register of probate would be appointed by the judge of probate following the method now employed in Vermont. The register of deeds because of the present practice would be obliged to be elective. The longest term that could be given to that office and still adopt the method of a New England state would be four years. It is strange. that this office, the work of which is so entirely clerical and routine, should everywhere have been made elective. The organization of the county commissioners in a model form would be a board of three, elected one, in each biennial election, for six years, the method now employed in Maine. The county treasurer being necessarily accountable to the county commissioners would be appointed by the county commissioners following the method of Connecticut. The county auditor would be appointed by the governor, the present method in Massachusetts. All other necessary county officials would be appointed by their superiors in order to secure official responsibility. This composite county organization based upon actual methods would provide for appointment of all county officers except sheriff, register of deeds and county commissioners. This organization would require the election of only three county officers at one time, being one less than that required by the new "short ballot" county government of Los Angeles county, California. PARISH GOVERNMENT IN LOUISIANA BY WILLIAM O. SCROGGS, PH.D., Department of Economics and Sociology, Louisiana State University, The Origin of Parish Government While local government in Louisiana does not differ in its fundamental features from that of the other Southern states, the system has a somewhat distinctive nomenclature. What in other states is called the county is officially designated in Louisiana as the parish, and in place of the usual county commissioners we find a body of men with similar powers termed the police jury. The term parish government as used in Louisiana has the same significance, therefore, as the term county government in other Southern commonwealths. It is interesting, however, to note that for a brief period the political subdivisions were called counties. After the purchase from France in 1803 of the immense area then designated as Louisiana, the portion of this region south of the thirty-third parallel, embracing most of the present state, was organized as the territory of Orleans. The legislative council, at its first session in 1804-5, passed "an act for dividing the territory of Orleans into counties, and establishing courts of inferior jurisdiction therein." Twelve counties with vaguely defined boundaries and differing greatly in size and population were created. In a few cases the new counties corresponded in limits to the ecclesiastical district of the Spanish régime known as the parish, but more frequently several parishes were combined into a single county, and some counties were designated merely as groups of settlements. In 1807 the subdivisions of 1804 were abolished as units of local government, and the territory was redivided into nineteen parishes, so called because their boundaries were based in many instances upon the earlier divisions for ecclesiastical administration. The county, however, still survived for a number of years, but not as an institution of local government. The twelve counties of 1804 are several times enumerated in the first state constitution, adopted in 1812. This instrument arranged the state senatorial districts by groups of counties, apportioned membership in the lower house of the general assembly by counties, and divided the state into two appellate judicial districts with six counties in each. In subsequent legislation, parishes and counties were both referred to, but the latter indicated only electoral districts and not centers of local administration.1 On December 10, 1810, William C. C. Claiborne, the territorial governor, issued an ordinance, in compliance with the proclamation of President Madison of October 27 of that year, extending the jurisdiction of the territorial government over the disputed west Florida region between the Mississippi and Perdido rivers. To this region the name "County of Feliciana" was given. In 1812 congress formally annexed as much of this area as lay between the Mississippi and Pearl rivers to the newly created State of Louisiana, and this district is still commonly designated as the "Florida parishes." As a result of this enlargement of boundaries, and of a later process of subdivision, the number of parishes has grown from the original nineteen to sixty-four. The last division went into effect on January 1, 1913, when the so-called "imperial parish of Calcasieu," containing 3,629 square miles, gave up about three-fourths of its area to form the three new parishes of Allen, Beauregard and Jeff Davis. The names of the parishes have a close connection with the history of the state. The three just mentioned bear the names of Louisiana's war governor, of one of her Confederate generals, and of the president of the Confederacy. On the other hand, the parishes of Grant and Lincoln, organized in 1869 and 1873 respectively, are reminders of the days of Reconstruction. Acadia and Evangeline commemorate the immigration of the French exiles into Louisiana. from Nova Scotia; Caddo and Tensas perpetuate the tribal names of aborigines; De Soto, LaSalle, Bienville and Iberville bear their names in memory of the early European explorers; while such names as St. John the Baptist, St. Mary, St. James and Ascension, which are applied to