Hessmer police chief responds to proposed ordinances

On Monday (April 1) the Hessmer Village Council will decide whether to ask voters to make the municipality’s police chief an appointed, rather than elected, position.

That’s no April Fool’s joke.

In fact, those on both sides of that issue are extremely serious.

Police Chief Kenneth Smith said his side of the spat between Town Hall and his department has not been printed. The mayor and council position was reported in the article on the March 4 council meeting when the ordinance to do away with the elected police chief position was introduced.

“The mayor wants a puppet as police chief,” Smith said. There have been several issues over the past few years that have put Smith at odds with Mayor Travis Franks and the three aldermen.

CELL PHONE ISSUE
The one that seems to have brought a simmering feud to a boiling point was Smith’s decision to change the cell phone service for the police department.

Franks and the councilmen have refused to pay the Verizon phone bill since the change was made. Smith said the phone service has remained on and the bill is about $2,000 past due because of the council’s refusal to pay it. The phones will be disconnected Monday (April 1).

“The account has been active for over 10 years,” Smith said. “Just recently the account could not be managed by Verizon and the town clerk stated that she could not resolve the issue herself and directed this issue back to our department for resolution.”

Smith said he took that directive from Town Hall and called Verizon to seek a solution to the phone problems.

He was told the account was very old, dating back to when it was provided by Centennial. Verizon recommended converting the account from a “business” account to a “government” account, which would be less expensive while retaining the same phone numbers.

After this was done, Smith said Franks got upset because he and the council were not involved. The council has refused to pay the bill.

On the Town Hall’s side, the argument is that the police chief cannot contractually obligate the municipality. Any contract must be approved by the Village Council.

“In this case the contractual obligation never changed,” Smith said. “We only fixed an issue that Verizon themselves stated that we must do in order to correct the manageability issue.”

AG’S OPINION

Smith said the Attorney General’s Office issued an opinion (#17-0023) that “obtaining a new telephone service is within the inherent power of the elected chief of police. The mayor completely ignores established Attorney General opinions.”

Smith said that once the phone service is cut off, Verizon will hold the account dormant for 30 days to allow time for the village to pay the past due amount. In 90 days the company will reassign those phone numbers to new customers.

Another issue to be decided at Monday’s council meeting are proposed budget cuts that will eliminate all police personnel except Smith.

One of Smith’s main complaints with the council has been the aldermen’s refusal to hire a full-time officer to replace one he believes was unnecessarily fired.

“Before the firing of the full-time officer, and for the past 10 years, the Village of Hessmer enjoyed a relatively crime-free community due to the fact we always had a police officer on duty and patrolling our streets,” Smith said.

Since the officer was fired and no replacement was hired, “based solely on their bias against me as the elected chief of police,” Smith alleged, “our citizens have suffered more burglaries and theft-related cases in eight months than we have worked in 10 years.

“I believe these actions to be detrimental and careless to the people living in the Village of Hessmer,” he added.

Smith said he is physically unable to work 24 hours a day.

‘PERSONALLY LIABLE’
“If anyone is hurt or killed because I have no one on duty or on call, and response time from outside agencies is slower, the mayor and council may be held personally liable to the injured persons,” Smith continued, citing La. Title 9, Section 2798.1.

“I will not be personally liable -- they will,” he emphasized.

Smith said he starts his duty at 4 a.m. and works until 9 p.m. every day. Cutting personnel would leave a big gap in police protection for Hessmer.

Smith contends the budget cuts in the police department are an “abuse of power” that “puts the safety of citizens at risk.”

He noted the only department’s budget targeted for cuts is the Police Department, which is also the only departmental budget not controlled by the mayor.

The Lawrason Act that governs the village operations gives the elected police chief control over the police department budget, but the Village Council approves the budget and can make amendments to it during the fiscal year.

Another major complaint Smith has against Town Hall is the refusal to pay on-call/emergency police personnel. Smith said it was noted in March 2018 that police officers would be paid for the hours they were on-call. Now the village is refusing to pay for those on-call hours.

The chief also said a police officer was denied payment for a day because he forgot to clock out at the end of his shift. Smith said the officer signed a time sheet for that day, and Smith signed it to verify the time was accurate, but the officer was not paid for that day.

MAYOR WANTS CONTROL

Smith said he believes the mayor and aldermen want an appointed police chief so the mayor would have more control over the police department.

Changing from an elected to appointed police chief would mean “the people of Hessmer would no longer have a voice over who they wish to be their chief of police,” Smith said. “If anyone would disagree with or hinder the mayor in any way, he would have control over the police department in possible retaliation.

“This is the reason why these powers are separated,” Smith added. He said that in his opinion, the mayor and aldermen “believe the people of Hessmer are not capable of making their own choice for police chief and want to take this decision away from the people.”

Smith said it appears the council has been trying to make things difficult for him in hopes that he will get tired of the hassle and quit.

“Kenneth Smith is not going anywhere,” he said. “If they pass the ordinance and put it on the ballot, it will be beaten easily. I will run for re-election in 2020 and probably another time after that.”