ST. TAMMANY PARISH SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR AND BOARD MEMBERS TO DISCUSS APRIL MILLAGE RENEWALS AT TAMMANY TOGETHER QUARTERLY MEMBERSHIP MEETING ON FEBRUARY 29, 2012

The public is invited to attend a presentation on the upcoming millage renewals for the St. Tammany Parish Public Schools at Tammany Together's Quarterly General Membership Meeting on Wednesday, February 29, 2012. Voters will be asked to renew three separate millages on the April 21 election ballot. Cheryl Arabie, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, and two school board members will be on hand to answer questions after Arabie's presentation.

The three millages that are up for renewal total 43.75 mils and bring in approximately $68,865,000 annually, or 20% of the school system's annual budget. The first millage, 4.84 mills, brings in $7.62 million and helps fund General Fund expenditures for materials, salaries, and insurance. The second millage is 3.44 mills and is used for the construction, maintenance, and operation of the schools and school-related facilities. This millage brings in approximately $5.42 million annually. The third millage is a 35.47 mills tax that was passed in 1973, and has been renewed every ten years since then. It generates $55,825,000 annually. The monies are divided into the following categories: employee wages and benefits (56.5% or $31,541,125); enhancement of the curriculum and improvement of the instructional programs (28.5% or $15,910,125); and payment of janitorial services and expenses, utilities, and other costs associated with operating and maintaining the schools (15% or $8,373,750).

The meeting will be held at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, February 29, at the Christwood Retirement Community, 100 Christwood Boulevard, just south of the intersection of I-12 and Highway 21 in Covington. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. A map showing the location of the meeting is available at http://www.tammanytogether.org/files/Christwood.jpg

Please plan to attend and invite your friends and neighbors.

Your Tammany Together Board of Directors

Tammany Together Encourages Parish Residents to Attend
As announced in the local newspapers, the Parish Council decided this year to discuss the proposed 2012 budget with each department. This is very different from past years. These meetings are open to the public and are a great opportunity to learn about how your tax dollars are spent. It is only by getting involved that you can have an impact on the future of the Parish.

Because the time available for each department to discuss its budget is short, it will not be possible for the public to ask questions at these meetings. However, there will be a public hearing on the budget at the Council meeting on Thursday, November 3 where you can comment. You can certainly also let your Council representative know your thoughts before then. The contact information for the Council members is at http://www.stpgov.org/leadership_parishcouncil.php.

The proposed 2012 budget is on the Parish website at http://www.stpgov.org/docs/1317254968.pdf.

Please review the schedule below and attend the departmental meetings that interest you. We recommend calling the Parish Council office at 898-2591 to confirm the schedule before attending.

October 2011 Budget - Finance Meetings
Estimate 30 minutes each / One Hour for Larger Departments

• Wednesday, October 19th
• 5:30 - Animal Services
• 6:00 - GAC
• 6:30 - Public Health
• 7:00 - Social Services
• Thursday, October 20th
• 5:30 - Permits
• 6:00 - Planning
• 6:30 - Tammany Trace
• 7:00 - OEP
• Wednesday, October 26th
• 5:30 - Federal Programs/Grants
• 6:00 - Regular Committee Meeting
• 6:30 - Public Works
• Thursday, October 27th
• 5:30 - Legal
• 7:00 - Environmental Services

The Council's Budget Review Committee has given the departments a list of questions to answer. They are available on our website at www.tammanytogether.org/files/2012ParishBudgetQuestions.pdf. The answers will be interesting to hear, as they will give us all a better idea of the workings of our local government.

Please share this information with your friends and neighbors.

Your Tammany Together Board of Directors

We are pleased to pass this information from the League of Women Voters of St. Tammany on to our Tammany Together members and friends. Please visit the links given below for more information, and be sure to vote in the coming elections.

Your Tammany Together Board of Directors

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The Voter Service Website created by the League of Women Voters of St. Tammany continues to grow with the addition of answers posed to Candidates running for election on October 22. The League's Voter Services website can be found at www.lwvofst.org and includes helpful, downloadable voter guides including candidate biographies and links, Constitutional Amendments, maps of state senate, house, BESE and St. Tammany Council districts, and other voter aids.

Voter Candidate forums recently conducted by the League of Women Voters of St. Tammany were taped by St. Tammany Parish Government and are available for viewing online at the parish's video-on-demand website. Charter Communications and AT&T U-verse customers can watch reruns of the forums on the Access St. Tammany TV channel (click here for Access TV broadcast schedules). For convenience, we have also included the link to the taped forums on the Voter Service website.

The League of Women Voters of St. Tammany Fall 2011 Voter Guide is also available for review at all of the libraries in St. Tammany Parish.

In addition to the candidate information collected by the St. Tammany League, there is a link to the state League of Women Voters of Louisiana Voter Service website, where voters will find information about candidates running for statewide office. Information was also collected from all of the candidates running for the Board of Elementary & Secondary Education (BESE) board. The Voter Service website for the League of Women Voters of Louisiana is www.lwvofla.org.

