn't see it, and it's
something that will only affect I'm glad you brought that
up Denhim Springs Hotels. So if it's a Walker hotel,
they got their own deal, correct, right, They might copy you,
but they got there, and I don't know.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
We had we had a feel day legislation at state level,
and I don't know if they are are concerned of
people copying and seeing that this may be he is
a good idealer Avenue.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yeah, that's not my job.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
I'm not a legislator.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I mean, you know, I think it's a no brainer.
This is just a great idea for this city and
to get the people that deserve it, the policeman, the fireman,
some more money in there so these people can be paid.
This is something I don't you know, Jim Chapman doesn't
want to chase criminals. I just don't want to do
(29:26):
it because it takes a special human being like you
to do that. I sure ain't running into fire. I'm out,
yeah you know, I ain't even grabbing the water hose.
I'm getting out and calling you at bottom line, So
I think those people should be paid. I don't think
you could ever pay you folks enough to do what
(29:47):
it is you do. But this is just to get
you competitive. You're not gonna be millionaires off of.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
That's right, That's what I was going to say. We're
not even getting starting pay up to twenty five hours hour.
We're maybe first police responder, first police officer, that's seventeen
dollars hour. I'm trying to get it up to nineteen
twenty this if this passes that people are looking at
men six point seventy five and all these hundreds of
thousand dollars, it doesn't go that long because I have
to pay into those retirements. Also, we have to cover
(30:12):
all aspects of it. So we're not going to be millionaires.
I'm just trying to get us to buy some more groceries.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Right, We're trying to create stability in our departments.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
And be competitive with other departments. What's wrong with that.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
There's nothing wrong with that. And this mayor this city,
he loves the city and loves the citizens in the city,
and people a lot of time blame us for things
that are out of our control. I've taken a blame
for what they're doing in South Range Avenue. I can guarantee, Lieuteniscob.
We had nothing to do with the plans of South
Range and the medians that they're.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
You didn't come up with that.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
I did not come up with that. But people are
going to blame the police because, hey, look what you did.
We just worked the accidents. We were forced to write
the citations whenever you make that turn, whenever it says
you can't turn on red. Now, I didn't come up
with that, but I got to do my job, or
my officers have to do their job. But a lot
of times, just because of misinformation, they blame us. We didn't.
(31:05):
I drive the road just like you do. And I'm
looking like, okay, maybe.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
This was a good idea.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Maybe it wasn't a good idea, right, but we're here recently.
I did this according to the public. No, no, I
no say so about side frames Avenue.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Scoby's changing the whole traffic.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
And to be clear, there's no animosity towards the hotel
owners in Dentim. It's just the nature of the beast. Yeah,
it's there's no ill will or anything like that. I
understand they're running a business. I completely get that. I
run a side business as well. I just wanted to
put that out there.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, no, and that's right. I mean, nobody's picking on
them for sure. Six point five percent is this tax.
I don't think that's a heavy ask for anybody. I
would imagine that being someone that's a business person. If
that were me, you know, I'm just raising my rate
six percent. It's not major four bucks.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
I didn't bring that up here at night. We did
the studies on all the hotel room rates, and we
made sure when we when the legislation wrote this, and
it is up to six point seventy five, we didn't
price them out of business. Yeah, we added that too.
If they priced it to the consumer, they're still comparable
to the other hotels and hotels and back breach. We didn't.
We're not trying to put them out of business. It
only helps us if they stay at one hundred percent
(32:22):
in occuracy, If the citizens vote for this.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
And a message to them out there that because I
know they're going to be listening to this, I can
guarantee you a message to them. This benefits you because
a good fire department and a good happy police department
are going to protect your hotel. They're going to keep
it cleanse they're going to keep the referaf out of there,
(32:47):
and you should want that. As a business owner of
a hotel, I don't want refraff at my hotel. If
I am one, you should.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
And they did oppose me at the city council when
I spoke there, and the hotel owners did come to
state level and oppose me, And I get it. They're
fighting for their business, sure, But like I asked the
city council to put it on their agenda, it's not
a vote for fire and police and against the hotel owners.
I'm just asking for a vote for the citizens to choose.
