The long-running fight over Kenner firefighters’ pay is heading back to center stage, with Councilman Joey LaHatte filing a resolution that would restore the department’s traditional 2% annual raises, shift money into the personnel budget to cover them, and force a closer look at firefighter cancer screenings and an ongoing lawsuit over the city’s new pay plan.
What’s in the resolution
According to the Kenner City Council agenda, LaHatte’s motion points out that voters approved a replacement fire millage on Nov. 18, 2023, yet a newly implemented pay plan would no longer give the existing 2% raises to every firefighter. Those left out include personnel with less than three years on the job and those with more than 23 years of service.
The resolution directs the mayor to amend the 2026–27 budget and add $250,000 to the fire protection fund for personnel services. It also requires the fire chief to provide a report by August 1, 2026, detailing which eligible firefighters have received legally required cancer screenings and which have not, and it asks that the dispute over the department’s pay plan be sent to mediation within six months.
Councilman: ‘We control the money’
LaHatte told WDSU that residents approved the fire millage “to better fund firefighters,” yet “the money is not being managed properly internally,” saying “we find out not everybody is getting their pay.” He pinned the problem on departmental management and said it has damaged morale inside the ranks.
With new members on the council and the mayor’s support, LaHatte told the station that the council needs to step in to ensure the raises reach every firefighter they were intended to help, arguing that the legislative branch holds the purse strings and has to use that leverage.
Chief’s response
The city’s fire chief told WDSU that the city’s position is that its allocation of 2% pay increases “complies with Louisiana statutory state law” and that the new pay plan was crafted with those legal constraints in mind.
The resolution itself acknowledges that there is ongoing litigation over parts of the pay plan. Even so, it pushes for a budget amendment and a move to mediation as the path to finally resolving the dispute.
State law and screenings
The agenda links the council’s cancer screening demand to House Bill 253 from 2024, signed as Act No. 554, which requires certain cancer screenings for firefighters. LaHatte’s resolution gives the fire chief until August 1, 2026, to spell out which eligible firefighters have received the mandatory exams and which have not.
The text of HB253 is available on the Louisiana Legislature website, and the timeline laid out in LaHatte’s motion would make both the screenings and the budget changes near-term tasks for the administration.
Why it matters locally
Kenner voters backed the replacement millage in 2023 to support firefighter pay, facilities, and equipment. Now, the fight over who receives a routine 2% step raise has turned into a test of morale, transparency, and trust inside the department.
If the council adopts LaHatte’s proposed amendment to the 2026–27 budget, the mayor would be authorized to implement the raises across the department, and the city would be pushed onto a faster track toward mediation and the required reporting on cancer screenings.
Legal angle
The money fight is also a legal one. The resolution explicitly cites ongoing litigation tied to the department’s pay plan and calls for mediation within six months. That process is intended to settle the competing interpretations of the pay structure without dragging the dispute through a prolonged court battle.
If the measure passes, it will increase pressure on department leadership and the administration to deliver the budget details and screening records the council is demanding, while firefighters wait to see whether their long-standing 2% raises are restored.
