Vermilion Parish Police Jury unaware it was violating law

State law says that any parish governing body with at least 25,000 people must film or broadcast its public and committee meetings. The Vermilion Parish Police Jury has not recorded any of its committee or regular monthly meetings since the law took effect two years ago.
Meanwhile, the Vermilion Parish School Board has been filming its meetings for the past two years.
Why isn’t the police jury recording its meetings? The Abbeville Meridional sent that question by email to the police jury last week.
Police Jury attorney Paul Moresi III replied to the Meridional by email:
“The VPPJ (Vermilion Parish Police Jury) is reviewing the requirement you (Meridional) cited below. The expenses of implementing this new, unfunded mandate have not been budgeted by VPPJ, but it is reviewing your request to determine how best to comply.”
The Meridional asked a handful of police jurors if they knew they were violating the law by not streaming its meeting. They did not know the law even existed, all said.
“No one told us we have to do it. I always thought it was something we could do if we wanted,” said one juror.
Louisiana has 64 parishes, and 38 of them use a police jury system of government.
Of those 38 parishes, 14 have at least 25,000 residents, so they are required by law to stream their meetings.
The Meridional called the other 13 parishes, plus one with 22,000 people, to find out how many stream their police jury committee and regular meetings. Twelve out of the 13 parishes stream all of their meetings.
Morehouse Parish, which has 25,600 people, and Vermilion Parish, with 55,000, are the only two that do not stream their meetings.
Sabine Parish has a population of 22,500. While it is not required by law to stream its meetings, it does so anyway.
Louisiana Press Association lawyer Scott Sternberg from New Orleans shared his perspective.
“The Open Meetings Law isn’t just about physical presence; during COVID we learned the importance of observation if citizens can’t participate physically at the meeting. The new provisions of 42:23 require broadcast so that we can still observe what we can’t attend. If the police jury meets the threshold in 42:23, it should be broadcasting its meetings,” Sternberg released in a statement.
The city of Abbeville started filming all of its meetings in 2023 when Roslyn White was mayor. The city used an unused iPad it already owned and streamed the meetings live on a YouTube channel.
Kaplan City Council meetings have been streamed live for over four years, also using an iPad.
A new iPad Mini costs about $500 to $600 today. An iPhone could also be used to broadcast meetings live.
Most of the police juries surveyed said their meetings are available to watch on a YouTube channel. Posting and watching videos on YouTube is free. However, some police juries only allow viewers to watch the meeting live, and once it ends, the video is no longer available.
“We’re just following the law here; we’re videoing the meeting live,” said a police jury secretary from another parish.