Gov. signs law changing police chief’s status

A bill sponsored by state Rep. Gordon Dove removing Houma’s police chief from civil service protection was signed into law last week by Gov. Bobby Jindal, said Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet. The state legislative session ended on June 25.

Under the bill, Houma’s police chief becomes a parish department head, said Dove, who represents Houma.

Like all department heads, the police chief can now be discharged by the parish president with the approval of the Terrebonne Parish Council. Discharging officials who are protected by civil service is a more difficult process, Claudet said.

The intention of the Terrebonne Parish charter was to give the parish president the power to discharge the police chief, according to Dove, but state law needed to be changed before the president could have that power.

“State trumps local, so we had to go through the state,” he said.

The law ends on July 1, 2012, giving Terrebonne’s next parish president – who would begin office in January, 2012 – six months before the Houma Police chief position becomes classified again.

“It’s a good trial. We’ll see if it works,” Dove said. “We can always make it permanent.”

Originally, the bill also removed the position of Houma fire chief from civil service protection but that provision was dropped at Claudet’s request, Dove said.

The sunset provision was included as a response to civil service advocates who pressed hard to keep the positions classified, Dove said.

“Civil service is very strong… We were getting it from both sides, the firemen and police chief civil service,” he said.

Because it involves a constitutional issue, two-thirds of the members of both chambers needed to approve the bill, he said. The bill failed to pass in the House two times in the last session.

Some rules were suspended on the third try and the measure picked up the needed votes.

“It was so hard to get through,” Dove said about his bill, which was coauthored by Tri-parish area state Reps. Damon Baldone and Joe Harrison and state Sen. Butch Gautreaux and former state Sen. Reggie Dupre.

The law applies only to the city of Houma and is effective beginning July 1, 2009. Todd Duplantis has been serving as interim Houma Police chief after former chief Pat Boudreaux went on medical leave last year.

Claudet said Boudreaux is still on medical leave.

Boudreaux has sexual harassment lawsuits against him that need to be cleared, Dove said.