Appointed police chief issue not on November ballot

For the time being, the debate over whether Hessmer’s police chief will remain an elected position or an appointed one has been sidelined.

The deadline for putting the proposition on the Nov. 16 ballot was Sept. 23.

The Town Council adopted an ordinance on April 1 that gives it the authority to call a special election to ask voters to decide whether to change the way the police chief position is filled.

If attendance and comments at the public hearing on that ordinance is any indicator of overall voter opinion on the issue, the proposition would be easily defeated.

Despite that, the council unanimously adopted the enabling ordinance. However, over the past five months village officials have said the matter has been “under review” and “addressing details” before the council would consider calling the special election.

“The issue is not dead,” Mayor Travis Franks said. “The town attorney has obtained all the information the council asked for.”

Franks said the ordinance is in place giving the council the authority to put the proposition on a special election ballot “and it can be called at any time.”

Smith said he believes “it should be left up to the people to elect their police chief and not up to the mayor and council to appoint one.”

Smith’s personal attorney, Mark Jeansonne, said the issue should be permanently set aside.

JEANSONNE COMMENTS

“Once you take away the people’s right to vote for an elected official, they never get it back,” Jeansonne said. “To eliminate that right to vote for this office over the current feud between elected officials is just not the right thing to do.”

Jeansonne said when he was Hessmer’s mayor, “I had many more problems with the police chief than this mayor has had, but I always resolved them.”

He said Smith, Franks and the three aldermen “need to sit down and talk to each other and resolve their differences.”

Jeansonne said the current elected officials need to “strive for tranquility for our residents. They need to consider what’s good for the people and not what’s good for me or the other person.”

Five of the nine municipal police chiefs in the parish are appointed and four are elected. Marksville and Evergreen were incorporated under city charters that requires the chief be appointed. The other seven were formed under the state Lawrason Act.

The Lawrason Act designates the police chief as an elected official. However, it provides a process for municipalities to make the position one appointed by the mayor and approved by the aldermen. Simmesport, Moreauville and Plaucheville have made the change from elected to appointed police chiefs. Bunkie, Cottonport, Mansura and Hessmer have retained the elected position.

If voters would approve the change, it would not go into effect until after the current elected term of office expires on Dec. 31, 2020.

TWO OPPORTUNITIES

The council has two opportunities to put the issue on the ballot in the spring. It would have to call the election by Dec. 11 for it to be on the April 4 ballot. The council would have to call the special election by March 16 to have it on the May 9 ballot.

Hessmer’s mayor, aldermen and police chief elections will be Nov. 3, 2020. The deadline for putting a proposition on that ballot is June 17.

If the proposition on changing the selection process for police chief were on that ballot and approved by the voters, it would not go into effect until the end of the next four-year term. Election officials have said the “term of office” period designated in state laws is considered to start when candidates for that office qualify for the election to fill the position.