Photograph: The plaintiff attorney Lance Person hosts a press conference following the court hearing on Monday. (Photograph by Bobby Ardoin.)
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
A state district court ruling has delayed an attempt by the St. Landry Parish Council to hire a human resources specialist to investigate a series of parish government employee terminations that have occurred since 2020.
The decision issued Monday by retired district judge Durwood Conque upholds a request made last month by parish president Jessie Bellard to grant a temporary injunction that prevents the Council from proceeding with a March resolution to hire a specialist who would examine whether the employee firings issued by Bellard were justifiable.
Lance Person, an attorney who represented Bellard during the hearing, said after the two-hour hearing that the ruling by Conque, pauses at least temporarily any proposed Council investigation of the parish human resources department.
Both Person and Gary McGoffin, the lead attorney for the Council, said that at this point council members might consider preparing an ordinance with more specific wording about what any projected investigation would seek to achieve.
“One remedy (for the Council) might be to pass an ordinance which would be more specific. However nothing (in the Home Rule Charter) prevents the Council from taking that action,” McGoffin said.
During the hearing Person criticized the Council resolution as too broad and unspecific about the precise nature of the investigation.
No testimony was provided during the hearing which lasted about two hours.
Much of the discussion that occurred during the open court dialogue among Conque, McGoffin and Person included the projected use of employee personnel records during an investigation.
Conque admitted that he has concerns about who might possess access to the employee records and whether that access might cause information normally considered private to be potentially leaked publicly.
Bellard added in an interview that any human resource investigation would require him to possibly violate privacy laws that ordinarily protect the personnel records of parish employees.
During the post-hearing interview McGoffin accused the parish of using the personnel privacy issue as a shield that would deter any investigation to proceed.
Conque said during the hearing that he is aware that the Home Rule Charter grants the parish president unchallenged authority to hire and fire employees. Conque said that he also recognizes the Council has inherent investigative powers provided by the Charter.
McGoffin was questioned by Conque whether there is a need to investigate the terminations handed down by Bellard since 20202.
“No one has filed a complaint so why is this going on?” said Conque.
McGoffin responded that although there is no record of any lawsuits filed by former employees who are challenging their terminations doesn’t mean there might be issues with the dismissals.
An investigation might also determine whether Bellard has followed administrative policies in his decisions to fire workers.
Person said however that judicial relief is always available to workers who might consider their terminations to have been unjust.
Also Person pointed out to Conque that resolutions similar to the one passed by the Council lack the legal effectiveness of ordinances.
The hearing was attended by a large number of parish government employees.
Bellard said the workers had indicated to him that they planned to use unpaid vacation time in order to attend the hearing.
