Committee proposes five changes to charter

Slidell’s Charter Review Committee is recommending five changes to the city charter.

The proposed changes must be approved by the Slidell City Council, and then final approval must be voted on in a public referendum in October.

The five proposed changes deal with handling vacancies on the City Council and in the police department, creating an assistant chief of police position, holding elections for initiatives and referendums and getting rid of the current Board of Ethics.

Filling a vacancy on the City Council became a concern last year when at-large member Pearl Williams died and her position was left vacant for almost six months.

Under the current charter, if a vacancy occurs on the council the post will be filled by a special election. The problem with that is elections cannot be called by the council, but must follow the election schedule set by the Louisiana Secretary of State, which means it may be months before an election can be held to fill the vacancy.

Under a proposed charter change, the council would appoint someone to fill the position within 15 days of the vacancy. If the vacancy occurs when there is more than one year left in the term, the appointee will serve until an election is called by the council at the next scheduled council meeting. The appointee would be allowed to run in the election and would also be paid the same salary as other council members.

The changes were accepted with a unanimous vote by committee members, Councilmen Ray Canada, Lionel Hicks, Bill Borchert, and Landon Cusimano.

The Charter Review Committee also suggested changes in the procedure when the chief of police resigns or dies while in office.

If there is a vacancy with less than a year left in the term, the assistant chief of police will serve as chief of police for the rest of the term.

However, in order to do this, the committee suggested the positions of assistant chief of police be created. Currently, there is a deputy assistant police chief who is appointed by the chief of police, but the deputy chief is a civil service employee, and as such is unable to serve in a political post. So the Charter Review Committee proposed the position of assistant chief of police be created as an unclassified position and not under the purview of the Civil Service Board.

The vacancy proposal also suggests that if there is a vacancy in the chief of police office more than a year before the term expires, the assistant chief of police will assume the position until an election is called by the council and will get the same salary as the chief of police.

As an unclassified employee, the assistant chief of police could run in the election. Currently, no classified employee can run for chief of police. City Attorney Tim Mathison told the Committee that civil service laws forbid classified employees from participating in the political process and said these rules cannot be changed.

If a police officer wants to run for chief of police, he or she must resign from the Slidell Police Department.

Both proposals were accepted with a unanimous vote from the committee.

The committee also agreed to a change that would repeal Section 7.03 of the City Charter that established a Board of Ethics. Mathison said the current board has no power to enforce ethics laws.

“All they can do is review disclosure statements, but if they find something wrong, they are toothless,” Mathison told the committee. “They have no punitive authority.”

Canada said since the change in the state’s ethic’s laws, the city’s Board of Ethics is superfluous. All ethics violations will be handled by the state.

Another charter change being sent to the council would change the time to call elections for initiatives and referendums from the current 60 days to 15 days. Committee members said this would save the city money when it comes to calling elections.

The committee will meet one more time at 3 p.m. June 23 to discuss changing the charter when it comes to filing a vacancy in the mayor’s office.

Currently, the charter states that in the event of a vacancy in the mayor’s office, the councilman-at-large with the greater number of votes in the last election will serve as mayor until the end of the term if the vacancy occurs with less than six months of the term left. If the vacancy occurs more than six months left on the term, the at-large councilman with the most votes will serve as mayor until an election is called within 60 days of the vacancy.

Under the proposed changes, the councilman-at-large with the largest vote will still serve as mayor if the vacancy occurs with less or more than a year left on the term. However, if the vacancy occurs with more than one year remaining, the council will call for an election within 15 days of the vacancy. The acting mayor will be allowed to run for mayor and will receive the mayor’s salary. However, during the time the councilman-at-large serves as mayor, he or she cannot participate in council activities or vote as a councilman.

The charter change still needs some research by Mathison and will be voted on at the next committee meeting.