EMERGENCY APPOINTMENTS

Most jurisdictions in the Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service System in the southern part of Louisiana have been severely affected by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. To our knowledge, this is the first time in the history of the Office of State Examiner that we have advised the use of emergency appointments, but we feel the circumstances warrant such an accommodation to normal procedures. The Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Law provides that temporary appointments may be made in the classified fire and police services in the event of such extreme emergencies. Specifically, Louisiana R.S. 33:2496.C (for municipalities with populations between 13,000 and 400,000) and R.S. 33:2556(3) (for municipalities with populations from 7,000 to not more than 13,000) provide:

Emergency appointments of any person may be made at any time the needs of the service require because of any local emergency of a temporary and special nature. No such appointment shall be effective or continued for more than ten days.

Normally, of course, our advice must be consistent with the letter of the law; however, we cannot imagine that the Legislature could have contemplated these extraordinary and unprecedented events as they have occurred, and which continue to develop in the aftermath of this major natural disaster. We believe that the spirit and intent of the law is that such appointments should be made only for the duration of the emergency. Therefore, our office will not directly oppose emergency appointments in the affected areas that extend beyond the ten-day limit, but which remain during the emergency operations period.