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VIDALIA, La. — During its Monday meeting, the Concordia Parish officials tabled the adoption of a resolution to explore a new form of government that includes a parish president being the head of government for the entire parish.

The resolution, which the Police Jury is required to approve in accordance with House Resolution No. 9 authored by Louisiana House Rep. C. Travis Johnson III, states the parish will appoint a committee to conduct a feasibility study regarding the establishment of the parish president form of government.

Police Juror Cornell Lewis moved to table the item after questions were raised about the cost of the study and, if there is a cost, whether the Police Jury or the state would be responsible for paying it.

During its May 13 meeting, Johnson explained to the Police Jury how he thought the parish might benefit from having a Home Rule Charter form of government and a parish president, saying it would give smaller parish communities such as Sycamore, West Ferriday, Monterey, or Clayton better representation.

“A lot of parishes are moving to this form of government,” Johnson said, adding, “It is very efficient.”

While 38 of the state’s 64 parishes continue to operate with a Police Jury form of government, 26 parishes operate under a form of Home Rule Charter, which was an option offered to local governments when Louisiana adopted its new constitution in 1974.

Livingston Parish was one that made the transition from a Policy Jury government to a Home Rule Charter style of government that includes an Executive Branch or Parish President, the Legislative Branch or Parish Council.

According to Doretha Cook, a representative from Johnson’s office, “the first order of business within the 1974 Home Rule Charter is that the police jury is to select a committee” that will weigh the pros and cons of the new government system.

This committee will then present their findings to the police jury and each member will vote on whether to put the proposal on the ballot. If the police jury does put it on the ballot, the citizens of the parish will vote to change or not change to a parish president system, Cook said.

In other matters during Monday’s meeting of the Concordia Parish Police Jury, Public Defender Derrick Carson addressed the board stating that he would like to be involved in the process of obligating part of the parish funds from the opioid class action lawsuit settlement to drug rehabilitation programs in the parish.

“I have 106 open cases dealing with drug problems,” Carson said. “Both judges are in favor of it and I’m asking to be a part of that.”

Both Louisiana Seventh Judicial District Judges Kathy A. Johnson, Division A, and John Reeves, Division B, addressed the police jury in May to gather their support for a locally housed program that would help local addicts, mental health patients and victims called Northeast Louisiana Substance Abuse, or NELSA.

This 501(c)3 organization provides an array of resources to courts and individuals from individual or group counseling services for mental health patients or battery victims to drug screenings and treatment plans for moderate to severe addicts.

The program also provides anger management and batterers intervention, moral recognition and cognitive behavior therapies and more.

In 2021, four major drug industry companies including Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson agreed with the majority of U.S. states to a $26 billion deal that would settle lawsuits over the national opioid crisis.

Concordia Parish is slated to receive approximately $900,000, or 0.33 percent of the $325 million in Louisiana’s share of the national settlement. The state expects $18 million each year for the next 18 years.