By ROBIN SHANNON
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — The St. John Parish Council voted this week to allow municipal code reviewers to analyze and update the parish’s code of ordinances so that it can be placed on the World Wide Web for easy access.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to execute an agreement with Municipal Code Corporation for a legal review of St. John Parish’s 2,200-page book of ordinances that direct government activity. The review marks the first time the code of ordinances will receive a complete revision.

“The parish has been adding new laws and amendments to the books since the home rule charter went into effect in 1982,”said St. John Public Information Officer Buddy Boe. “Our legal code has never received a legal review of this kind. It is long overdue.”

Boe explained the legal review, or recodification, will look for old or outdated ordinances as well as discrepancies in laws that may or may not sync up with state laws.

“Just as an example of what they are looking for, we have ordinances on the books that deal with pagers and beeper usage,” said Boe. “I don’t think one employee on our entire staff has a pager anymore. It will also lay out which state laws may pertain to different parish laws.”

Once the legal review is complete, Boe said the company will come back with recommendations for changes and eliminations. He said the administration will then get together with the St. John Council to go over the recommendations so that a new complete code of ordinances can be adopted. Boe said the entire process could take as much as nine months to complete and will cost the parish about $25,000, which will be paid out over two years.

“Once it is finished, the parish will have a streamlined book of ordinances that can be easily reviewed and searched on the Internet,” said Boe. “A resident can go the Web site [www.municode.com], type in a word or phrase and get every ordinance pertaining to their search.”

According to Municipal Code Corporation’s Web site, several parishes and municipalities in Louisiana, including St. Charles Parish and the towns of Gonzales and Donaldsonville, have their codebooks up on the Web for review. Boe said St. John’s code is accessible on the parish’s Web site, but it is one large file that must be completely downloaded.

“You’re looking at the complete 2,200-page book,” said Boe. “Our code has hundreds and hundreds of ordinances and amendments that cannot be keyword searched. This update will make our code easier to work with and easier to understand.”