At its Nov. 14 meeting, the civil service board decided that five candidates ' interim Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft, Lafayette PD Maj. George "Jackie" Alfred, former Lafayette Maj. Les Jones, Toby Jean Aguillard of the state Attorney General's office and former UL Police Chief Joey Sturm ' met the requirements to take the exam.
The requirements state that the applicant must have attained at least a bachelor's degree or, in lieu of a bachelor's degree, he or she must have been employed with the Lafayette Police Department as a commissioned officer prior to Oct. 18, 1979, and still be employed with the department, with no disruption of employment. (The latter requirement was added to pave the way for embattled former chief Randy Hundley's appointment.) And while all of the candidates meet that requirement ' only Alfred gets to sit for the test based on the "Hundley" rule ' the second qualification appears to be the sticking point. The qualifications read: "Must have ten (10) years of law enforcement work with a law enforcement agency or police department that is similar or larger than the Lafayette Police Department."
Board chairman Jason Boudreaux, a captain with the Lafayette Fire Department, says the board interpreted this to mean a candidate needs 10 years with a law enforcement agency of any size. He also says the candidate would not need 10 years of police department work if that department is equal or larger than Lafayette's. "I'm not denying that we took a liberal approach," Boudreaux says. He maintains the board did not favor a particular candidate nor did it get any pressure whatsoever from City-Parish President Joey Durel's administration to qualify a candidate. "We have nothing to do with the selection process," he says.
In a Dec. 6 letter to the civil service board, Lt. Dwayne Arceneaux of the Lafayette Police Department urged the board to re-evaluate the qualifications of the candidates at its Dec. 12 meeting but did not mention anyone by name. Arceneaux, who did not attend the November meeting, tells The Independent Weekly he sent the letter after fellow officers brought the issue of Sturm's and Aguillard's qualifications to his attention.
Arceneaux says that the requirement appears to indicate that candidates need a decade of experience with either a law enforcement agency or police department, both of which must be equal to or larger than Lafayette's. Had that been the interpretation, Sturm, who has worked for the Iberia Parish Sheriff's department for almost three years, would need his UL experience to get to that threshold ' and the university department is nowhere near the size of the Lafayette Police Department.
Likewise, Arceneaux says in order to have a decade of such experience, Aguillard, who has a law degree, has to count his tenure as a part-time reserve deputy sheriff. However, the qualification does not require full-time employment, an apparent oversight.
Boudreaux questions the 11th-hour objections. "What will we do, a day before the test tell this guy he's disqualified because somebody did not like our interpretation?" Boudreaux says the Nov. 14 agenda was posted for almost a month, and any resident who wanted to question the qualifications could have done so at that meeting. "[It was] an open forum," he says.
Sturm defends his work experience. "I think I exceed the qualifications," says Sturm, who is best known for his handling of the 1999 murder of UL student Jill Tompkins while he was chief at the university. Sturm says he will answer any questions the selection committee has but won't discuss his work experience with the media. "This is not an election. I'm interviewing for an appointed position," he says.
For his part, Durel says when he heard Sturm would sit for the test, he also questioned how his background at UL would qualify him. "That was the first thing that went through my mind," Durel says. The city-parish president says he has never talked to Sturm about the job, which pays $87,500. Sturm, however, did speak with Durel's chief administrative officer Dee Stanley, about the position in September. "He called me and I met with him as a courtesy," says Stanley. "He did raise the issue of the qualifications, specifically the 10-year law enforcement requirement, and I informed him of the process. I told him the board would meet to determine who is qualified to take the exam and the state examiner takes it from there."
Both Boudreaux and the board's attorney, Candice Hattan, say the qualifications should be rewritten for clarity. "I probably would not have interpreted it the way the board did," Hattan says.
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MAY 22 In this Baton Rouge Business Report post, Rolfe McCollister considers the privatization of bus service in Baton Rouge. After decades of under-funding, it is a mess, and although a tax (partially) passed last year, improvement hasn't happened yet. McCollister apparently feels it is time to let private business get in on the transit business.
MAY 22 This post on Bayou Buzz by Jeff Crouere urges the defeat of a bill that would grant modest pay increases over the next several years to the state's judges and clerks of court. The state is in no position to fund pay hikes, Crouere argues, with the pay increases costing a total of $9 million over several years. It sends the wrong message to the (proverbial) hard-working people of Louisiana, he says.
MAY 22 The Advocate reports here that State Treasurer John Kennedy is complaining about a meeting of the corporation that oversees the state's tobacco settlement. The Governor wanted it restructured, and he has some support, but not a lot. The corporation agreed with his plan, but Kennedy didn't, and it appears that the meeting was noticed in a manner completely different than that of all previous meetings. Kennedy's given to hyperbole, but in this case the fish don't smell too fresh.
MAY 22 In this Advocate story, Carencro Police Chief Carlos Stout says the recent federal indictment of a strip club owner is all wrong. The indictment alleges that drugs and prostitution went on with impunity because club staff made arrangements with "local" police. Stout says it never happened, and while his cops do work security in the parking lot, they're not allowed inside.
MAY 22 This amusing post in DIG Baton Rouge recounts an ad that ran on Craig's List recently; the advertiser was seeking tenants for a Beauregard Town house. He knew his market, and wrote an ad that the most ironical hipster couldn't resist. Apparently, he really did know his market, because the ad worked like a charm.
MAY 22 In this post in The Lens, Mark Moseley comments on the rhetoric Gov. Jindal employed in trying to save his tax "reform" package. One interesting point concerns Jindal's use of his brother, Nikesh, in a little story. Nikesh left Louisiana because of his inability to get a decent job, the story goes, but the story won't hold water: Nikesh lives in DC, which has an income tax level comparable to Louisiana, Moseley says. If income taxes caused the dismal situation, it should exist in DC too. Right?
MAY 22 This post by columnist John Maginnis traces the trajectory of the bill that would fund construction at community and technical colleges -- and bypass the Board of Regents and traditional higher ed funding mechanisms. Sure, it will bust the legislature's self-imposed debt limit, but some leges feel that there's more need (because there is more growth) in the community and technical college area than in the university area, he says.
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