Lafourche Parish District Attorney, ex rel. Kim Dufrene v. Edward Glen Reinhardt and the Hon. Annette Fontana

STATE OF LOUISIANA
COURT OF APPEAL
FIRST CIRCUIT
NUMBER 2022 CE 0812
LAFOURCHE PARISH DISTRICT ATTORNEY, EX REL. KIM DUFRENE
VERSUS
EDWARD GLEN REINHARDT AND THE HON. ANNETTE FONTANA
Judgment Rendered: AUG 0 3 2022
Appealed from the
Seventeenth Judicial District Court
In and for the Parish of Lafourche, Louisiana
Docket Number C- 145319
Honorable Steven M. Miller, Judge Presiding
Kristine Russell Counsel for Plaintiffs/Appellees,
District Attorney Kim Dufrene through Lafourche
Parish District Attorney Kristine
Joseph S. Soignet Russell
Lisa Orgeron
Assistant District Attorneys
Thibodaux, LA
Brent Abadie Counsel for Defendant/Appellant,
Lockport, LA Edward Glen Reinhardt
BEFORE: WHIPPLE, C. J., GUIDRY, CHUTZ, LANIER,
AND WOLFE, JJ.
F Afft r
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2022 AUG - 3
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LE ERZ
WOLFE, J.
In this suit objecting to the candidacy of Edward Glen Reinhardt for the
office of Mayor of the Town of Lockport, the district court rendered judgment
granting the objection and disqualifying Mr. Reinhardt as a candidate for that seat.
For the following reasons, we reverse.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Mr. Reinhardt was elected Mayor of the Town of Lockport on November 3,
2020. He was sworn into office on January 13, 2021, and began serving a four-
year term of office on that date. Approximately ten months later, on November 15,
2021, Mr. Reinhardt resigned from the office of Mayor of the Town of Lockport.
As the result of Mr. Reinhardt' s resignation, the Town of Lockport was required to
call a special election to fill the remainder of his term as mayor, and the special
election is scheduled to be held on November 8, 2022.
Following Mr. Reinhardt' s resignation, the Town of Lockport, acting
through its Council and acting Mayor, passed Ordinance No. 2022- 04 on March
15, 2022, which enacted Section 2- 213 of the Code of Ordinances for the Town of
Lockport. As relevant herein, Section 2- 213 provides that an elected town official
who retires or resigns from office is ineligible to fill the vacancy so created by his
or her resignation or retirement.
Thereafter, on July 20, 2022, Mr. Reinhardt qualified as a candidate for the
office of Mayor of the Town of Lockport, by filing the required Notice of
Candidacy form with Lafourche Parish Clerk of Court Annette Fontana. On July
26, 2022, Kim Dufrene, through Lafourche Parish District Attorney Kristine
Russell, filed a petition objecting to Mr. Reinhardt' s qualification as a candidate
for the Office and asserting that pursuant to Section 2- 213 of the Code of
Ordinances for the Town of Lockport, Mr. Reinhardt should be disqualified as a
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candidate for the office of Mayor of the Town of Lockport in the special election
for that office to be held on November 8, 2022. '
Mr. Reinhardt answered the petition and asserted that Town Ordinance No.
2022- 04, enacting Section 2- 213 of the Code of Ordinances for the Town of
Lockport, was invalid and was unconstitutional as applied to him. Accordingly, he
averred that Ordinance No. 2022- 04 could not serve as the basis for his
disqualification as a candidate for the office of Mayor of the Town of Lockport in
the November 8, 2022 election.
A hearing was conducted on July 29, 2022. By judgment signed that same
day, the district court granted the objection to Mr. Reinhardt' s candidacy and
disqualified him as a candidate for the office of Mayor of the Town of Lockport.
From this judgment, Mr. Reinhardt has timely appealed.
LAW AND ANALYSIS
A person who meets the qualifications for the office he seeks may become a
candidate and be voted on in a primary or general election if he qualifies as a
candidate in the election. Except as otherwise provided by law, a candidate shall
possess the qualifications for the office he seeks at the time he qualifies for that
office. La. R. S. 18: 451.
The parties in the matter stipulated to the facts set forth above and do not
dispute that the Town of Lockport does not have a home rule charter and, instead,
is a " Lawrason Act" municipality. See La. R.S. 33: 321 et seq. The Lawrason Act
in La. R.S. 33: 384 sets forth qualifications for a mayor of a municipality, stating
that "[ t] he mayor shall be an elector of the municipality who at the time of
qualification as a candidate for the office of mayor shall have been domiciled and
actually resided for at least the immediately preceding year in the municipality."
While the petition also set forth a claim for declaratory relief, plaintiffs later withdrew
the request for such relief.
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Regarding the grounds for objecting to a person' s candidacy, La. R. S.
