Police Jury adopts plan to fill secretary-treasurer post

CROWLEY - With one dissenting vote, the Acadia Parish Police Jury adopted a plan to fill the secretary-treasurer’s position vacated in February.
Laura Faul resigned the seat one year into a two-year term after accepting a position with the Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office. Since that time, the duties of secretary-treasurer have been delegated to Donna Bertrand, human resources director for the parish.
The problem facing the police jury insofar as naming a replacement is in state statute, which mandates:
“The police jury/parish governing body must elect a parish treasurer for a two-year term and fix his compensation and the amount of the bond he must furnish. A parish treasurer may be removed during his term, but only for misfeasance, malfeasance, or any other lawful cause by vote of the majority of the elected members of the governing authority. However, a parish officer’s term may not exceed the term of the police jury/parish governing authority that elected him, except for any officers or employees governed by civil service law.”
Since the Acadia jury combined the offices of secretary and treasurer some years ago, that position is subject to the above-stated statute.
However, two clauses in that paragraph — “must elect a parish treasurer for a two-year term” and “officer’s term may not exceed the term of the police jury” — have been the focus of repeated discussions at jury meetings since Faul’s resignation.
The statute makes no mention of filling an unexpired term, so, had the jury elected a secretary-treasure when Faul resigned in February, that two-year term would end in February, 2019. Jurors’ terms end in December, 2019.
As President David Savoy pointed out on more than one occasion, “There’s a 10-month period to be filled, either at the beginning or at the end.”
Nevertheless, the jury advertised for a secretary-treasurer and interviewed about a half dozen applicants before acting on District Attorney Keith Stutes’ recommendation that they “delegate the duties” of the secretary-treasurer on a temporary basis until such time as a permanent replacement was named.
That’s when Bertrand was appointed.
Then the question became, “How long is temporary?”
With the end of 2017 approaching, marking the midway mark of the jury’s four-year term, a plan has been finalized to elect a secretary-treasurer.
The jury will advertise and accept applications for the position from Oct. 1 through Oct. 31. Applications and resumé will be reviewed and applicants interviewed in November and a “primary candidate” will be selected in December.
That candidate, however, will not officially take office until the Jan. 9, 2018, police jury meeting.
Only Ronald Fabacher voted against the proposal.
Voting in favor were Chuck Broussard, Kerry Kilgore, Jimmie Pellerin, Richard Faul, Robert Guidry and David Simon.
Danny Hebert was absent.
In a related matter, the jury voted unanimously to seek legislation to change the treasurer mandate to a four-year position with provisions to fill an unexpired term if necessary.
Savoy said he would contact members of the Acadia Delegation to try to get that provision — even if it is only for Acadia Parish — pushed through the legislature during the next session.
“This will help us to attract quality people,” Savoy said. “It’s hard for someone to commit to taking a job like this for only two years.”
In other action during the September meeting, police jurors approved a request from the Rice Arena board to pay board members a $150 per meeting per diem.
The Rice Arena board consists of eight members who meet a minimum of once per month.
Jurors also approved a request from that board to hire one full-time and one temporary employee at the Crowley-based facility.
That will bring to three the number of full-time employees at the Arena with two temporary employees.
“We’re hoping that will take care of some of the overtime issues we’ve had there,” Savoy said.