Breaux Bridge City Councilman Da Da Menard might not have to step down

City Councilman Albert “Da Da” Menard, who withdrew his candidacy for reelection over a tardy campaign finance report back in 2009, might be able to stay in office until the seat is filled by special election next year, city attorney Chester Cedars told the City Council last week.
Moreover, Cedars said, the special election for District C should be held in conjunction with the scheduled gubernatorial election in October rather in costly one-question balloting on March 28 as currently anticipated.
An even more “commonsensical” solution, Cedars said, would have been to reopen qualifying immediately after the rare turn of events leading to there being no candidates for that council seat in the Nov. 4 election.
“A special election costs you money,” Cedars said. “That makes absolutely no sense to me. The law ought to make sense.”
Up until May 16 of this year, effective date of Act 42 of the Louisiana Legislature by Rep. Mike Danahay of Sulphur, the clerk of court was required to reopen qualifying if no candidate qualified for an office. Danahay’s legislation pared the requirement down to only when the death of a candidate results in an empty slate.
(Whether that legislation is permissive or restrictive apparently remains an open question.)
Regardless of when the special election is held, Cedars makes an argument for Menard remaining in the position until a duly elected officeholder can be seated rather than the council appoint an interim member. He cites Louisiana Revised Statutes 42.2, which says “Every public officer in this state except in case of impeachment, suspension, or meeting the term limitations set forth in R.S. 42:3.2, shall continue to discharge the duties of his office until his successor is inducted into office.”
This law is backed up by both district court and appeals court decisions in Bolar v. Crosby, Cedars noted. When the Gretna City Council had to be redistricted due to an annexation and the U.S. Justice Department held up elections in four of the districts over Civil Rights Act concerns – not unlike what happened in St. Martinville in the ’90s – the Gretna Council reappointed three of the members but dumped Councilman Jonathan Bolar in favor of interim appointee Milton Crosby Sr. Bolar sued, citing R.S. 42.2, and won.
In St. Martinville, of course, there was no attempt to seat an interim council and the incumbents stayed in office without being reelected for a dozen years while the city and the Justice Department sorted out the election districts.
Menard, approaching the end of his fourth term, says he intends to run for his seat again whenever a special election is held.
The Louisiana Board of Ethics filed suit in 16th Judicial District Court to block his candidacy because he had stated on his application that he did not owe any money in fines to the board when in fact he owed $1,700 for being four days late in filing a report in 2009.
Menard says he was unaware of the infraction and the fine and has since paid up, clearing the way for him to re-qualify.