The New Iberia City Council unanimously rejected a resolution that would have granted the city an exemption from police officer representation on its Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board on Tuesday evening.
New Iberia mayor Freddie DeCourt encouraged members of the council to vote down the resolution, arguing that rejection of it would allow the New Iberia Police Department to move forward with electing a representative.
The city was granted a state exemption from the statutory requirement to have a police representative serve on the board in 2014, when the NIPD had disbanded.
The NIPD reconstituted itself in 2017 and the city never officially changed the statutory exception that allowed them to operate the board with a police officer representative. DeCourt said that the department needed to first prove itself viable before it could receive representation on the board, a barrier he says they have now passed.
“Everything we’ve accomplished in this city over the last decade is because of these guys,” DeCourt said. “I think we’re at a point where we need police representation on the board.”
Allyson Melancon, an attorney specializing in police representation, wrote a legal opinion that argued the exemption first passed in 2014 was null following the reconstitution of the NIPD in 2017, and stated that the resolution was an attempt to justify the alleged noncompliance
“This is not a routine administrative matter,” said Melancon. “It is an attempt to apply a statutory exception that based on both the law and the historical record, is neither currently applicable nor ever lawfully adopted.”
The board had also come under fire in recent months, with legal complaints from the Professional Association of Law Enforcement Officers alleging violations to state open meetings laws in the hearing of an officer complaint in March.
Following a petition from an NIPD officer to conduct an investigation into departmental malfeasance, the board went into executive session, which is limited to certain justifications under h statute.
PALEO representative Matt Thomassee argued that the board’s decision did not meet any of the justifications the statute requires and filed a complaint with the 16th JDC that stated, “entering into executive session deprived the public of its constitutional right to observe the deliberative process of a public body.”
The petition request, which alleged that the NIPD had unfairly demoted a member of the department, was not granted.
The council also discussed calling a special election for changes to the city’s Home Rule Charter that would increase the salary for the city’s mayor from a base rate of $80,000 to a base rate of $120,000. Under the current charter the mayor receives a yearly increase of 2% for each year served in office, however these increases do not carry over to new mayors once they enter office. Under the new proposals the yearly increase rate would not change.
DeCourt stated that the increase in salary would not go into effect until after his present term expired. “I really just want to make clear that this is not for me, it is for the next elected mayor”, DeCourt said.
Some members of the council questioned the urgency with which the resolution was being passed.
“This wouldn’t go into effect until 2029, so I don’t see the expediency”, said councilman Ron Davis, Jr. “We need to go back to the Home Rule Charter and really discuss why the compensation rates are there in the first place and the legality of the changes we’re asking for, if we’re going to ask voters to support this”.
The resolution passed 4-3, with mayor DeCourt casting a tiebreaking vote in favor.