Village missing many of its laws

In their efforts to organize an unclear and outdated set of village codes and ordinances, officials here have come to the realization that much of the needed municipal legal structure does not seem to exist.
Mayor Kevin Kately and village legal council Robert Chevalier reported the situation at the Feb. 11 village council meeting. It appears, they said, that past officials may have failed to properly record acts of the council. As far as they have been able to tell, virtually no records can be found before the time the current village clerk, Charlene E. Hill, took office in 1989.
Kately and Chevalier hasten to point out that Hill is not to blame for the problem, which dates back before her tenure. Chevalier said that sorting through minutes from village council meetings may provide information about ordinances from past administrations. He estimated that no more than half of the basic structure of codes, ordinances and policies needed for a municipality like Parks have been found.
Saying “What is past is past,” Kately appeared bothered but philosophical. He said that his and the council’s work is cut out for them to sort out the situation.
The 1898 Lawrason Act sets out a general legislative charter for all municipalities in Louisiana. It is generally superseded by home-rule charters, but provides default policies that apply in the absence of applicable statutes. It may be that, in part, Parks will have to start from the Lawrason framework and work from there. Chevalier said that the village can review comparable municipalities rather than starting from scratch.
Either way, Parks is in the position of working with a very limited legal system now. Traffic cases are being tried in 16th judicial court for the time being.
In a related issue, Parks will soon need to have its building codes in order, as well. Kately recently received notice from St. Martin Parish Government that the parish intends to stop taking responsibility for the issuing of building permits in the village. A special meeting is expected to be scheduled in the coming weeks to begin taking the necessary actions.