For more information about the League, please contact League president Sandra Slifer at 985-875-9388 or visit the League's general information website at www.lwvst.info or its Voter Services website at www.lwvofst.org.

LOCAL LEGISLATORS WILL REVIEW SPECIAL AND REGULAR 2011 LEGISLATIVE SESSIONS AT TAMMANY TOGETHER'S QUARTERLY MEMBERSHIP MEETING

News reports about the recent legislative sessions summarized the flow of discussions and the outcome of the votes. Hearing about the sessions directly from members of the St. Tammany Delegation provides a “behind the scenes” perspective that can be very interesting.

Our members and the public are invited to attend a Legislative Wrap Up presentation and discussion at Tammany Together’s Quarterly General Membership Meeting on Monday, July 18, 2011. Senator Jack Donahue from Mandeville and Rep. Kevin Pearson from Slidell will share their views and insights on the highs and the lows of the Special Redistricting and the Regular Session just completed in June. There will be a question and answer period after the presentations. In addition to the presentations and Q & A, members will be asked to vote on the annual budget.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 PM on Monday, July 18, 2011, at the Christwood Retirement Community, 100 Christwood Boulevard, just south of the intersection of I-12 and Highway 21 in Covington. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. A map showing the location of the meeting is available at http://www.tammanytogether.org/files/Christwood.jpg

Please share this email with others in your subdivision and with any friends you think might be interested because all are welcome to attend.

Tammany Together founding board member Rick Wilke was interviewed by Monica Pierre in a recent broadcast on WWL and other Entercom New Orleans radio stations. Rick talked about why and how Tammany Together was founded, the issues that have engaged us over the past few years, and what the future might hold for the organization. A podcast of the entire half-hour interview is available on our Links page. Click here for a direct link to the podcast.

Your Tammany Together Board of Directors

At our annual meeting on Monday, April 18, 2011, the following citizens were elected to our Board of Directors:

For a two year term through 2013
Russell Butz
Sandra Slifer
Rick Wilke
David Young

For a one year term through 2012
Lisa Condrey

A list and brief bios of all board members can be found on the Board of Directors page of our web site.

Your Tammany Together Board of Directors

To our members and friends,

We have a very interesting evening planned for our open-to-the-public Annual Meeting on Monday, April 18, 2011.

Our meeting will feature five sitting St. Tammany mayors. Freddy Drennan, Louis Fitzmorris, Peter Gitz, Donald Villere and Candace Watkins, mayors of Slidell, Abita Springs, Madisonville, Mandeville, and Covington, respectively, will participate in a panel discussion on the unique challenges and opportunities of the office. There will be a question and answer period after the panel discussion.

In addition to the panel discussion and Q & A, board member elections will be held. Russell Butz of Covington has been nominated to join the board, and current board members Lisa Condrey, Sandra Slifer, Rick Wilke, and David Young have been nominated for reelection. Additional nominations may be made from the floor at the meeting by any voting member, provided the prior consent of the nominee has been secured.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 PM on Monday, April 18, 2011, at the Christwood Retirement Community, 100 Christwood Boulevard, just south of the intersection of I-12 and Highway 21 in Covington. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. A map showing the location of the meeting is available at http://www.tammanytogether.org/files/Christwood.jpg.

Please pass the word and invite your neighbors and friends to attend the meeting. We hope to see you there.

Your Tammany Together Board of Directors

As a result of the 2010 Census, the Parish Council is in the process of redrawing the Council district boundaries. A map of the proposed new district boundaries is available on the parish web site at www.stpgov.org/docs/1301692967.pdf. A map of the current Council districts is available on our web site at www.tammanytogether.org/files/2002CouncilDistrictsWithPrecinctsAndCurrentPopulations.pdf. Both maps show the precincts included in each district, with precinct boundaries delineated by blue lines (you will have to zoom in to see the blue lines that border boundaries delineated by roads).

There will be four Parish Council meetings at which the public will have an opportunity to comment on the redistricting process. We encourage interested citizens to attend these meetings and make their views known.

The first meeting will be this Thursday, April 7, 2011, at the 6:00 PM regular Parish Council meeting on Koop Drive.

There will also be a meeting that focuses on the eastern side of the parish on Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 6:00 PM, at the Towers Building, 520 Old Spanish Trail, Slidell, in the 5th Floor Council Chambers, and a meeting that focuses on the western side of the parish on Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 6:00 PM, at Koop Drive.

Finally, a special Parish Council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 6:00 PM, at Koop Drive, for the Council to consider adoption of ordinances establishing a final redistricting plan.

We encourage everyone to examine the maps to see how they will be affected, and to contact their Parish Council members and attend these meetings to make their views known.

Your Tammany Together Board of Directors

We are passing the attached information on to our members and friends to inform them about an upcoming set of design meetings for the Mandeville Trailhead that could ultimately lead to the creation of a town center there. The meetings are intended to get input from people who live in the region.

Your Tammany Together Board of Directors