Home Rule Charter campaign begins in earnest

   What most expected to be a “dog and pony show” in support of a petition drive to change the form of parish government turned into the first public discussion of the issue at the Mansura Town Council meeting Aug. 8.

   Hessmer Mayor Travis Franks, co-chair of the We the People of Avoyelles (WPA) organization, spoke to the council to explain the organization’s reasons for wanting a home rule charter that would change the parish government from the police jury to a parish council/president system.

   The Mansura meeting was just one of several municipal meetings that WPA  members addressed earlier this month. However, it was the one where there was some “push back” from the other side.

Franks explained that at least 10 percent of registered voters must sign a petition to force the creation of a home rule charter commission -- either by appointment by the Police Jury or by election of the voters. He said the Police Jury would be asked to appoint a commission, but if it refused to do so and the petition was verified to contain the signatures of at least 10 percent of registered voters, an election would be called in November 2017 to choose the commissioners to draft the home rule charter.

   Franks said plans are for a charter to be finished and presented to the voters in a “Yes” or “No” vote in November 2018.

 

   Franks said the parish council/parish president form of government is “more efficient.” He said the parish president, who would be elected parishwide, would be the chief executive of the parish -- similar to a mayor of a municipality.

   “With better efficiency comes increased voter confidence,” Franks said. Voter confidence is then reflected in approval of taxes to support improved services, he added.

   Franks said that all areas of Avoyelles have to unite for the parish to move forward. It is difficult for the municipalities to unite with the Police Jury because of the current system of parish government.

A police jury governs by committee, requiring five votes on a nine-member board to approve an action. This can be cumbersome and inefficient, Franks noted.

  Under a council/president system, the council would establish policies, regulations and ordinances and the president would have the authority to handle the day-to-day operations within those approved policies, regulations and ordinances.

   Bunkie Mayor Mike Robertson told the Hessmer and Plaucheville councils that a home rule charter “is like the constitution of the state and the United States. It would be the constitution for the Parish of Avoyelles.”

   WPA members argue that an advantage to being governed under a home rule charter is that the parish government can change laws affecting Avoyelles Parish without going to the Legislature to have the law enacted.

   Experts in the different parish government systems have described a parish council as being able to do anything that a state law does not specifically prohibit while a police jury can only do those things that a state law specifically allows.

   After giving his address, Franks asked if there were any questions.

   Mayor Kenneth Pickett said he had received calls from constituents with concerns about changing from the police jury form of government. All three dealt with the new parish president position.

One was about how much the full-time parish president would be paid. Another was whether the president would be able to veto an action approved by the 9-member parish council. A third concern was about the likelihood -- or unlikelihood -- of a minority-race candidate being elected parish president.

    Franks said the first two issues would be determined by the charter, which would be written by people from Avoyelles Parish with public input at public meetings. He did not address the third.

Franks holds up St. Landry Parish as an example of the benefits of a home rule charter.

  “Eight years ago, St. Landry Parish was where we are today,” Franks said earlier this month at the Hessmer Council meeting. “Changing the parish government to a parish council with a parish president elected at-large parishwide began a process that has turned the parish around.”

   He said parish voters gained confidence and trust in their parish government and responded by approving taxes to provide improved services to the people.

   “We need to be united as Avoyelles Parish,” Franks said. We need to work together. I believe we can work better together with a home rule charter.”

  Police Jury President Charles Jones, who was attending the meeting to provide the pro-jury/anti-change side, asked how many minority-race members are on the WPA committee. Franks said he did not know.

   As it became apparent the tone of the meeting was shifting from “hear a presentation” to more of a debate on the issues, Franks said he had not come to the meeting to debate. He left the meeting at about the time Jones took the podium to deliver his rebuttal remarks.

 

    Jones, accompanied by Juror Glenn McKinley, said he is paid $100 more per month to serve as president -- a position he has now held for 2.5 of his six years on the jury. He said he has devoted numerous hours in working on problems, researching issues and talking to constituents from throughout the parish because he has time to devote to the job and he believes it is important.

    “I have tried to make government in Avoyelles better,” Jones said. I am offended by the effort to change the form of government at this time."

    Jones said that changing the form of government will not correct problems or make operations more efficient.

  “We have a budget of $8.1 million, but much of that is dedicated funds that we cannot touch,” Jones said. Only about $4.2 million of that budget is “discretionary” funds, and there is not much discretion available, he added.

   Besides expensive services such as roads, bridges and drainage, those funds also pay for courthouse-related services, including the district attorney, judges and courthouse maintenance.

   “We are resource-limited and that has a lot do with our ‘inefficiencies,’” he noted.

   Jones noted that Franks had pointed out that 24 parishes have a home rule charter form of government. He said the question that WPA needs to answer is why the other 40 have decided to keep the police jury system and why “one-third of those with a parish council want out of it.”

   Jones said he believes WPA already knows who it wants as parish president “and it isn’t me.”

   He said he has done nothing to impede WPA’s efforts and will support a new government if a charter is written and approved by the voters. However, he said that as a minority elected official serving in a district that the parish was forced to create to enable fair minority representation on the jury, he sees this effort as “an attempt to disenfranchise minority voters again.”

 

   As an alternative to the “mayor/council” model of government, Jones said the police jury could imitate the School Board and hire a parish manager -- similar to the way the School Board hires a superintendent.

   The parish manager could be given authority to administer the day-to-day operations of parish government just as the superintendent has administrative authority in the public school district.

   If the Police Jury did that, Jones noted, it would still leave the question of where the parish would find the money to pay the administrator’s salary and benefits.

  “We don’t have the money,” he said. “There are no places to cut. We once had 130 employees at the Parish Barn. Now we have 28.”

  Jones said those 28 parish employees are responsible for maintaining 450 miles of parish roads, including 305 sections of gravel road. There is also a network of drainage ditches and canals to maintain and “97 bridges in the Off-System Bridge Program that we are responsible for maintaining, and 45 of those are timber bridges,” Jones said. “Timber bridges require a lot of repair and maintenance and are very expensive.”

   After the “pros” and “cons” were over, one thing was more evident than it had been previously: if the police jury system falls to a coup d’etat, it won’t be a quiet, peaceful affair.