Bossier Jury jumps from pan to fire on library

On the issue of its Library Board of Control, maybe the Bossier Parish Police Jury is jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Just how hot, we may find out soon.

At its last meeting earlier this month, the Jury without discussion voted unanimously to appoint all of its members onto the parish’s Board. Currently, unlike any other such board in the state, jurors serve on it and in all five of its slots, and there have been at least two jurors on the Board since 2016.

The law provides for a maximum of seven positions, so the Jury apparently will try to dodge this requirement by rotating members in and out, although the law also specifies the lengths of terms at five years. Perhaps it could utilize the provision that allows for the Jury president or his designee to serve ex oficio and give different jurors that role each month. It also means that Democrat Juror Charles Gray, defeated in his reelection attempt last month, will be kicked off the Board as soon as possible unless he resigns earlier.

Regardless, this attempt to circumvent the law further raises the stakes over the issue of whether juror service violates the law, which is unclear. Trying to shoehorn in every juror, where the Board becomes a mere appendage like a committee of the Jury, might strengthen the case about whether dual officeholding occurs in favor of that interpretation.

Although an answer may be coming soon. Generally speaking, the law regarding attorney general opinions severely constricts who may request these, leaving that ability in almost every instance to state and local officeholders. Only one exception exists where a private individual may make a request and in just one specific area: dual officeholding or employment. And that question about whether juror service on a board violated dual officeholding law was submitted earlier this month by a private citizen, citing the Bossier Jury and Board. No timeline is set on when a ruling will be made.

The question may become moot. Over the past year, a number of questions have risen about board service and powers, and with a refreshed legislative majority who mandated that boards establish system policies to increase parental oversight of their children’s use of library resources and an incoming governor who led that charge and who maintains that jurors cannot serve on boards, it seems likely that some statutory revision is forthcoming about boards, with one such change probably an explicit statement in law that jurors can’t serve on boards.

A contrary AG opinion might spur that as a reaction, or if that opinion does declare board and jury service constitutes dual officeholding and Bossier doesn’t change the composition of its Board to comply this also might rankle lawmakers. So, it seems that the days of jurors serving on the Board are numbered, one way or another, and it’s just how much resistance the Jury is willing to put up to delay the inevitable, which fits its pattern of lawlessness over the recent past.