Could Louisiana reclassify the Village of Clarks as a town based on its population estimate?

Plain-English summary

The governor's office asked whether documents from the Village of Clarks justified changing its official class to a town. In Opinion 03-0137, the Attorney General found that the submitted resolution and population estimate complied with the reclassification statute. The estimate reported 1,053 residents, and the statute then classified a municipality with more than 1,000 but fewer than 5,000 residents as a town.

The opinion did not itself reclassify Clarks. It said the governor had no reason to withhold a proclamation. The statute quoted in the letter assigned the governor the fact investigation and proclamation, then required the municipal board to adopt an ordinance reflecting the new name and to send the proclamation and ordinance for recordation.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2003. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

What the opinion meant at issuance

Clarks officials

The AG treated their resolution and July 2002 population estimate as sufficient under R.S. 33:342. Under the quoted statute, the board's name-change ordinance and recordation followed the governor's proclamation.

Governor's office

The statute gave the governor authority to investigate a municipality's population without being bound by its submitted census. After reviewing these particular documents, the AG found no reason against a proclamation for Clarks.

Common questions

Q: How many residents did Clarks report?
A: The submitted estimate reported 1,053. The AG compared that number with the then-existing town range of more than 1,000 and fewer than 5,000 inhabitants.

Q: Did the AG's letter itself turn Clarks into a town? A: No. The opinion recommended the governor's proclamation under the statutory process; it was not the proclamation.

Q: Could the governor check the population independently? A: Yes. The quoted statute said the governor was not bound by the submitted census and could determine the facts by another appropriate method if he believed the findings inaccurate.

Background and statutory framework

The file submitted to the AG contained a resolution from Clarks's mayor and board of aldermen and a July 1, 2002 estimate from Louisiana Tech University's Research Division. LSA-R.S. 33:342 described the request, investigation, proclamation, municipal ordinance, and recordation steps. R.S. 33:341 supplied the population range the AG applied.

Citations and references

Statutes in the opinion: LSA-R.S. 33:342 and R.S. 33:341.

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/03-0137

Original opinion text

~t~te o~ ~oui~i~u~
One American Place
301 Main Street, Suite 600
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
P.O. Box 94005
CIVIL DIVISION
TEL.: (225) 342-7013
BATON ROUGE
FAX: (225) 342-2090

RICHARD P. IEYOUB
70804-9005
ATTORNEY GENERAL
APR 1 1 2003
OPINION NUMBER 03-0137

           Ms. Kimberly Wooten Rosenberg                71 -       MUNICIPALITIES

Deputy Executive Counsel
OFFICERS - Local & Municipal; Selection, Qualifications &
Tenure; vacancies
Office of the Governor
R.S. 33:342
P. O. Box 94004
Village of Clarks meets the requirements of law, R.S. 33:342, for
reclassification from a village to a town.
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9004

Dear Ms. Rosenberg:

We are in receipt of your request for an Attorney General’s Opinion regarding the reclassification of the Village of Clarks to the Town of Clarks. You have asked us to review the submitted documents and advise whether the documents submitted on behalf of the Village of Clarks fulfill all statutory requirements and demonstrate that reclassification is warranted.

LSA-R.S. 33:342 provides:

A. Whenever a census taken by resolution of the board of aldermen of any municipality or a certified report from the federal Census Bureau shows that its population has increased or decreased so as to take the municipality out of its present municipal class, the board of aldermen shall adopt a resolution requesting the governor to change the classification of the municipality. The results of any census taken by resolution of the board of aldermen shall have been certified by the person authorized to take the census.

B. The mayor of the municipality shall transmit the resolution to the governor. The governor shall investigate the facts; in such investigation, the governor shall not be bound by the census submitted and, if he believes the findings are inaccurate, he may ascertain the facts in any manner he deems appropriate. If the governor finds that the municipality is wrongly classified, he shall issue a proclamation correctly classifying the municipality, and such proclamation shall be transmitted to the mayor of the municipality.

Page 2

Ms. Kimberly Wooten Rosenberg
OPINION NUMBER 03-0137
Page ~2-

C. Upon receipt of the proclamation, the board of aldermen of the municipality shall adopt an ordinance changing the name of the municipality to reflect its new classification. A copy of the proclamation and the ordinance shall be transmitted to the secretary of state for recordation.

D. The courts shall take judicial notice of the class to which each municipality belongs.

The documents submitted to our office include a resolution of the mayor and Board of Aldermen of the Village of Clarks requesting reclassification, and a copy of the July 1, 2002 population estimate by the Research Division, College of Administration and Business, Louisiana Tech University in Ruston.

After reviewing the documents, we are of the opinion that said documents are in compliance with the statutory requirements of R.S. 33:342. Further, the population estimate shows that the Village of Clarks has a total population of 1,053. R.S. 33:341 provides that those municipal corporations "[h]aving less than five thousand but more than one thousand inhabitants are towns." We find no reason why the governor should not issue a proclamation reclassifying the Village of Clarks as the Town of Clarks.

If we can be of further assistance, please advise.

Yours very truly,

RICHARD P. IEYOUB

AN~’II~ ~’(~GERS LAPLACE
Assist~ht Attorney General

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