Recently Lafayette City Marshall Earl 'Nicky' Picard visited 'Go Acadiana With Ken Romero and Carol Ross to discuss the duties of the office and his reasons for seeking re-election.

When asked to define the duties and responsibilities of the City Marshal Picard said,

Under Title 13 Article 1881 of the Louisiana Code it says that the Marshal is the executive officer of the Court which means he's the enforcement officer. He shall execute all the mandates and orders of the court and in their execution making arrests and keeping the peace. He has the same powers and authority of a sheriff...I don't look at that as power, I look at that as responsibility...Keeping the peace is not keeping the noise down. Keeping the peace is enforcing the law.

We asked, on average how many warrants were served by his office per year. According to Picard,

Since 1994 City Police filed in our court 10,500 drunk driving charges only. First and second offense only because third offense is a felony...We only have 84 outstanding warrants as of today.

Some in the community have questioned whether Picard's age would be a problem. By election day Picard will be 83 years old and we asked if he would have a problem with his age. Picard replied,

No, not at all. It's all mind over matter. As long as you have your mind age doesn't matter...I get to my office at 7:15 every morning and leave sometimes 6 o'clock, 7 o'clock...I've been Marshal 30 years and I can't wait to get there the next day.

To listen to the entire conversation with City Marshal Earl 'Nicky' Picard click on the blue arrow below:

 

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