Monroe independent Mayor Friday Ellis showed the Democrat majority on the City Council there was more than one way to skin a cat, and its members are not amused to the point they’ll waste taxpayer dollars to vent their frustration.
For months the two majoritarian branches of city government have been locked in a stalemate over appointment of a fire chief. Ellis has sent up one in-house nominee popular with the rank-and-file, only to have the Democrats reject him as nit scoring highly enough on the civil service exam. Then Ellis forwarded the highest scorer, who the Democrats then rejected as only having been a chief in a smaller department.
So, Republican state Sen. Stewart Cathey stepped into the frame, with Ellis’ blessing. He sponsored SB 220, now Act 452, this past legislative session that adjusted local government powers relative to operating their business enterprises. At the session neared it end, having sailed to passage with only one vote against (oddly, the House speaker’s on initial passage), he signaled rejection of the slightly-altered Senate version and the bill went to conference.
At this stage, items are added to bills only if the leadership or the author allows it. Cathey introduced an amendment to give the governor the option to select a name from the list of those passing the latest fire chief exam if the post had been vacant for more than a year for cities between 45,000 and 48,000 in census population. Designating a range is a common shortcut legislators take to avoid time-consuming public notice requirements for local bills that name specific government entities, and only Alexandria and Monroe until 2032 fit this bill.
The conference version passed unanimously in both chambers with less than an hour left in the session having the support of all area legislators except that Democrat state Rep. Pat Moore was absent. But the Council Democrats only figured out what hit them when the law took effect Aug. 1.
Democrats’ seriocomic reaction came swiftly, complaining the law undermined the city Charter and the “democratic process.” That only shows they need a lesson in American federalism, where the judicial doctrine Dillon’s Rule establishes that local governments entirely are creatures of the state government and states are free to legislate or amend their constitutions – uses of democratic means – in a manner that in effect alters charters, which cannot arrogate powers that conflict with either statute or constitution.
And this happened only after Ellis multiple times invited discussion of the appointment issue with councilors and largely was rebuffed. With such intractability, an appeal to an outside authority to settle a critical matter isn’t unreasonable.
Yet despite this, the Democrats accused Ellis of bad faith, a move joining a laundry list of implied instances they have manufactured over the past year, in that he said he would pick a fire chief by the Aug. 26 meeting. Such an allegation as of this publication is false, as GOP Gov. Jeff Landry has yet to exercise this option and Ellis is on track to reveal his choice within the next two weeks.
Probably what will happen is Ellis will do that and then dare the Council to turn down a third choice. If the Democrats do, then Landry may step in and likely select a name about which the Council majority is unenthusiastic.
With this looming, against the two minority Republicans’ objections, at a special meeting last week the three Democrats passed resolutions asking Landry not to exercise the option and expressing an intention to take the matter to court. (Cathey disputed whether proper notice had been given about the meeting, which had a Sunday deadline for that, so the same resolutions were cued for the Aug. 12 regular meeting, that also has some other confrontational items on it.) As the law’s content and passage are consistent with Dillon’s Rule, was not a local bill, and adheres to a single object (powers exercised by local governments), any suit has no chance of success and only will waste taxpayer dollars.
If statesmen, Council Democrats will meet with Ellis on the issue and provide input to find a choice that has competence, leadership qualities, and the mayor’s confidence whom all agree upon. If politicians looking to score political points for themselves and their political backers, they’ll keep on their current course to taxpayers’ and the entire city’s detriment.
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