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Iberville Sheriff's Office steps in to help White Castle Police as budget concerns continue

9 months 1 week 4 days ago Thursday, June 08 2023 Jun 8, 2023 June 08, 2023 4:21 AM June 08, 2023 in News
Source: WBRZ

WHITE CASTLE - An emergency town hall meeting was called Wednesday night after it was revealed the White Castle Police Department used up just about all of the money in its budget with about four months left in the fiscal year.

The first hour of the meeting was a lot of finger-pointing between the public, the White Castle council members, and Police Chief Harold Brooks. The Council made it clear they were upset with Brooks after he told WBRZ Tuesday that the budget looked the way it did because of the last police chief. Brooks also said he was set up for failure.

But the Mayor of White Castle, John Morris, says the last police chief might be to blame in part, but says Brooks has spent around 70% of the budget.

"If you still have over 70% of the budget to spend, and you are projecting to go over your budget by July, that is crazy," Morris said.

After about an hour of discussion, it looked like some of the White Castle Officers might have to be laid off because of the budget situation.

That's when Iberville Parish Sheriff Brett Stassi told the council he would give some manpower to help out White Castle for the rest of the fiscal year. He says he wants to keep the community safe and ensure officers don't lose their job.

"The best thing I can do for White Castle, which is also my constituents, is to make sure we keep a level of law enforcement to make sure we keep this town safe," Stassi said.

Despite the arguments Wednesday, Mayor Morris says the council wants to see Brooks succeed.

"This mayor and council are actually supportive of him, but he needs to have some accountability as well," Morris said.

Stassi tells WBRZ we can expect a deputy to be in White Castle on Monday.

The next meeting will be on June 20. That is where we can expect to see the next steps taken to fix the budget situation.

Brooks did not want to do an interview with WBRZ Wednesday.

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