The Police Jury Meeting
January 19, 2005
Long ago, Louisiana was divided into about a dozen counties. At some point it was felt that the counties were too large and that smaller jurisdictions were needed. There were about twice as many church parishes as counties and a decision was made to replace the counties with parishes. The elected official in each parish was the Sheriff, who as a result was more than just a police official. It was soon realized that it was to much to ask of one person so a county council was formed. Since it was a group created to assist the Sheriff it was named the Police Jury. Eventually, the Sheriff and the Police Jury became separate and the President of the Police Jury became the county leader with the Sheriff’s role limited to law enforcement.
The Allen Parish Police Jury meets twice a month: once in Oakdale – the largest town in the Parish and once at the Parish Administration Building in Oberlin. “Recognizing” me to provide an introduction to the Long Term Community Recovery Planning Program was on the Agenda for this meeting at the Administration Building.
This public meeting was unlike any I had previously attended. The first item on the printed agenda was “The Lord’s Prayer.” Everyone on the Police Jury and in the audience stood, held hands and recited the Lord’s Prayer. The second item was the Pledge of Allegiance. I was the fifth item on the agenda.
I introduced myself and provided a short summary of what we were doing. I tried to make clear the distinction between the immediate assistance that previous visitors from the state or FEMA were providing and the long-term recovery focus of our efforts. I emphasized the importance of this recovery plan being the Parish’s plan and that only by submitting a recovery plan would the Parish’s needs be considered when the State established funding priorities for the next fiscal year.
I was warmly received by the members of the Jury and asked a few pertinent questions. One member of the audience said that starting to plan the next steps now was one of the first sensible things he had heard since the hurricanes.
But the real focus of the Jury and the audience was on the issue of the FEMA trailers. Tonight was the night when the Jury was to vote on the proposed temporary trailer park sites that had been submitted by FEMA. My appearance was used as an opportunity to move that item up in the agenda. Thankfully, the gentleman from the State Department of Revenue who had made the presentation at the informational meeting the week before was present and I turned the floor over to him. The Jury voted 6 to 1 to reject all of the FEMA sites and instead suggested that the approach that would best fit the Parish’s needs would be to locate one, two or three trailers on land offered as a temporary location by individual homeowners. Once this voted was taken – to the satisfaction of seemingly everyone in the audience – over half the audience left.
Following the meeting, I went up to the outgoing and incoming Parish Presidents and thanked them for their warm reception. They invited Chris, the gentleman from the state and I to come to the small conference room behind the meeting room and join them in their holiday dinner party. This was a great opportunity to meet the individual Jury Members and listen as they told stories about each other and the Parish. Most of the members had been on the Jury for years. The only black member – the incoming President – had first been elected in 1975. One member, a retired teacher had been on the Jury for over 35 years and several of the current members had been his students.
Pleasant, open, gracious, law-abiding, gentle men, but men of a traditional, Christian perspective who believed in corporal punishment, talked of guns and hunting and did not seem aware that the way they had always done things might offend someone or violate the principle of the separation of Church and State. They were men who acted in ways that I had not personally witnessed in public life since before the changes of the 1960s.
Long ago, Louisiana was divided into about a dozen counties. At some point it was felt that the counties were too large and that smaller jurisdictions were needed. There were about twice as many church parishes as counties and a decision was made to replace the counties with parishes. The elected official in each parish was the Sheriff, who as a result was more than just a police official. It was soon realized that it was to much to ask of one person so a county council was formed. Since it was a group created to assist the Sheriff it was named the Police Jury. Eventually, the Sheriff and the Police Jury became separate and the President of the Police Jury became the county leader with the Sheriff’s role limited to law enforcement.
The Allen Parish Police Jury meets twice a month: once in Oakdale – the largest town in the Parish and once at the Parish Administration Building in Oberlin. “Recognizing” me to provide an introduction to the Long Term Community Recovery Planning Program was on the Agenda for this meeting at the Administration Building.
This public meeting was unlike any I had previously attended. The first item on the printed agenda was “The Lord’s Prayer.” Everyone on the Police Jury and in the audience stood, held hands and recited the Lord’s Prayer. The second item was the Pledge of Allegiance. I was the fifth item on the agenda.
I introduced myself and provided a short summary of what we were doing. I tried to make clear the distinction between the immediate assistance that previous visitors from the state or FEMA were providing and the long-term recovery focus of our efforts. I emphasized the importance of this recovery plan being the Parish’s plan and that only by submitting a recovery plan would the Parish’s needs be considered when the State established funding priorities for the next fiscal year.
I was warmly received by the members of the Jury and asked a few pertinent questions. One member of the audience said that starting to plan the next steps now was one of the first sensible things he had heard since the hurricanes.
But the real focus of the Jury and the audience was on the issue of the FEMA trailers. Tonight was the night when the Jury was to vote on the proposed temporary trailer park sites that had been submitted by FEMA. My appearance was used as an opportunity to move that item up in the agenda. Thankfully, the gentleman from the State Department of Revenue who had made the presentation at the informational meeting the week before was present and I turned the floor over to him. The Jury voted 6 to 1 to reject all of the FEMA sites and instead suggested that the approach that would best fit the Parish’s needs would be to locate one, two or three trailers on land offered as a temporary location by individual homeowners. Once this voted was taken – to the satisfaction of seemingly everyone in the audience – over half the audience left.
Following the meeting, I went up to the outgoing and incoming Parish Presidents and thanked them for their warm reception. They invited Chris, the gentleman from the state and I to come to the small conference room behind the meeting room and join them in their holiday dinner party. This was a great opportunity to meet the individual Jury Members and listen as they told stories about each other and the Parish. Most of the members had been on the Jury for years. The only black member – the incoming President – had first been elected in 1975. One member, a retired teacher had been on the Jury for over 35 years and several of the current members had been his students.
Pleasant, open, gracious, law-abiding, gentle men, but men of a traditional, Christian perspective who believed in corporal punishment, talked of guns and hunting and did not seem aware that the way they had always done things might offend someone or violate the principle of the separation of Church and State. They were men who acted in ways that I had not personally witnessed in public life since before the changes of the 1960s.
posted by J Corlss at 12:29 PM
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