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Ponchatoula police chief and mayor blame each other for prompting impromptu strike
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PONCHATOULA — The police chief and mayor on Wednesday agreed on who's responsible for last week's impromptu strike by much of the city's police force: It's the other guy's fault.
Chief Bry Layrisson says his officers aren't paid enough and that the city needs to provide more money to his agency. Mayor Bob Zabbia says the blame lies with Layrisson, and that that the chief is not spending the money properly.
"Once the budget is passed, adopted and then sent to the chief, he administers it the way he sees fit," Zabbia said.
Officers who work the dayside shift did not show up for work Friday, and did not call in beforehand. Chief Layrisson said their decision left the chief as the only officer on duty, though the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office and Louisiana State Police were available.
In separate interviews Wednesday, both public officials blamed the other for the troubles: Layrisson saying Zabbia determined how much his workers would be paid, and Zabbia saying Layrisson was distributing money unevenly.
"I had nothing to do with the salaries that were set in 2023 for the police employees," Layrisson said. "It was all set by the mayor."
The mayor countered, saying Layrisson gave some employees, but not all, significant raises.
"It looks like some employees at that department have gotten 15 percent to 20 percent where some of them got as much as a 75 percent increase," Zabbia said.
The dispute centers around a salary study of city employees, and the police officers say it shows their pay is too low.
"When the salary study was completed the council took no action, but I put the first step of the plan in play, which gave them that 9.6 percent raise right away," the mayor said. "I don't think I'm the one holding this up."
But Layrisson says the mayor changed the pay all on his own.
"He did not consult me, he did not consult with the city council, and he completely ignored the consultants' plan," the chief said.
Zabbia said it's all a question of what the chief values.
"I think the chief needs to make his priorities clear. Does he want his officers paid, does he want K-9, does he want a storage unit, what does he want?" he asked.
The chief said he has to consider the long term, and that it would be impractical or impossible to give employees a pay increase that is unsustainable.
"I'm not going to give officers a ... raise for the council to not fund it the following year," he said.
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