18: 492( A) provides, in pertinent part, as follows:
An action objecting to the candidacy of a person who qualified
as a candidate in a primary election shall be based on one or more of
the following grounds:
3) The defendant does not meet the qualifications for the office he
seeks in the primary election.
4) The defendant is prohibited by law from becoming a candidate for
one or more of the offices for which he qualified.
Because election laws must be interpreted to give the electorate the widest
possible choice of candidates, a person objecting to one' s candidacy bears the
burden of proving the candidate is disqualified. Landiak v. Richmond, 2005- 0758
La. 3/ 24/ 05), 899 So. 2d 535, 541. Nonetheless, although Louisiana law favors
candidacy, once the party bearing the burden of proof in an objection to candidacy
case has established a prima facie case that the candidate is disqualified, the
burden shifts to the party opposing the disqualification to overcome the other
party' s prima facie case. Russo v. Burns, 2014- 1963 ( La. 9/ 24/ 14), 147 So. 3d
1111, 1114; Landiak, 899 So. 2d at 542. If that party is unable to successfully
rebut the evidence establishing the prima facie case for disqualification, the
objection to the candidacy is to be sustained and the candidate is to be disqualified.
La. R. S. 18: 494( A); See Russo, 147 So. 3d at 1114.
In support of their objection to Mr. Reinhardt' s candidacy, plaintiffs filed
into evidence Ordinance 2022- 04, enacting Section 2- 213 of the Code of
Ordinances for the Town of Lockport, which further provides for qualifications or
eligibility requirements for those seeking office in the Town of Lockport, in
pertinent part, as follows: " A former elected town official who has retired or
resigned from office shall be ineligible as a candidate at an election called to fill
the vacancy created by that retirement or resignation." The joint stipulations of the
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parties establish that the Town of Lockport, acting through its duly elected Council
and acting Mayor, passed Ordinance 2022- 04 on March 15, 2022.
However, as noted above, the Town of Lockport is a municipality with no
home rule charter. Under the 1974 Louisiana Constitution, two forms of local
government subdivisions are recognized: ( 1) home rule charter; and non -home rule
charter. American Waste and Pollution Control Co. v. St. Martin Parish Police
Jam, 609 So. 2d 201, 202 ( La. 1992). A home rule charter political subdivision is
afforded much autonomy; it is authorized to exercise any powers " not denied by
general law or inconsistent with this constitution." La. Const. art. VI, § 5( E). In
stark contrast, a non -home rule charter political subdivision is afforded little
autonomy; its powers are set forth in La. Const. art. VI, § 7( A) as follows:
Subject to and not inconsistent with this constitution, the governing
authority of a local governmental subdivision which has no home rule
charter or plan of government may exercise any power and perform
any function necessary, requisite, or proper for the management of its
affairs, not denied by its charter or by general law, if a majority of
the electors voting in an election held for that purpose vote in
favor of the proposition that the governing authority may exercise
such general powers. Otherwise, the local governmental subdivision
shall have the powers authorized by this constitution or by law.
Emphasis added). Thus, absent voter approval, a non -home rule charter political
subdivision, such as the Town of Lockport, can exercise only those powers
expressly granted by the constitution or by the legislature. American Waste and
Pollution Control Co., 609 So. 2d at 202.
Accordingly, given the absence of an express grant of power from the
legislature empowering non -home rule charter municipalities to adopt additional
qualifications for elected office, an ordinance purporting to establish such
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qualifications requires voter approval for the municipality to exercise such power.'
Applying these precepts herein, we note that while the evidence and
stipulations show that the Council and acting Mayor of the Town of Lockport
passed Ordinance No. 2022- 04 imposing further qualifications for its elected
officials, the record does not support a finding that the Council and acting Mayor
so acted with voter approval for the Town to exercise that power. See La.
Const. art. VI, § 7( A). Accordingly, without a showing that Ordinance 2022- 04
was passed with approval by a majority of the electors of the Town of Lockport,
no prima facie case was made to establish that Ordinance 2022- 04 could serve as
a basis for Mr. Reinhardt' s disqualification.
Thus, we are constrained to conclude that the district court erred in
disqualifying Mr. Reinhardt as a candidate for the office of Mayor of the Town of
Lockport for the upcoming November 8, 2022 election.
CONCLUSION
For the above and foregoing reasons, the district court' s July 29, 2022
judgment declaring Edward Glen Reinhardt ineligible and disqualifying him as a
candidate for Mayor of the Town of Lockport in the special election to be held on
November 8, 2022, is reversed in its entirety. Costs of this appeal are assessed
against plaintiffs, Kim Dufrene through Lafourche Parish District Attorney
Kristine Russell.
REVERSED.
While La. R. S. 18: 451. 1 of the Election Code addresses the manner in which a local
ordinance affecting the qualifications of a candidate for office becomes effective, the language of
that particular statute cannot be read to expressly grant authority to a non -home rule charter
municipality to set such qualifications.
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