Tomorrow (Thursday) at noon, the Many City Council will meet in special session to “vote to have police chief appointed by Mayor and Council.”
I’m not quite sure of the legal procedures under which this seemingly drastic action will take place, if it does in fact take place, but it should be an interesting meeting. It will be open to the public, so feel free to stop by City Hall on San Antonio Avenue at noon if you are able and interested.
As it is currently and has been for the past, heck, I don’t know, at least a half century or so, the Police Chief of the Town of Many is an elected position. That is, registered voters residing in the Many city limits cast ballots once every four years for a police chief of their choosing. Roger Freeman is currently serving as the police chief for the Town of Many, and his term expires two years from next week, or on June 30, 2021. Unless Chief Freeman is resigning, and I have not heard that he is, it will be curious to see how the Mayor and Council go about removing an elected official.
There has been recent tension between the Mayor along with at least some of the members of the City Council and the Many Police Department, the Chief, and at least some of the individuals serving in the Department.
If you are interested in some of the details (which have unfolded publicly since a traffic stop last month by MPD involving a local couple and where the Mayor was reportedly clocked by an MPD patrolman speeding to the scene and then reportedly fleeing the patrolman as he headed to the Sabine jail to stop the driver from being arrested for not signing a ticket which he disputed), you can check out Robert Gentry’s Observations column, which can be found at bdcradio.com or BDC Radio. Mr. Gentry has all kinds of sorts of details on the ongoing dispute.
Mayor Freeman (no relation to Chief Freeman) has spoken publicly of looking into abolishing the Many Police Department in favor of having the Sabine Sheriff’s Department patrol and enforce laws in the city limits. That has been done in other Louisiana munipalities, most recently Stonewall in DeSoto Parish and before that, Logansport in the same parish. I think, however, it could take legislation or possibly a vote of the people to abolish a municipal police department, but what do I know?
Feel free to comment with opinions or knowledge or ideas or concerns. One thing I would be particularly curious in knowing… if the Mayor and Council do ultimately abolish the police department, I can only imagine the Sheriff’s Department will have to bill the Town for the cost of patrolling Many… how much will that cost the town and particularly will it be significantly more or less than what the Town is currently budgeting for its Police Department? If it costs more for the Sheriff’s Department than having an internal PD, I am hereby begging the town leaders… please don’t hike our water rates again to make up for the difference because I think we just couldn’t handle that!
A few boring notes regarding elected police chiefs in Louisiana municipalities operating under the Lawrason Act, as Many does, from the State Legislative Auditor’s Office:
The Lawrason Act grants special supervisory authority over the police department to elected police chiefs that it does not provide for appointed police chiefs.
La. R.S. 33:404(A)(1) provides the mayor of a Lawrason Act municipality with the power “[t]o supervise and direct the administration and operation of all municipal departments, offices, and agencies, other than a police department with an elected chief of police, […] All administrative staff shall be subordinate to the mayor.”
Further, R.S. 33:404(A)(3) provides, the mayor with the power “to appoint and remove municipal employees, other than the employees of a police department with an elected chief of police.”