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La. sheriff gets funds after layoff threat
(Updates with Plaquemines receiving money)
By Andy Sullivan
BELLE CHASSE, La., Sept 21 (Reuters) - A Louisiana sheriff received badly needed relief money on Wednesday after warning that a cash shortage would force him to lay off 267 employees in his hurricane-ravaged parish by the end of the day.
Plaquemines Parish Sheriff Jiff Hingle's complaint showed that relief funds promised by the federal government have been slow to trickle down to the local level where it is needed.
Earlier in the day, Hingle and the sheriff of neighboring St. Bernard Parish told Reuters they did not have enough money to pay the officers who have worked 16-hour days for the past three weeks even as many of them were made homeless by the storm.
"How can I work somebody when I can't pay them?" Hingle told Reuters in an interview in his office. "It doesn't take that long to type up a check."
His requested $10.86 million showed up shortly after 3 p.m., averting a showdown with Gov. Kathleen Blanco and ensuring that the department will have enough money to function for several more weeks, an official said.
"What they said couldn't be done got done," Col. Charles Guey, Hingle's chief of operations, said in a phone interview.
Hingle had asked the state to provide 250 troopers to replace his employees, and his deputy chief of operations, Maj. John Marie, said department employees had been planning to drive up to Baton Rouge to appeal to Gov. Blanco directly.
'WORKING FOR NOTHING'
"I'm pissed," Hingle said earlier. "Every day for a week I have heard, 'The money is coming in 24 hours.' I'm tired of people looking into the matter, I want something done."
Sheriff Jack Stephens of neighboring St. Bernard Parish had said he had run out of money as well, though his officers would continue working.
"My guys are basically working for nothing right now," Stephens said in an earlier telephone interview.
He could not be reached late Wednesday to confirm whether or not he had received his requested funds.
Hingle's complaints set off a round of finger-pointing between the state and federal governments, which have clashed in recent weeks over relief efforts.
A Louisiana state spokeswoman said on local radio that the state was still awaiting a check from FEMA, while FEMA spokesman David Passey said the federal government had already sent a payment of $760 million to the state for local aid.
FEMA spokesman Mike McCormick told Reuters that the Plaquemines Parish government had been allocated $4.3 million and $the sheriff's department $8.5 million, though he could not say when that money had been released.
The St. Bernard Parish government had been allocated $31.68 million and the sheriff's department $6.5 million, he said.
Katrina killed three people in Plaquemines Parish but 60 percent of the parish's residents had lost their homes, Hingle said. He was staying in a motel because his house was flooded with 14 feet of water.
He said he needed money immediately because his department was $6.5 million in debt and could not write any more checks.
In a normal year Hingle's budget is $15 million but over the past few weeks he has had to pay for vehicles, fuel, food and other emergency items, he said.
(Additional reporting by Allan Dowd in Baton Rouge)
(c) Reuters 2005.