By T. Scott Boatright
Budgeting for a year can often be a tough process.
That process became even tougher for the Lincoln Parish Police Jury Tuesday night after a pair of new significant requests were made as the LPPJ heard 2026 budget requests during its finance committee meeting held before the primary meeting for September.
Along with requests from returning entities that received funding from the LPPJ in 2025, the Lincoln Parish Museum and the Chief Public Defenders Office both requested funding for the upcoming year — the first such requests from either.
Lincoln Parish Museum and Historical Society director Rick Godley made the first request of the meeting, an impassioned plea for $15,000 for the museum.
“This is going to be our 50th year,” Godley said. “Our 50th year and we have been sustained 100% by the heart, the will, and the dollars of the citizens of the community — for 50 years. So, that tells me the people of this parish have always wanted this here.
“The three tenets of the museum are education, events, and exhibits. People who drive by this house, which is 22 rooms, 9,900 square feet on the busiest streets of Lincoln Parish on both sides — Vienna and Trenton, still hear about the museum and ask where’s that? So that tells me we have got a great opportunity to expose more people to more events and get more reasons to come to our museum, because now we’re a destination point.”
Godley was asked if the city of Ruston was contributing funding to the museum.
“No,” Godley said. “Again, up until this time, the museum is 100% community sustained. And I think that’s why we’ve gotten a little misunderstood. We’re the Lincoln Parish Museum, so people think we’re part of the Lincoln Parish government. We’re not. So, when people look for Peach Fest clues, this isn’t public property. But people look (on museum grounds) anyway.
“I’m making an appeal to (Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker) because we’re an asset. We had 80 people visit on Peach Fest Saturday. We had people from 25 states sign our (guest) book along with (people from) four foreign countries, I believe. I call myself a museum anesthesiologist, because it’s easy to knock out a patient, but you make your money by bringing it back. So, it’s coming back.”
Candler, the chief public defender, admitted his office has historically operated independently.
“We don’t get the funds that the Judge’s Office gets, or the D.A.’s Office gets,” Candler said. “We’ve never needed them, until the (COVID) pandemic. When the pandemic happened, we had a fund balance of several hundred thousand dollars. So, we didn’t come looking for money. When you have money in the bank, you don’t go to local businesses, or agencies or another avenue to give you money. You don’t need it. You survive. And we did that.
“There are 42 judicial districts in the state, and we were the only one that was self-sufficient. All the other judicial districts received some sort of state fund. When the pandemic happened, that changed everything. All the funding that we were getting has been reduced to about $15,000 a month. So that’s what we’re losing. All that excess we had is gone. So, now it’s time that I seek funds — from you hopefully.”
Candler said that he’s been forced to let go of one parttime public defender and that he has been trying to take over those cases in addition to his own, but that reduced manpower means longer times for a case to go to trial, something that costs the LPPJ money in housing inmates at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center waiting for cases to go to trial.
“If we could get any sort of contributions from the Police Jury for the first time since I’ve been the Chief (Defender), it would certainly be a blessing,” Candler said.
LPPJ Vice President Greg “Big Coach” Williams then asked Candler how much he was asking for.
“Anywhere close to that $15,000 per month that we can get,” Candler replied. I don’t know what the budget is, and this is a last-minute plea. But you only meet once a month. I thought you had already met. I thought you met on the first Tuesday (of each month). I got notice at 3 o’clock today that you had a meeting today, and that’s why I came.”
Juror Logan Hunt asked Candler if he could see a spreadsheet of the Public Defender Office’s revenue sources.
“I can do that,” Candler said.
Judge Monique Clement, who was in attendance to ask for an increased budget for the Third Judicial District Office in order to add video conferencing to a main Lincoln Parish Courthouse courtroom to expedite trials because that’s the way the courts handle proceedings for Detention Center inmates, stepped in to voice her support for Candler’s request.
“This might not be proper etiquette, but I want to jump in on Rick’s deal about moving (court cases) along faster,” Clement said. “We’ve got to have (defense) attorneys. And they’re part-time. They’re practicing attorneys and are doing this also, so their time is limited. Whether they can dedicate themselves to a case is all part of the slowdown.
“Just so y’all can understand, every time there’s a child in need of care case, there’s an attorney that represents the child, but we have to appoint an attorney to represent Mom, and an attorney to represent Dad, so that’s two of his people there and sometimes there’s a third person we have to appoint an attorney on.
“We have all these requirements where we must meet within so many hours of someone being arrested on a domestic case — bring them into court for a hearing to determine bond. If they haven’t hired a lawyer yet, one of (Candler’s attorneys) must come. So, there’s a lot of work required of them outside of a regular court case.”
Garriga ended the conversation by saying it might be worth looking into whether money can be saved one way by spending it another way, so Candler’s request would be studied and considered.
