BATON ROUGE — State District Judge Tarvald Smith on Wednesday ordered District Attorney Hillar Moore to add the cities that are part of East Baton Rouge Parish to his suit against the parish over the funding of the district attorney’s office.
Moore sued East Baton Rouge Parish in April after the city-parish gave police officers substantial raises and did not fund the DA’s office at the minimum level Moore said the office needed to operate. He discussed the suit extensively with Mayor-President Sid Edwards and members of the Metro Council in an effort to avoid taking the parish to court.
Judge Smith’s ruling requires Moore to add the cities of Baton Rouge, Zachary, Baker, Central and St. George as defendants in the suit.
In a news release after the hearing, Moore said adding the municipalities was not a path he wanted to take.
“It is important to be clear: this was a ruling of the court. Our office did not initially name the municipalities, and we have not sought to make this a dispute with our local mayors or city governments. We respect the court and will comply with its order,” Moore said in the news release.
In court filings, the parish had asked the court to require that the municipalities be added to the suit. Filings cited the tax structure of the parish and municipalities within it as the reason they should be included.
The parish’s tax base does not include the individual municipalities, which charge their own taxes. The parish cannot impose sales taxes within incorporated cities, according to the court filing.
“Given that these entities have vested interests in seeing that the office of the district attorney is adequately funded and the likely impact to other parish services in the event the district attorney is successful in this action, they are necessary parties,” the filing said.
Moore’s office responded to that filing by saying that the parish’s arguments are not “grounded in law but in policy preferences and perceived fairness.”
“The parish’s position rests almost entirely on policy preferences masquerading as legal argument,” the response said.
Smith sided with the parish and told the district attorney’s office to add the cities to the suit.
Moore said in the news release that his goal is “to find a lawful and workable solution that allows this office to carry out its constitutional duties and continue protecting all of our communities.”
“We will continue to move forward in accordance with the court’s order while working with all relevant stakeholders toward a fair resolution of this budget crisis,” he said.
Moore contacted all the mayors after court to explain what happened and “to make clear that this office values its relationship with every municipality and remains committed to working together in a respectful and constructive way,” the news release said.
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