Can a full-time Lafayette Parish sheriff's employee serve on the Lafayette City Council?

Plain-English summary

A full-time employee of the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office asked whether he could also serve on the Lafayette City Council. The attorney general concluded that Louisiana's Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law did not prohibit that combination on the facts supplied.

The opinion treated the sheriff's office employment and the elected City Council seat as positions in separate political subdivisions. Although Lafayette has a consolidated city-parish government, its charter preserves the city and parish as separate legal entities. The City Council governs the city; a different Parish Council governs the parish. The opinion read La. R.S. 42:63(D) as permitting employment in one political subdivision while holding elected office in another and as prohibiting a sheriff's employee from serving on a parish governing authority, rather than on this city council.

The answer was limited. The attorney general expressly declined to decide whether Louisiana's Code of Governmental Ethics would affect the arrangement, because advisory ethics rulings belong to the Louisiana State Board of Ethics.

What this means for you

Lafayette sheriff's employees

The opinion said a full-time employee of the parish sheriff's office could also hold an elected Lafayette City Council seat under the dual-officeholding provisions it examined. Its analysis depended on employment with the sheriff rather than holding the office of sheriff, and on service on the City Council rather than the Parish Council.

City candidates and council members

The opinion classified a City Council seat as elective office. It also emphasized that the City Council was not Lafayette Parish's governing authority, despite the city's consolidated government. Those classifications drove the answer under La. R.S. 42:63(D).

Officials with ethics questions

The opinion did not answer whether the same arrangement satisfies the Code of Governmental Ethics. It identified the State Board of Ethics as the body that issues advisory rulings on that separate question.

Common questions

Q: Can a Lafayette Parish sheriff's employee also serve on the Lafayette City Council?
A: The attorney general said yes under the state Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law for the full-time employee described in the request. It did not decide ethics-code compliance.

Q: Did consolidation make Lafayette's City Council the parish governing authority?
A: No. The opinion said the charter maintained separate city and parish legal entities, with a City Council for the city and a Parish Council for the parish.

Q: Would the same answer apply to a seat on the Lafayette Parish Council?
A: The opinion addressed the City Council, not a proposed Parish Council seat. It quoted La. R.S. 42:63(D)'s separate prohibition on a member of a parish governing authority holding employment with a sheriff.

Q: Does this opinion settle potential conflicts under the ethics code?
A: No. The attorney general confined the answer to dual-officeholding law and said ethics-code advisory rulings fall within the State Board of Ethics' jurisdiction.

Background and statutory framework

The requester worked full time as a CSU Division Coordinator for the Lafayette Parish Sheriff. The office classified that job as full-time employment under the dual-officeholding statutes. A Lafayette City Council member holds elective office. For this law, the opinion treated the sheriff and City Council as separate political subdivisions, and it identified the City Council as distinct from the parish governing authority.

La. R.S. 42:63(D) bars certain overlapping elected and appointed offices and bars employment in the same political subdivision as an elective office. It also bars a parish governing authority member from employment with a sheriff. The attorney general found neither prohibition covered this sheriff employee's proposed City Council service. The opinion expressly left La. R.S. 42:1111 and other ethics-code questions to the State Board of Ethics.

Citations and references

• La. R.S. 42:63(D) (dual officeholding and employment limits)
• La. R.S. 42:62(9) (political subdivision definition)
• La. R.S. 42:1111 (ethics provisions outside the opinion's decision)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/24-0007

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain; the linked PDF is authoritative.

STATE OF LOUISIANA
DEPARmIENT OF JUSTICE
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
P0. Box 94005
BATON ROuGE, L
70804-9005

Liz MuRRILL
ATToRNEY GENERAL

March 5, 2024
OPINION 24-0007

78 Dual Officeholdng
Mr. Kenneth P. Boudreaux
P.O. 92712 La. R.S. 42:61, etseq. La. Const. art. 5, § 27
La. C.C.P. Art. 331
Lafayette, LA 70509
The provisions of the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law do not prohibit a full time employee with the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Dear Mr Boudreaux
.
.
Office may serve as a member of the Lafayette City Council.

Our office received your request for an opinion regarding whether a full time employee with the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office may serve as a member of the Lafayette City 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.

The Lafayette Parish Sheriff is an elected official who is authorized to hire employees as necessary.1 According to the information provided to this office, you are employed as the full time CSU Division Coordinator by the Lafayette Parish Sheriff which is classified as “full time” “employment” for the purposes of the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law.2

The Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government operates under a home rule charter that consolidated the governmental functions of the City of Lafayette with the governmental functions of the Parish of Lafayette.3 The Lafayette City Council is the governing authority of the City of Lafayette, and the Lafayette Parish Council is the

1 La. Const. art. 5, § 27 and La. COP. Art. 331.
2 “Full time” means the period of time which a person normally works or is expected to work in an appointive office or employment and which is at least seven hours per day of work and at least thirty-five hours per week of work. La. R.S. 42:62(4). “Employment” means any job compensated on a salary or per diem basis, other than an elective or appointive office, in which a person is an employee of the state government or of a political subdivision. La. R.S. 42:62(3).
Section 1-04(A), Home Rule Charter for the Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government.

Page 2

OPINION 24-0007
Mr. Kenneth Boudreaux
Page 2

governing authority of Lafayette Parish.4 The City of Lafayette and the Parish of Lafayette exist as separate legal entities.5

The legislative power of the City of Lafayette is vested in the Lafayette City Council consisting of five members who are elected from single member districts.6 A member of the Lafayette City Council holds an “elective office” for the purposes of the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law.7

The Lafayette Parish Sheriff and the Lafayette City Council are considered separate political subdivisions for the purposes of the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Laws.8

The most applicable provision of the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law is La. R.S. 42:63(D), which provides, in pertinent part:

No person holding an elective office in a political subdivision of this state shall at the same time hold another elective office or full-time appointive office in the government of this state or in the government of a political subdivision thereof. No such person shall hold at the same time employment in the government of this state, or in the same political subdivision in which he holds an elective office. In addition, no sheriff, assessor, or clerk of court shall hold any office or employment under a parish governing authority, nor shall any member of any parish governing authority or school board hold any office or employment with any sheriff, assessor or clerk of court.

La. R.S. 42:63(D) does not prohibit holding an elected office in a political subdivision and employment in separate political subdivision. Further, La. R.S. 42:63(D) does not prohibit serving as a member of the Lafayette City Council, which is not a parish governing authority, and holding employment with the Sheriff of Lafayette Parish.

4 Section 1 -o4(B)-(c), Home Rule Charter for the Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government. 5 Section 1 -04(B)-(C), Home Rule Charter for the Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government. 6 Section 2-01(A), Home Rule Charter for the Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government. 7 “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). 8 “Political subdivision” means a parish, municipality, and any other unit of local government, including a

school board and a special district, authorized by law to perform governmental functions. In addition for the purposes of this Part, mayor’s courts, justice of the peace courts, district attorneys, sheriffs, clerks of court, coroners, tax assessors, registrars of voters, and all other elected parochial officials shall be separate political subdivisions. La. R.S. 42:62(9).

Page 3

OPINION 24-0007
Mr. Kenneth Boudreaux
Page 3

Based on the applicable provisions of law and the information you provided, it is the opinion of this office that the provisions of the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law do not prohibit a full-time employee with the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office from serving as a member of the Lafayette City Council.

Please note that our expressed opinion is limited to an examination of the state laws relating to Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment. Further, it does not address the potential applicability of the provisions of the Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics, 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,

LIZ MURRILL
ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY: 227 a&40 ç2
Madeline S. Carbonette
Assistant Attorney General

LM: MSC