Christmastime is here!

Surely, that must have been what members of the Concordia Parish Police Jury thought last week as they voted to give themselves a 33 percent raise.

For those who missed it, the police jury voted to move their salaries from $1,200 a month to $1,600 a month, the state maximum for the position.

The part-time police jurors’ yearly salary is now $19,200, not bad for two called meetings a month, some phone calls, and some “parish road trips” to check out some roads and ditches.

Even when you consider some of the jurors’ statements that they work 20 hours a week (which calculates out to $20 per hour) you would have to say that they have a pretty good salary for a parish whose median household income is $25,033 per year. Just think they nearly make that with their part-time job!

I wonder if any of the seven who voted for the raise questioned the fact that their jury salaries would seem to indicate that they reside in one of the state’s wealthiest parishes rather than one where over 40 percent of the children live in poverty and three out of every four children are on free or reduced lunch at school.

One would think that their salaries would be more in line with those numbers but they are not, and they are really out of proportion with other local numbers as well.

Let’s ask ourselves, what does a teacher’s assistant make in Concordia Parish or a school secretary? How about $12,306 and $13,546 respectively?

That seems rather sad when you consider that these people work with children throughout the parish every day and they work much more than 20 hours per week.

For jurors who might say those people work 9-10 months a year. I will play along. What about a full-time 12-month custodian at one of our local schools?

Their starting salary is $18,036 a year, which is about $100 a month less than our part-time police jurors.

I guess in this holiday season of giving, seven of our police jurors were a bit confused about the holiday phrase, “It is better to give than receive,” when they gave themselves a raise.

I hope that some of you will “give” them a call or card to tell them how you feel about this subject or at least keep them busy enough to earn their salaries.

I would be remiss if I did not send out a big thank you to police jurors Whest Shirley and Randy Temple for their “no” votes on the salary increase.

I guess they both understood that elected part-time officials should give of themselves without expecting to receive an exorbitant salary.

It seems as though the act of voting yourself a raise as a public official in Louisiana is an epidemic these days.

Concerned citizens and taxpayers should keep an eye out for the spread of this illness as the cure resides in the voting booth.

Paul Nelson

Vidalia resident