§718. Commissioners; qualifications; salary and benefits; restrictions on employment; office space; supplies; equipment; employees

            A. Except as otherwise provided in this Section, the qualifications for the office of commissioner shall be the same as the qualifications for office for district court judges.

            B. The salary of the commissioners shall be equal to seventy-five percent of the total salary from all sources paid to a district court judge of the Twenty-Fourth Judicial District Court. The commissioners may be reimbursed for their expenses as provided for by court rule.

            C. Commissioners shall be full-time employees of the Twenty-fourth Judicial District Court. Commissioners shall not engage in any outside business, occupation, or employment that is inconsistent with the expeditious, proper, and impartial performance of their duties as a judicial officer, nor shall they engage in the practice of law. Any question regarding the conduct of any outside business, occupation, employment, or practice of law by a commissioner shall be resolved by a majority of the elected judges of the Twenty-fourth Judicial District Court. The provisions of this Subsection shall not abrogate or supersede any provisions of the Rules for Lawyer Disciplinary Enforcement or the Code of Judicial Conduct applicable to judges and attorneys.

            D. Office space for the commissioners shall be provided by the Twenty-fourth Judicial District Court, out of funds available to that court.

            E. All employees of the commissioners shall be hired only upon the prior approval of employment by the elected judges of the Twenty-fourth Judicial District Court. The commissioners and all employees of the commissioners shall be in the unclassified service of the state and shall be members of the State Employees' Retirement System.

            F. The salaries, related benefits, and expenses of the commissioners, and the salaries and related benefits of the employees of the commissioners, and the costs of the equipment and supplies of the commissioners and their employees, shall be paid in accordance with the provisions of Subsections H, I, J, and K of this Section.

            G. Repealed by Acts 2003, No. 714, §2.

            H. The funding for the provisions of this Section shall be paid from funds available to the Twenty-fourth Judicial District Court.

            I. The sources of funding for the commissioners and their offices and employees shall include, but shall not be limited to the following sources:

            (1) Subject to the other provisions of this Paragraph, there is hereby imposed an additional fee on all persons convicted in the Twenty-fourth Judicial District Court of felony or misdemeanor offenses. The amount of the additional fee shall be set by the judges of the Twenty-fourth Judicial District Court sitting en banc. The amount of the additional fee shall not exceed one hundred seventy-five dollars. The total amount of the financial penalty to which misdemeanor offenders shall be subject, including the fee imposed by this Paragraph, shall not exceed one thousand dollars. The provisions of this Paragraph shall not apply to convictions for traffic violations under the provisions of Title 32 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, or under the ordinances adopted by the governing authority of Jefferson Parish.

            (2)(a) Notwithstanding the provisions of R.S. 22:822 and 1443, and in addition to the fee imposed by those Sections, there is hereby imposed a fee on premium for all commercial surety underwriters who write criminal bail bonds in Jefferson Parish. The fee shall be equal to fifty dollars for each ten thousand dollars worth of liability underwritten by the surety.

            (b) Each commercial surety underwriting criminal bail bonds in Jefferson Parish shall submit a report each month to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. The report shall contain the amount of criminal bail bond liability written in Jefferson Parish and shall contain a calculation of the premium fee due. The premium fee due shall accompany the report. The report shall be due within fifteen days of the close of the month for which the report is filed.

            (c) The premium fee shall be collected and deposited into a special account established by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office for maintaining and transmitting the premium fee for criminal bail bonds written in Jefferson Parish. Each month the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office shall remit payment to the judicial administrator for the Twenty-Fourth Judicial District Court. The sheriff shall issue payment not later than thirty days after receipt of the premium fee by his office.

            J. The judges of the Twenty-fourth Judicial District Court, sitting en banc, shall provide procedures for the timely collection, deposit, and accounting of the additional criminal fines imposed by this Section. All additional criminal fines collected shall be remitted to the director of finance of the parish of Jefferson and deposited into a special fund to be used by the parish of Jefferson to defray its costs and expenses incurred pursuant to the provisions of this Section and other related judicial expenditures.

            K. If any part of the provisions of this Section become dependent upon monies from the general fund of the parish of Jefferson, the provisions of this Section shall terminate if the Jefferson Parish Council fails to appropriate sufficient monies to provide for the continuation of the offices of commissioner for the Twenty-fourth Judicial District Court.

            Acts 1997, No. 824, §1, eff. July 10, 1997; Acts 1999, No. 717, §1; Acts 1999, No. 946, §1, eff. July 9, 1999; Acts 2003, No. 714, §§1 and 2; Acts 2008, No. 415, §2, eff. Jan. 1, 2009; Acts 2015, No. 92, §1; Acts 2020, No. 127, §1.