By Marie Brown
There are a multitude of requests that are received by the City of Monroe’s administration and city council. Their role is to address them as best it can legally and ethically as long as resources are available to do so.
One of the requests I received as the city council research aide is citizens wanting to know the status of employment of Former Interim Police Chief Reginald Brown who was demoted to Corporal and former Public Relations Officer for the police dept. Sgt. Charles Johnson. Both of them were terminated by the Ellis Administration over the Timothy Williams Case.
For the record, I will not go into the intricate details of both cases in this space, however, I will reveal the current status. The Monroe civil service board ruled in favor of Brown and a local Judge at the Ouachita Parish district court overturned the civil service board decision after the City of Monroe appealed to them.
Brown appealed to the second circuit court in Shreveport and won. The City of Monroe has since appealed to LA. Supreme Court. Brown was reinstated once but was terminated again. The case is pending.
The Monroe Civil Service board agreed with the city by agreeing with Johnson’s termination. Johnson appealed to the Ouachita Parish district court in which a different local judge disagreed and ordered him to be reinstated to his job. At this time, Johnson has not been reinstated.
In both cases, Brown and Johnson were to be reinstated by the city but the appeals by all parties have put things on hold.
The elephant in the room is the amount of money that will be owed to Brown, Johnson and attorney fees if the city continues to lose at the higher courts. That amount is estimated to be in excess of $1.2 million dollars. Only time will tell what the final conclusion of this 4 1/2 year ordeal will be. The taxpayers are eagerly waiting.
After All…. Love where you Live and Live where you Love….
