JENNINGS – The Jeff Davis Parish Police Jury says it wants to join the parish’s Economic Development Commission.

Police Jury President Steve Eastman this week asked the police jury to consider allowing him and Parish Administrator Ben Boudreaux to begin dialogue with the commission to consider reorganizing the commission to allow the police juror and Lake Arthur to have representatives added to the seven-member board.

The request comes after Eastman announced the pending resignation of Economic Development and Tourism Director Creed Romano. Romano, who has served in the position since 2021, informed parish officials this week he plans to resign on Jan. 31.

During a police jury meeting Wednesday, Eastman said he did want to go into reasons for the resignation saying he has not personally spoken with Romano about leaving. Romano has not responded to repeated calls from the American Press.

“…Right now the police jury doesn’t technically have any representation on the economic development board,” Eastman said. “Although we’ve always told Creed what we wanted to do, we don’t have a voting say-so on that board.”

He said there has been a lot of talk recently that the police jury and Lake Arthur should have someone on the board as a voting member. Three representatives each currently serve from Jennings and the tourist commission with one representative from Welsh are appointed to the board, but no parish wide official serves on the board, according to Eastman.

On Wednesday, police jurors agreed to enter discussions with the Economic Development Commission to consider reorganizing the board to allow the police jury and Lake Arthur to have voting members.

The Jennings and Welsh city councils and the parish tourism commission will have the final say in any changes made to the commission, including establishing a new charter.