Did Slaughter, Louisiana qualify to change from a village to a town after the 2000 census?

Plain-English summary

In Opinion 03-0400, the Louisiana AG reviewed Slaughter's request to be reclassified from a village to a town. The submitted mayor-and-aldermen resolution and federal census certification met the requirements the AG identified in R.S. 33:342. The reported population was 1,011, above the one-thousand-resident threshold for a town under R.S. 33:341.

The AG found no reason why the governor should not issue a proclamation reclassifying Slaughter. The letter described the statutory steps that followed a proclamation, but did not itself issue one.

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

Slaughter officials and residents

The AG concluded that the documents submitted for Slaughter supported town classification under the reported 2000 census population. The statute called for the governor to investigate the facts and issue a proclamation if he found the village wrongly classified. A local name-change ordinance and filing with the secretary of state would follow.

Governor's office

R.S. 33:342 allowed the governor to investigate a municipality's population beyond the submitted census if the findings appeared inaccurate. On the documents provided here, the AG found statutory compliance and no reason against reclassification.

Common questions

What population made Slaughter a town under the law the AG applied?

The opinion quoted R.S. 33:341: a municipality with more than 1,000 but fewer than 5,000 inhabitants was a town. Slaughter's submitted census certification showed 1,011.

Did the AG itself make Slaughter a town?

No. The AG reviewed the submitted documents and found no reason why the governor should not issue a reclassification proclamation. The statute assigned the investigation and proclamation to the governor.

What did the town board have to do after a proclamation?

Under the quoted R.S. 33:342 procedure, the board of aldermen would adopt an ordinance changing the municipality's name to reflect its new class, and copies of the proclamation and ordinance would go to the secretary of state.

Background and statutory framework

The governor's deputy executive counsel asked whether Slaughter's resolution and Census 2000 certification fulfilled the law for moving from village to town. The AG applied R.S. 33:342, which set out the resolution, governor investigation, proclamation, ordinance, and recordation process. R.S. 33:341 defined the town population class. Based on the submitted documents and the 1,011-person count, the AG found no reason against a proclamation.

Citations and references

• R.S. 33:342: municipal reclassification procedure reproduced in the opinion.
• R.S. 33:341: population threshold for town classification.

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/03-0400

Original opinion text

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
NOV 2 6 2003
OPINION NUMBER 03-8400

71 - MUNICIPALITIES
Ms. Kimberly Wooten Rosenberg
OFFICERS - Local & Munidpal; Selection, Qualifications &
Deputy Executive Counsel
Tenure; vacancies
R.S. 33:342
Office of the Governor
Village of Slaughter meets the requirements of law, R.S. 33:342, for
P. O. Box 94004
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 Slaughter to the Town of Slaughter. You have asked us to review the submitted documents and advise whether the documents submitted on behalf of the Village of Slaughter 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 govemor. 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 03-0400
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 Slaughter requesting reclassification, and a copy of the U.S. Census Bureau Certification of the Census 2000 Total Population for Slaughter, Louisiana.

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 Slaughter has a total population of 1,011. 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 Slaughter as the Town of Slaughter.

If we can be of further assistance, please advise.

Yours very truly,

RICHARD P. IEYOUB
ATTORNEY GENERAL

-’RS LAPLACE
Assistant Attorney General

RPI/ARL;mjb