The Monroe City Council has hired Monroe-based civil rights attorney Carol Powell Lexing to prepare its legal challenge to Act 452 which allows the governor to appoint the city’s police and fire chief.
The controversial legislation allows Louisiana’s governor to appoint Monroe’s fire and police chiefs if the positions remain vacant for over a year, bypassing the council’s authority. The move signals escalating tensions with Mayor Friday Ellis over the selection of the city’s next fire chief and accusations of racial bias in the process.
Act 452, emerged from a legislative push focused on New Orleans but included provisions affecting cities like Monroe and Alexandria. Critics have called it a last-minute maneuver that undercuts local governance. The new law permits Gov. Jeff Landry to select fire or police chiefs from a list provided by the mayor if vacancies persist beyond 12 months, a threshold Monroe’s fire chief position crossed after the previous chief’s retirement in mid-2024.
The city council claims that although the city had 17 applicants, the mayor only submitted two names in a year to trigger the new law, and thereby avoided highly qualified black applicants in the process.
The council’s decision to retain Lexing follows the governor’s appointment last month of Timothy Williams, former fire chief of the Bastrop Fire Department, was similarly rejected by a 3-2 vote in June. Rev. Rodney McFarland, city council chairman, argued that Williams’ experience managing a smaller department of about 50 personnel did not equip him to lead Monroe’s 200-strong fire force.
The rejections have fueled allegations that Ellis is sidestepping the majority-Black council’s authority under the city charter, which requires council confirmation of key appointments. Councilmembers claim the mayor dismissed five highly qualified Black finalists—each with extensive experience in large urban fire departments and specialized training in areas like hazardous materials and mass casualty response—in favor of Williams, a white candidate they argue was selected for reasons unrelated to merit. “The mayor didn’t choose the best candidate,” a council source stated. “Williams was picked as the best ‘white’ option, undermining our community’s voice.”
Lexing, a Monroe native and national associate of civil rights titan Benjamin Crump, brings formidable credentials to the fight. As part of Crump’s legal team, she has helped secure high-profile victories in police accountability and racial justice cases across the country. Locally, Lexing is celebrated for her recent triumph in a Louisiana Supreme Court case involving Reggie Brown, a former Monroe Police Department officer and interim chief fired in 2021. Brown’s termination, tied to a controversial polygraph test during an internal probe, was deemed politically motivated by the state’s high court on September 4, 2025. The ruling upheld a lower decision, reinstating Brown with over three years of back pay, lost promotions, and benefits, making him the state’s highest-paid jailer at the Ouachita Correctional Center.
Lexing’s arguments exposed what she called “arbitrary power plays” in local government, a narrative now echoing in the fire chief controversy.
The council is preparing to challenge Act 452 as a violation of the Louisiana Constitution, arguing it erodes municipal home rule and dilutes the influence of Monroe’s majority-Black council. While no lawsuit has been filed yet, Lexing’s hiring underscores the council’s intent to frame the issue as a civil rights matter.
Mayor Ellis has defended his selections as merit-based, citing the urgent need for stable leadership amid strained fire department resources.
