Police jurors cautioned on job limits
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GREENSBURG — St. Helena Police Jury attorney Cliff Speed warned jurors against directly interfering with parish employees’ job duties and performance.
Speed told jurors Tuesday night an anonymous whistle-blower contacted the state Legislative Auditor’s Office and complained that a member of the Police Jury was directly making work assignments at the jury’s maintenance headquarters, commonly referred to as the parish barn.
Speed said he had very little additional information about the complaint, but revealed the complaining employee had suggested that a juror told a parish worker that if he or she did not perform a specific task, that employee would be fired.
“You just cannot do that,” Speed told the jury.
Several jurors immediately demanded to know the name of the person who tipped off the legislative auditor, but Speed said that he was informed only that it was a woman and it was his understanding that her name would remain anonymous.
Police Juror Thomas Wicker complained that as a member of the Police Jury, he was being accused of something that he did not do. “That’s not fair to me,” Wicker said as he again asked to know the name of the accuser.
Speed reminded the jurors that their authority is restricted to that of setting policy for the direction of the parish government and that it does not extend to directly ordering parish employees to perform, or not perform, specific duties.
“Once you leave this meeting, for all intents and purposes, your authority has ended,” Speed said.
Police Juror Frank E. Johnson complained loudly, “Why do we need the legislative auditor to tell us what to do? Are you telling us that we can’t go out and inspect jobs being done by parish workers?”
Speed replied that jurors can monitor work being performed by parish employees and can do such things as “inspect” road work.
However, he cautioned, jurors cannot direct an employee to perform a specific function. Speed said that such responsibility rests with foremen and supervisors, but not with individual police jurors.
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