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            A.(1) The registered voters of each police jury district in St. Landry Parish may propose the creation and implementation of cemetery districts in each police jury district in the parish. Each such cemetery district shall become operative when the proponents of a petition proposing the creation of a district contains the signatures of at least twenty-five registered voters of the police jury district in St. Landry Parish and such petition is filed with the registrar of voters for St. Landry Parish.

            (2) If the registrar of voters determines that the required twenty-five electors have validly signed such petition for the creation of a cemetery district, he shall issue a certificate stating that the twenty-five or more electors residing in the proposed district have signed the petition and shall forward the petition to the governing authority of St. Landry Parish within fifteen days of receipt of the petition.

            (3) Within fifteen days of the presentation of the petition by the registrar of voters, the governing authority of St. Landry Parish shall appoint members to a steering committee which shall be a transition committee forming such cemetery commission.

            (4) Within fifteen days after the appointment of the steering committee, the steering committee shall submit names for commissioners from a list compiled from public meetings held to educate the public on the operation of the cemetery district and other related matters. The governing authority of St. Landry Parish shall, within fifteen days, appoint the commissioners from the list of names from the steering committee. The commission shall then be designated as the District Cemetery Commission. The specific designation of the cemetery district shall correspond to the respective police jury district as established by the 2000 decennial census.

            B.(1) The boundaries of any such commission shall be coterminous with the boundaries of the respective police jury district when the commission is formed.

            (2) An area may be removed from a district if the board of commissioners for such district receives a petition signed by at least two-thirds of the registered voters for the parish.

            C. The commission shall be governed by a board of commissioners and shall be known as the Board of Commissioners of _________ District Cemetery Commission of St. Landry Parish, referred to in this Chapter as the “board”.

            D.(1) The commissioners of each board shall be appointed by the governing authority of the parish of St. Landry. The governing authority shall appoint members from a particular police jury district who shall be residents of such district. The governing authority of the parish shall attempt to achieve a racial balance when appointing the commissioners to the board.

            (2) Of the commissioners initially appointed, one-half shall serve for a term of two years and the remaining one-half shall serve for a term of four years. The length of the term of each commissioner appointed shall be determined at the first meeting of the commission.

            (3) The commissioners shall serve until their successors have been appointed and qualified.

            (4) The terms of commissioners of the board appointed upon the expiration of the initial terms shall be four years, and upon expiration of a term of office, a successor shall be appointed as provided in this Section.

            (5) Any vacancy which occurs prior to the expiration of the term for which a member of the board has been appointed shall be filled by the appointment as provided for in this Section for the unexpired term.

            Acts 2003, No. 499, §1; Acts 2022, No. 574, §1.