Eunice City Marshal Terry Darbonne

Marshal’s raise request approved

Earns praise from alderman at-large
By Harlan Kirgan harlan.kirgan@eunicetoday.com

City Marshal Terry Darbonne was voted a pay raise bumping his salary from $19,186 to $31,000 by the Eunice Board of Aldermen on Tuesday.
The pay raise came with praise from Jack Burson, alderman at-large.
I’ve been on the council for 21 years and can honestly say that we’ve been consistently well-served by the city marshal’s office both by Marshal Darbonne’s predecessors and by himself,” Burson said. “It is very very seldom, I can’t remember, maybe three or four times in the whole period, when the marshal’s office asked us to buy anything or do anything.”
Darbonne, who read a letter to the aldermen requesting the pay raise, said after the meeting that his last pay raise was five or six years ago.
Darbonne was elected to office in 2003 and is in his third term.
Burson added, “I think when a man is a professional law enforcement officer he ought to at least have a salary that would be sufficient to provide him a decent income and a decent prospect of a retirement if he does his job, which I think Terry Darbonne has done very well, indeed.”
In his request to aldermen, Darbonne said he works a minimum of 40 hours a week and supervises a staff of three full-time employees and 15 part-time reserve deputies.
While the raise is $11,814, the total cost to the city is $14,146 with retirement benefits, he said.
After the meeting Darbonne said he receives $9,600 from the parish and about $6,500 in commissions, but he earns retirement benefits only on his salary.
The average pay for marshals in comparable cities is $38,000 a year, he said.
With Mayor Rusty Moody absent with a reported stomach illness, Scott Fontenot, mayor pro-tem, presided at the meeting in City Hall.
Aldermen approved millage of 6.62 for general alimony and 5 for street maintenance.
An agenda item on gas rates was tabled pending getting “a couple of more things together before we present this to the public,” Fontenot said.
Items to amend the city budget and begin the 2016 budget were approved. Ginny Moody, city clerk, said the mayor would begin meeting with aldermen individually to go over the budgets.
An ordinance allowing loose refuse to be placed in containers was approved. The new ordinance reads: “All occupants of all residences or owners of premises shall be required to pick up any garbage, trash, litter, rubbish, tin cans, etc., and place these materials in containers at all times.”
In other action, aldermen:
Approved a liquor license to Fabian Martinez, El Rodeo Mexican Grill, 1114 E. Laurel Ave.
Approved the introduction of a Cleco franchise ordinance.
Approved hiring Mary Guillory as a police patrol officer.

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