NEW IBERIA: The Board That Ignores the Law

There is a quiet assumption most people make about government: even when officials disagree, even when policies fail, the basic machinery of governance is at least operating within the law. What happens when that assumption is wrong — when the very body responsible for overseeing hiring, discipline, and promotions within a city’s police and fire departments may not be lawfully constituted at all?

That question now hangs over the New Iberia Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board.

A System Designed for Balance

Louisiana law is not ambiguous about how these boards are supposed to function. Under Louisiana Revised Statute 33:2476, the structure divides power across multiple sources to prevent control from concentrating in any single place. One member is appointed directly by the governing authority, two are elected from within the fire and police departments themselves, and the remaining two must come from university-provided nomination lists.

The design ensures that everyone affected by civil service decisions — firefighters, police officers, and the public — has a direct voice in the process while limiting political influence. That is what the law requires.

The system is far from perfect. Even if a perfect system could be devised, it would almost certainly be poorly managed by imperfect humans, or worse, manipulated by politicians for personal gain. Governor Jeff Landry put it mildly when he said, ‘We are conditioned for failure.’ We have low expectations of our government and elected officials in Louisiana. We may have given up on positive outcomes in many situations, but we still expect legal compliance.

The Board

The current board tells a different story. It consists of Peter Kracke, the fire department representative, alongside Doug Louviere, Wyatt Collins, Ebrar Reaux, and Ed Landry — all of whom were appointed by the City.

There is no police department representative. There is no record that any of the appointments came from university nomination lists, as required by law. No Oaths of Office were filed with the Clerk of Court, suggesting these men have never sworn before man and God that they would faithfully discharge the duties incumbent on them as Board members.

The very structure that was meant to balance authority has instead been replaced with one that concentrates it. And, in the process, it ignores the very law and Constitution that give it any authority at all.

The Missing Voice

The absence of a police representative is not a technical defect. It is a direct violation of a statutory guarantee. Some have even said it is an intentional manipulation designed to protect Chief Todd D’Albor from the very sort of criticism that led to his displacement from the City of Jennings.

State law does not suggest that police officers should have representation on the board — it requires it. They are entitled to nominate, elect, and ultimately have a fellow police officer from their own ranks appointed as a member to serve, just like every other municipality in the entire state of Louisiana does. But that seat remains unfilled. There have been no elections called by the appointing authority, no nominations allowed from the police department, and no ballots cast by police officers. Yet the board continues to operate anyway.

An entire department has been left without the voice the law says it must have.

An Exception That Never Happened

There is a narrow exception in state law that applies specifically to New Iberia, allowing the board structure to be altered under limited circumstances. But it comes with conditions.

There was a series of laws enacted after the New Iberia Police Department was disbanded in 2004, and “law enforcement” in the City was turned over to the Sheriff’s Office. Senator Fred Mills subsequently sought a carve-out in the law which provided: “If the city of New Iberia which has a municipal fire and police civil service system in existence on January 1, 2008, ceases to operate either its fire department or its police department, the civil service system shall continue in full force and effect for the remaining department as provided by law.”

Another carve-out provided that the five-member Board could remain in operation under a specific contingency: “…only one member shall be elected from the city of New Iberia municipal fire and police civil service system in accordance with Paragraph (C)(4) of this Section, provided that such exception is approved by resolution of the city of New Iberia governing authority.”

In essence, the city must have ceased operating either its fire or police department, and the governing authority must formally adopt a resolution invoking the exception.

Neither condition exists

The police department was re-established in 2017. And according to the City’s own responses to public records requests, no such resolution has ever been adopted, disallowing the police department representative. The conditions simply don’t exist.

For the exception to apply, the City Council must (1) adopt a resolution, and (2) after either the police or fire department ceases to exist. Neither condition has been met. They both currently exist. The City of New Iberia has been illegally depriving the members of the New Iberia Police Department of lawful representation on the Board.

The City has now placed on its April 21, 2026, agenda a resolution to invoke the exception in Louisiana Revised Statute 33:2476(C)(4) despite knowing the conditions no longer exist. It appears to be an attempt to reduce employee representation on the board to a single seat. Coming only after these deficiencies were brought to light, the move appears less like compliance and more like an attempt to retroactively justify a structure that never followed the law to begin with.

The Oaths That Never Appeared

Even if the structure were correct, the members themselves must still qualify to serve. Louisiana law requires every public official to take and file an oath of office within thirty days. Failure to do so does not create a minor defect. It creates a vacancy by operation of law under Louisiana Revised Statute 42:141.

Yet no oath of office appears on file with the Iberia Parish Clerk of Court for any current member of the board. Not even one. Guidance from the State Examiner makes it clear that these oaths are not mere formalities. Multiple original copies are required, and they must be distributed to several entities, including the Clerk of Court. This is not a missing record, but a failure to complete the process altogether.

A Process That Was Never Completed

The problems run deeper still. For the fire department seat held by Peter Kracke, the law requires more than an internal election. Even if such an election occurred, the governing authority must formally appoint the selected individual before he can serve. There is also no record that such an appointment ever took place.

Election alone does not confer office. Without an appointment, the position is never legally filled. For the remaining members, the law requires appointments from university-provided nomination lists. The City was asked to produce those lists. It could not. Now, following those requests, the City has placed new resolutions on its April 21, 2026, agenda seeking to appoint members “as recommended by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.”

If the process had been followed the first time, there would be no need to revisit it now. It seems City leadership is only worried about compliance with the law after they are caught not following it.

Disqualification in Plain Sight

At least one member, Wyatt Collins, presents an additional issue. State law prohibits civil service board members from simultaneously holding another public office. Collins currently serves on the New Iberia Board of Adjustment. That is not an edge case or a gray area. It is a direct statutory violation.

Louisiana Revised Statute 33:2476 provides:

“No member of a board shall be a candidate for nomination or election to any public office or hold any other public office or position of public employment, except that of notary public, a military or naval official office, or that of a municipal fire or police department which is expressly required by the provisions of this Part.”

Louisiana Revised Statute 42:1 defines “public office” as any state, district, parish or municipal office, elective or appointive, or any position as member on a board or commission, elective or appointive, when the office or position is established by the constitution or laws of this state and “public officer” is any person holding a public office in this state.

The Consequence of Assumption

Taken individually, each of these findings is serious. Taken together, they point to a board operating without the representation required by law, appointments made without the process mandated by law, and members serving without completing the basic legal steps required to hold office.

This is not a disagreement over policy. It is a question of whether the system itself is functioning within the bounds of the law at all. Civil service boards are not ceremonial bodies. They make decisions that shape careers, determine discipline, and define the internal structure of public safety departments. They are supposed to do so to protect the public interest for all residents, not the political careers of a select few.

If the board itself is not lawfully constituted, the foundation beneath all its decisions rests on unstable ground.

The Question That Follows

Government does not fail all at once. It drifts, adjusts, and continues forward on the assumption that no one will look closely enough to ask whether the process still matches the law. Until someone does.

If the law was not followed in forming this board, if its members were never properly qualified, if an entire department has been left without representation, then what, exactly, has been governing civil service in New Iberia? And how many other systems operate the same way — unquestioned, unexamined, and assumed to be valid simply because they have not yet been challenged?

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