It’s midnight in Bossier Parish, and it’s past time that term limits become a reality here. One of the best arguments for implementing term limits is the Bossier Parish Police Jury.

There are 12 members of the Bossier Parish Police Jury. Each of these is an elected position which serves for a term of 4 years. There are currently NO TERM LIMITS on members of the Bossier Police Jury.

Here is a list of Police Jury members, with the number of years they have held their seat {my source is the Louisiana Secretary of State, Candidate Data Inquiry}:

Rick Avery - 20 years

Jerome Darby - 20 years

Wayne Hammack - 20 years

Hank Meachum - 16 years

Eddy Shell - 16 years

Brad Cummings - 16 years

Jesse Williams - 12 years

Henry Mitchell - 12 years

Jimmy Cochran - 12 years

William Altimus - 10 years

Winfred Johnston - 8 years

Jeff Rogers - 8 years {recently moved out of the district, Glenn Benton appointed to serve out the term}

Equally troubling is the fact that the dynasty has such control over Bossier Parish politics that 9 out of 12 of the current Police Jury members have run UNOPPOSED for between 4 and 16 years. Here is the “elected with no opposition list“:

Hammack - Unopposed for the past 16 years

Darby - Unopposed for 16 years

Cummings - Unopposed for 16 years

Shell - Unopposed for 12 years

Avery - Unopposed for the past 8 years

Meachum - Unopposed in 2 out of 4 terms

Altimus - Unopposed for the past 10 years

Mitchell - Unopposed in the past 4 years

Cochran - Unopposed in the past 4 years

Another way of looking at it is that if citizens just sent home the Police Jurors who have been in office for over 10 years, 10 out of 12 of them would need replacing.

These staggering, depressing numbers speak for themselves.

Do Bossier citizens really WANT political dynasties? I ask this question of a lot of people, and I’ve yet to meet anyone (other than an elected official) who opposes term limits as a means of stopping people from becoming career politicians.

Bossier Parish does indeed need term limits. But, until citizens can get a term limit initiative on a future ballot, the only way we can put a stop to politicians from becoming entrenched is to give the pink slip to anyone who has been in office for over two terms.

If every Bossier voter would take a look at these numbers, the Police Jury races this October would very likely signal the end of the dynasty.

Kudos to Bossier Parish Police Juror Eddy Shell (and for the other members) for not giving rubber stamp approval to a business which was requesting a B3 Liquor License. Dr. Shell questioned whether or not the new Johnny’s Pizza on North Airline Drive was asking for the B3 in order to serve hard liquor or beer. Similar concern was expressed by Rick Avery. Choosing to vote on the side of caution, the Police Jury voted to table the matter until these questions could be answered.

This particular Johnny’s Pizza is located almost directly across the street from the Christview Christian Church. Given that all of the other Johnny’s Pizza locations in Bossier Parish have video poker machines, it is likely that the one across from the church will have the video poker gambling machines as well. Liquor and video poker - now that’s a great neighbor for a church.