CN 1993-225 (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

Ethics Commission Opinion No. 93 -225 Page 13 (attached as Exhibit A). The Terrytown 5th District under examination in this case, together with the 3rd District, represent two of several fire protection districts formed by the Parish of Jefferson to discharge its fire prevention and fire protection services. Indeed, with the exception of only the "Consolidated District ", the Parish of Jefferson has chosen to discharge all of its fire protection services through districts that in turn contract with corporations formed only for that purpose: TDVFD in the case of the 3rd District and the Terrytown Fifth District Volunteer Fire Department in the case of the 5th District. The two districts are set up essentially the same and their • contracts with the Parish are virtually identical. In Wilcox, the United States District Court for the Eastern District and, on appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, dealt with the issue of whether or not employees of the Terrytown Fifth District Volunteer Fire Department ( "Terrytown ") were "public employees" as opposed to private employees, within the context of the Fair Labor Standards Act. In reaching the conclusion that the employees of the Terrytown Corporation were "public employees ", the Fifth Circuit began its analysis by noting that the Terrytown Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. was a "non- profit corporation that provides fire protection services to an unincorporated sector of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana ", just as is the case with respect to the 3rd District and its corresponding corporation, TDVFD. The Court noted that the Fair Labor Standards Act contains an exclusion for the employees of a "public agency"