ST. MARTINVILLE, La. (KLFY) — Members of the St. Martinville Fire and Police Civil Service Board held a meeting at the St. Martinville City Hall where they discussed their next steps concerning former St. Martinville Police Deputy Chief, Cody Laperouse’s appeal of his termination.

News 10 spoke with Michael Formeller, the board president, who says the board made some errors in previous hearings that they are trying to correct.

“We made some procedural errors in an appeals hearing a while back and what we’re doing is negating that meeting, that way we’ll be on good grounds again,” said Formeller.

This comes after Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a lawsuit against the board stating members may have violated the open meetings law between Jan. 28 and Feb. 3.

Murrill says she filed her lawsuit against the St. Martinville Fire and Police Civil Service Board because there was a ratification vote the board made that she believes was ineffective in solving the problem.

A complaint was filed with Murrill’s office, resulting in her sending a letter to the service board that Open Meetings Law may have been violated. Murrill says she filed the lawsuit because her office received a violation that had not been rectified after the letter was sent.

“In this particular case we believed that we needed to file a lawsuit in order to get the proper remedy, the votes that they took in violation of the law are not valid votes,” said Murrill.

In response to the lawsuit, the majority of the board voted to invalidate their actions on Jan. 28 and Feb. 3 for the alleged open meetings violations, in accordance with the Attorney General’s lawsuit. Formeller, tells News 10 they are following the Attorney General’s rules, in hopes of getting the lawsuit removed.

“She said on a couple of occasions what we need to do is invalidate the actions we took improperly and fix it, and then the suit that she filed against us will go away, so that’s what we’re doing,” said Formeller.

Murrill says the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office will work with the board to make sure they are clear on what the rules are for open meetings moving forward.

“The do-over for an open meetings violation is to go back and follow the rules and open meetings, follow the rules for executive session if that’s what you need to do,” said Murrill. “It doesn’t mean that they cannot take these actions, it does man that they have to do them in the right way for them to be valid.”

The St. Martinville Fire and Police Civil Service Board tells News 10 Laperouse’s appeal will be discussed at a future meeting.

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