BATON ROUGE — Voters in East Baton Rouge, Livingston and Tangipahoa parishes rejected five ballot issues placed before them, leaving the ideas' supporters to give up or figure out a way to try again.East Baton Rouge won't change its form of city government for now, and Tickfaw police will go with additional funding. Livingston Parish residents won't spend $1.2 million on its health unit and animal shelter, and Hammond city government won't change the way it incurs debt or removes its police chief.Livingston Parish Councilman Ricky Goff said current funding for the health unit and animal shelter should last another four years, but eventually its operations will need more money. If Tuesday's 2-mill property tax had passed, the operations would have had 10 years of funding. It failed by a 51-49 margin. A larger tax for the same agencies lost last year.The health unit tests water supplies, inspects sewers and performs other health-related functions. In the short term, Goff said, it may have to raise fees for its services.Tickfaw Mayor Tony Lamonte was hopeful that a mere $30,000 in increase funding would have benefited the local police force, which has four fulltime officers and three auxiliary officers, in addition to a chief. The village of 635 residents had proposed a 10-mill property tax."We put it there for the people and they said 'No,'" Lamonte said. "Now we have to back up and punt." He said he would meet with the council and seek another way to raise funds for police operations.Hammond city government had proposed letting the city council remove a police chief with three or more members of the panel voting in favor. The proposal fell by a wide margin.Separately, Hammond city leaders wanted to require that an engineering and economic feasibility study be done at least 60 days before asking the public to take on municipal debt. It failed by 56 votes out of 5,706 cast.Councilman Kip Andrews said no conversations had been held about next steps, now that the people have spoken."The feedback we have received clearly reflects the views of our community," he said in a text to WBRZ. Councilwoman Carlee Gonzales said the voters were clear that "there is no need to change the way we incur debt or what power the council has over the police chief."In East Baton Rouge, both mayoral candidates who advanced to a Dec. 7 runoff — incumbent Sharon Weston Broome and Istrouma football coach Sid Edwards — said they opposed changing the parish's form of government, including its proposal to bring on a city manager to handle day-to-day operations.The issue is dead for now but can be brought up again.Permalink| Comments