some of the original parishes of 1807, indicate their ecclesiastical origin. During the first two years of the American occupation of Orleans territory, local government was administered by officials designated as civil commandants and syndics. When the territory was divided into counties, the civil commandants gave place to judges of the 1 1 See, for example, the Acts of Louisiana, 1817, p. 66; and 1827, p. 26. county courts and the syndics to justices of the peace. This change, however, was one of name rather than of functions. The judges of the county courts were charged with the duties of probating wills, acting as notaries, superintending roads and levees, and policing slaves. In 1807 the judge of the county court became the judge of the parish court. The rapid growth of population soon increased the functions of the local governments, and made it impracticable for a single officer to discharge such multifarious duties. It is unnecessary, however, to trace here the differentiation of local governmental functions and the multiplication of parish offices. The Organization of the Parish Government For facilitating administration, the parishes are divided into from five to ten wards, and the general administrative and legislative functions are vested in a police jury, one member of which is chosen from each ward and additional members from wards with five thousand or more inhabitants. A police juror must meet all the residence and poll tax requirements prescribed for a regular voter, and in addition must be literate and possess, either in his own name or that of his wife, property in the parish worth $250. The members choose a president from their own number, and are compensated for their services with per diem and mileage payments. Briefly summarized, the duties and functions of the police jury consist in supervising the construction and repair of public buildings, roads, bridges and dikes; clearing natural drains; removing floating timber, aquatic plants and other obstructions in navigable streams; regulating the roving at large of live stock; controlling businesses and places that come under the police power; levying parish licenses (the so-called "occupation taxes") and the regular taxes for the support of the parish government; establishing toll bridges and ferries, and fixing the rates on these when privately owned; protecting the parish against contagious diseases, and providing for the support of the poor. The police jury is required to choose an official journal in which to publish the proceedings of its meetings. In addition it must publish a budget of expenditures for the coming year at least thirty days before the meeting at which it fixes the rate of parish taxes. It is forbidden by law to make appropriations in excess of the estimated revenue for the year, but it may issue interest-bearing certificates to cover the cost of public improvements which are to be paid for out of the revenues of succeeding years. Special taxes for public improvements may be levied by a vote of the property taxpayers in the district affected. Such taxes may be voted by a parish, municipality or ward, or by specially created school, drainage or road districts. Bonds, limited to forty years and five per cent, may be authorized also for public improvements by the voters of the parish or any of its subdivisions, but may not exceed in amount ten per cent of the assessed value of the property of the district issuing them. In such elections resident women taxpayers may vote without previous registration and may cast their ballots in person or by proxy. The proposed tax or bond issue must have in its favor a majority of the voting taxpayers, and of their property as well. In addition to an ad valorem tax, road districts may impose a road tax of one dollar per capita upon all able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and fifty-five years and a license upon vehicles and bicycles. The state poll tax of one dollar per year, the payment of which for two successive years is made a prerequisite for voting, is retained by the parish in which it is collected for the benefit of public schools. The parish also retains the fines imposed in its limits for violation of state laws. Except in municipalities exempt by their charters from parish taxes, the parish assessor enrolls all property in the parish for state, parish and municipal taxation. The sheriff is ex officio collector of state and local taxes, as well as guardian of the peace. The other parish officers, whose duties it is not necessary to describe, are the treasurer, clerk, coroner, superintendent of schools, school board, board of health, justices of the peace and constables. All of these, except the treasurer and the superintendent of public schools, are elected by popular vote. The treasurer is chosen by the police jury, and the superintendent of schools by the school board. There is a justice of the peace and a constable for each ward. The justices of the peace have exclusive original jurisdiction in all civil cases in which the amount in dispute does not exceed fifty dollars, and in cases involving amounts between fifty and one hundred dollars they have concurrent jurisdiction with the district courts. Each judicial district consists of from one to three parishes, according to area and population, and for each district there is a judge, a clerk and a district attorney. The city of Baton Rouge, by a special constitutional provision, divides equally with the parish the net amount of the parish tax collected within its limits. |