That's all I was asking for. At the state level
(33:14):
the city level was hey, can you say yes to
put this on a palot so our citizens can make
up their mind. That is what I truly believe America
is about. And let them decide.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Absolutely. Let the people have the say, and the people
will have to say. But I will say this. A
businessman sat down in this chair across from him one
time and he said, you know a lot of things
I say as a business person I don't necessarily agree
with as a personal human being. And it's true, business
(33:45):
owners for hotels or whatever, are going to say something
looking at it from a business perspective that from a
personal level they might say this is probably the right
thing to do.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
So.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
And I refuse to believe that anybody out there would
think the police don't deserve to be paid and competitive,
Like I said, no, but he's being millionaires off this,
but just competitive, be able to retain your people. I
can't hammer that down enough.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I think they they're just worried about Okay, if I say, yes, Scooby,
where is that money going, I'm telling you, it's in
the law where it's got to go. Yeah, it has
no sunset date. We mean that it's there. Legislation can
pass to change it later on down the line. I
can't control what they do, but there is no sunset date.
But it's written in the law. We can't go buy
(34:33):
new vehicles and remodel the PD and put two stories
on it. And it's got to go to our guys
and girls pay and benefits.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
That's right, that's right. And to wrap this up, this
is not a tax on the citizens of Denim Springs
unless they were to stay in the hotel and they
live in Denim. That's the only way they're going to
end up paying this tax. Correct sir, Okay. Good for
(35:00):
everybody out there that has questions about this. I'm going
to put some links into the video here that you're
watching or if you're listening into the audio, where you
can get more information on it. I'll be posting. I
have some flyers and I'm going to be posting on
the Facebook page so you can check those out as well.
(35:23):
And again, early voting starts on October eighteenth. Everybody go
out there and early vote. Look, this is going to
be a busy election. It is busy election.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
I see the library with early voting on Florida Boulevard.
The line start at all the other elections, so you
can imagine this one.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah, a lot of stuff going on, a lot of
stuff going on. So if you can early vote, early vote,
because it's going to be a line a mile long
on election day. Now, I've always had a tradition personally
voting on election I don't know why that is, but
I'll sit out in my line for hours, and I
think that's kind of cool. I love it that, you know,
(36:00):
we all love this parish, and I love it that
we all, uh, you know, get together and exercise at
least every four years with a presidential election. We need
to be better at voting on every election. But we
get out there and we exercise our right to vote.
And many of us have military people in our family
and people that have died for the right for us
(36:21):
to do that. I can't tell you how important that is.
And and I love to see people out there voting.
And this is going to be on that ballot. Any
final thoughts from either one of you on what's to come.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
I think you can hit the nail the nail on
the head with with it's not attacks on our citizens.
We did try to think of an alternative other than
that seals tax again and those meals that Jeff Taylor
are bringing up that's coming, So you kind of touch
base on all that. Like I said when I started
this thing, I'm not saying yes or no. I hope
my job says you know, I kind of kind of
(36:53):
want some help to relief, but uh, I'm just here
to educate. So when you do get to that button,
think about it felt what's in your heart, and make
a good decision. And if it's still no, I'm still coming.
When you call it on one, it doesn't change anything.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, And any from me.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
Same thing. The fact that it's not a tax on
the people. I think that's our biggest point that we
want to get cross.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Very good.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
But yeah, I mean to create the stability in our
apartment that is much needed, especially with the guys that
are going to be leaving the next five years retiring.
We really need a good wave of new hires coming
in and who will be there for the long term.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
I appreciate it. And look, before we get out of here,
I want to reiterate and say again how much I
appreciate both of you and all of your colleagues that
go out there every day and do what you do.
I really mean that. I'm pro police and I'm profied
more than anybody, and you just can't you know, in
my mind, you can never pay some money enough to
(37:54):
do what you do. But I think this is more
than reasonable. Awesome job coming up with it. And look,
I don't usually tell people how I'm gonna vote, but
I'll tell you what I'm gonna vote yes on this
one for sure. So if you got any questions, reach
out to me. Reach out to I'm sure if they
send you an email, you'll be happy to figure it out.
(38:15):
I'll give you the facts of it and that's it.
So thank you very much, Thank y'all for coming on.
I appreciate all of you for listening and watching. Look,
we're coming up on one million views on YouTube, which
blows my mind every day, I know it. I can't
believe it. But it's really the guest I have on Look.
(38:36):
They hear me talk every day. It's people like y'all
coming on here that they want to listen to. But
super blessed over here. So thank you to everybody. Please
share this podcast. This is one that's very important to
share so that we can make sure people understand what's
going down with this tax and so thank you so
(38:57):
much for coming on. And until next time, I'm Jim
Chapman reminding you love your community, support local business, local police,
local fire departments, and keep leading. Thank you very much,
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