By Jeffra DeViney

On Thursday, Nov. 10, Cameron Police Jurors tabled taking action on Cameron Parish Police Jury Redistricting Ordinance of 5 and 8 districts after a deadlock vote 4 jurors.

District Attorney Tom Barrett proposed they hold a special meeting on Monday, Nov. 14, at 5 p.m. to resolve the issue and once again, at that meeting they were deadlocked with 4 jurors for 5 districts and 4 jurors agreeing to accept option of 8 or 9.

The clock is ticking on this issue as it must be decided at their next regularly scheduled meeting. If they are not able to come to an agreement then it will end up in court before a federal judge to decide the issue.

As it stands, jurors supporting 5 districts are Joe Duhon, Lee Faulk, Kirk Quinn and Curtis Fountain. Jurors supporting 8 or 9 districts are Thomas McDaniel, Sonny McGee, Scott Trahan and Butch Guidry.

Due to federal law, after the 2020 Census was taken, the districts were mandated to be redrawn to equally represent the number of residents in each district as best as possible by Cade Cole, Attorney.

There have been multiple police jury meetings along with two sets of town hall meetings in several communities over the last several months with no relief seen to remedy the deadlock.

Each juror expressed that they were voting based on their constituents’ wishes and/or what each thought was best for their district and/or to create better representation for their area by not stretching districts across the parish.

To read the rest of this story, please see page three of the print edition of The Cameron Parish Pilot.