Can a full-time St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Disposal District employee serve on the St. Landry Parish Council?
Apply this to your situation
This page answers the general question as of 2023. Ask about yours and see what current Louisiana law means for your facts, with citations you can check.
Plain-English summary
The opinion answers whether a full-time employee of the St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Disposal District may serve on the St. Landry Parish Council. Its conclusion is: “The provisions of the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law do not prohibit a full time employee of the St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Disposal District from serving as a member of the St. Landry Parish Council.”
The available official text identifies the Parish Council as an elective office and says the Solid Waste Disposal District was created as a political subdivision by legislative acts. The source then jumps from page 1 to page 3, so the middle page containing the detailed application of the law is unavailable in the retrieved record.
What this means for you
Solid Waste Disposal District employees: For the specific combination addressed, the opinion states that the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law does not prohibit serving on the St. Landry Parish Council at the same time.
Parish officials: The opinion addresses an employee of the St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Disposal District. Its conclusion does not address every parish employee or every other public position.
Ethics questions: The opinion’s page 3 says advisory rulings on the Ethics Code are within the jurisdiction of the Louisiana State Board of Ethics. The opinion therefore does not supply an Ethics Code ruling.
Common questions
Does the opinion say that every full-time parish employee may serve on the Parish Council?
No. The stated conclusion concerns a full-time employee of the St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Disposal District and a seat on the St. Landry Parish Council.
Does the opinion decide questions under the Ethics Code?
No. The available page 3 says that advisory rulings addressing Ethics Code questions are within the jurisdiction of the Louisiana State Board of Ethics.
Why is the page’s explanation of the legal test limited?
The retrieved official text skips from page 1 to page 3. The record supports the opinion’s stated conclusion, but it does not provide the missing page’s detailed reasoning.
Background and statutory framework
The request came from Jessie Bellard, president of St. Landry Parish Government. The opinion identifies the Parish Council as part of the parish’s president-council governing authority. It identifies the Solid Waste Disposal District as a political subdivision created by legislative acts and says the district is governed by a nine-member Board of Commissioners.
The opinion identifies the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law as the law governing whether public offices or positions may be held simultaneously. The retrieved record does not contain the intervening page where the opinion applies that law to the two positions.
Citations and references
The available text names the Louisiana constitutional provision concerning dual employment and dual office holding, the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law, the Parish Council’s elective-office classification, the legislative acts creating and amending the district, and the Ethics Code. The linked official source is needed for the missing page and the complete citation context.
Source
- Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
- Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/23-0104
Original opinion text
Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain; the linked PDF is authoritative.
State of Louisiana
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
CIVIL DIVISION
P.O. BOX 94005
BATON ROUGE 70804-9005
Jeff Landry
Attorney General
December 13, 2023
OPINION 23-0104
78 Dual Officeholding
Honorable Jessie Bellard
Parish President
St. Landry Parish Government
118 South Court St.
Opelousas, LA 70570
La. R.S. 42:61, et seq.
The provisions of the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law do not prohibit a full time employee of the St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Disposal District from serving as a member of the St. Landry Parish Council.
Dear President Bellard:
Our office received your request for an opinion regarding whether a full time employee of the St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Disposal District may serve as a member of the St. Landry Parish Council.
Pursuant to La. Const. art. X, § 22, the legislature has enacted laws regulating dual employment and defining, regulating, and prohibiting dual office holding in state and local government. The provisions of the Dual Officeholding and Employment Law, found at La. R.S. 42:61, et seq., govern questions concerning the ability to hold two or more public offices and/or positions simultaneously. Classifying the correct nature of the positions held is essential for the purposes of applying the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law.
St. Landry Parish operates under a home rule charter that provides for a president-council form of government.¹ The president and the council are the governing authority for the Parish.² A member of the St. Landry Parish Council holds an “elective office” for the purposes of the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law.³
The St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Disposal District was created as a political subdivision by Legislative Acts 1980, No. 289, as amended by Acts 1984, No. 642 and Acts 1999, No. 1249. The St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Disposal District is governed by a nine-member Board of Commissioners who are appointed as follows: four commissioners are appointed by the governing authority of St. Landry Parish; four
¹ Section 1-01, St. Landry Home Rule Charter.
² Section 1-03, St. Landry Home Rule Charter.
³ “Elective office” means any position which is established or authorized by the constitution or laws of this state or by the charter or ordinances of any political subdivision thereof, which is not a political party office, and which is filled by vote of the citizens for this state or of a political subdivision thereof. La. R.S. 42:62(1).
⁴ Acts 1980, No. 289, Section 3.
[The official PDF jumps from page 1 to a page labeled “Page 3”; page 2 is absent.]
OPINION 23-0104
Honorable Jesse Bellard
Page 3
La. R.S. 42:1111, et seq. Advisory rulings addressing questions under the Ethics Code are within the jurisdiction of the Louisiana State Board of Ethics. The Board may be contacted at the following address: P.O. Box 4368, Baton Rouge, LA 70821, phone: 225-219-5600.
We hope that this opinion adequately addresses the legal issues you have raised. If our office can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.
With best regards,
JEFF LANDRY
ATTORNEY GENERAL
BY: Madeline S. Carbonette
Assistant Attorney General
JL: MSC
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