Judges: CHARLES C. FOTI, JR., Attorney General.
Filed Date: 8/18/2005
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
Dear Mr. Conner:
You explain that the Plaquemines Parish Council has asked you to request our legal opinion on how to abolish the parish civil service system, adopted by a majority of the voters of Plaquemines Parish in 1995, if it chose to do so. You further explain that debate has centered around two methods of doing so —viz., (1) by the same method it was adopted in the first place, that is, by a vote of a majority of the voters of Plaquemines Parish and (2) only by amendment to the Louisiana Constitution. You ask an additional question: If the only way to abolish this parish civil service system is by amendment to the state constitution, would this method violate the Equal Protection or Due Process clauses of the federal or state constitutions by taking away the power of the Plaquemines Parish voters to decide for themselves whether or not they want this parish civil service system without statewide intervention? In summary, you would like to know what is the appropriate way to abolish this parish civil service system if the citizens of Plaquemines Parish desired to do so.
We, in turn, requested further information about the parish council's resolution and the proposition put to the voters of Plaquemines Parish whereby the civil service system was established in the first place. We needed to verify under what provisions this parish civil service system was established, for there appear to be more than one way to create a parish civil service system.
La. Const. (1974) art.
"§ 14. Acceptance of Act; Other Cities, Parishes, City and Parish Governed Jointly
"Section 14. (A) Local Option. Each city having a population exceeding ten thousand but not exceeding four hundred thousand, each parish, and each parish governed jointly with one or more cities under a plan of government, having a population exceeding ten thousand, according to the latest official decennial federal census, may elect to be governed by this Part by a majority vote of its electors voting at an election held for that purpose. The election shall be ordered and held by the city, the parish, or the city-parish, as the case may be, upon (a) the adoption of an ordinance by the governing authority calling the election; or (b) the presentation to the governing authority of a petition calling for such an election signed by electors equal in number to five percent of the registered voters of the city, the parish, or the city-parish, as the case may be.
"(B) Acceptance. If a majority of the electors vote to adopt this Part, its provisions shall apply permanently to the city, the parish, or the city-parish, as the case may be, and shall govern it as if this Part had originally applied to it. In such case, all officers and employees of the city, the parish, or the city-parish, as the case may be, who have acquired civil service status under a civil service system established by legislative act, city charter, or otherwise, shall retain that status and thereafter shall be subject to and be governed by this Part and the rules and regulations adopted under it.
"(C) Rejection. If a majority of the electors vote against the adoption of this Part, the question of its adoption shall not be resubmitted to the voters of the political subdivision within one year thereafter."
At the same time, La. Const. (1974) art.
§ 15. City, Parish Civil Service System; Creation; Prohibition
"Section 15. Nothing in this Part shall prevent the establishment by the legislature, or by the respective parish governing authority, of a parish civil service system in one or more parishes, applicable to any or all parish employees, except teaching and professional staffs and administrative officers of schools, or the establishment by the legislature or by the respective municipal governing authority of a municipal civil service system in one or more municipalities having a population of less than four hundred thousand, in any manner now or hereafter provided by law. However, paid firemen and paid municipal policemen in a municipality operating a regularly paid fire and police department and having a population exceeding thirteen thousand, and paid firemen in all parishes and in fire protection districts, are expressly excluded from such a civil service system.
"Nothing in this Part shall permit inclusion in the local civil service of officials and employees listed in Section 2 of this Article.
"No law enacted after the effective date of this constitution establishing a civil service system applicable to one or more parishes or to one or more municipalities having a population of less than four hundred thousand shall be effective in any parish or in any municipality until approved by ordinance adopted by the governing authority of the parish or municipality."
Ordinarily, the Louisiana Constitution is a limitation on the plenary power of the legislature to enact any laws not constitutionally forbidden. New Orleans Firefighters Associationet al. v. Civil Service Comm. of City of New Orleans,
However, our review of the materials you sent to us by which Plaquemines Parish adopted its parish civil service system reveals that it was adopted by the constitutional method, in accordance with La. Const. (1974) art.
Having been adopted under La. Const. (1974) art.
In addition, it is our opinion that requiring such an amendment to the state constitution, which must be ratified by a majority of electors of the whole state, to allow for the abolition of this parish civil service system does not violate either the Due Process or Equal Protection clauses of the federal or state constitutions, even if the motive for the constitutional change is to accommodate only one parish. The state constitution belongs to all of the people of the state. It was the vote of all the electors of the state at ratification which made it our state constitution. City of New Orleans v. Bd. of Comm'rs of OrleansLevee District, 93-0690 (La. 7/5/94), at pp. 14-18,
Very truly yours,
CHARLES C. FOTI, JR. Attorney General
BY: THOMAS S. HALLIGAN Assistant Attorney General
Aguillard v. Treen , 440 So. 2d 704 ( 1983 )
Radiofone, Inc. v. City of New Orleans , 630 So. 2d 694 ( 1994 )
City of New Orleans v. Board of Com'rs , 640 So. 2d 237 ( 1994 )
ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH ASS'N v. Brown , 465 So. 2d 674 ( 1985 )
New Orleans, Etc. v. Civ. Service, Etc. , 422 So. 2d 402 ( 1982 )