Plaquemines Port board adopts 2026 operating and budget-control measures after transparency dispute

The Plaquemines Parish Council, sitting as the governing board of the Plaquemines Port Harbor and Terminal District, adopted key budget measures on Jan. 5, 2026, after commissioners clashed over whether some budget decisions had been discussed outside publicly noticed meetings.

The board held a second-reading and final-passage vote on the district’s original operating budget for the fiscal year beginning Jan. 1, 2026, and also moved forward with a five‑year capital improvement plan and a budgetary-control policy. The clerk filled the formal adoption date as Jan. 5, 2026.

Why it matters: Commissioners expressed concern that substantive changes had been discussed in smaller meetings without public notice, creating uncertainty about which amendments had been accepted before formal votes. Those concerns focused attention on specific line items and on whether the publicly posted charts correctly reflected prior-year and rollover accounting.

Commissioner Schultz raised the transparency objection directly, saying the problem was that “decisions are being made behind closed doors” and that the public hearing process exists to avoid that. He also pointed to apparent numerical problems in the paperwork, noting a professional services/engineering line showing $1,200,000 when “we never spent over $300,000,” and flagged duplicate IT-services entries across the document.

Commissioner McCarty said she was “disappointed that we did not allow the amendments to be read and heard… so that [the public] know what we were thinking about changing,” arguing the approach limited public understanding of differing views.

Staff and other commissioners explained the accounting practice for capital projects, saying prior-year capital items roll into out‑year budgets and that some figures would be corrected when the year closes and final numbers are available; several commissioners said the board could adopt the proposed budgets now and process technical corrections via future budget amendments.

Votes at a glance: the operating budget ordinance was put to a roll-call vote and the chair announced it passed. A measure tied to the capital budget recorded an amendment that the transcript shows as passing 5–4. The ordinance establishing a budgetary-control policy for operating expenditures passed 5–4. (Individual district roll‑call entries are recorded in the meeting transcript.)

What’s next: Commissioners and staff said corrections to line‑item presentation and rollover accounting would be made in the adopted documents or handled through a 2026 budget amendment once final figures are available.

The meeting moved on after the votes.