A bill signed into law today by Gov. John Bel Edwards allows the Lafayette City Marshal to pocket fees paid by citizens.
Current law prohibits the marshals of Shreveport and Lafayette from taking the fees as part of their salary; the law creates an exception for Lafayette only.
To read it for yourself, click here.
Former City Marshal Brian Pope was indicted for pocketing the fees. He still faces trial on those malfeasance charges. To read about his cases, click here.
The law caps the marshal's pocketing of the fees to half of his salary; the remaining fees must be used to run the Marshal's Office.
According to the most recent audit of the City Marshal's Office, the marshal gets a salary of more than $83,000 plus benefits of more than $30,000. The Marshal's office has approximately 25 employees.
But when we interviewed the author of this bill, Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, he said that the law allows the current marshal to pocket up to $44,000 in fees, meaning his base salary has been increased to $88,000; his salary now is $132,000. To read that story, click here.
