Vidalia — The Louisiana Attorney General’s office has weighed in on a dispute among Concordia Parish police jurors about meeting setting prerogatives.

In an opinion dated March 25 but released the first week of April, Assistant Attorney General Emalie A. Boyce wrote that, “absent a policy or procedure providing otherwise, the president of a police jury has the authority to set the final agenda for a meeting of the police jury and may adjust or remove proposed agenda items.”

The opinion is rooted in an argument between Police Juror Willie Dunbar and President Melvin Ferrington, who during the July 14, 2014, police jury meeting became involved in a heated exchange after Dunbar said he felt items he wanted placed on the agenda had been removed.

Ferrington maintained the items in question — letters from the attorney general’s office about the rights of water and sewer districts to set rates — were more administratively appropriately filed as correspondence, but Dunbar said as a juror he believed he should be able to put something on an agenda and have it left there.

The letters were later read aloud during the same meeting as correspondence.

The opinion states that based on the description of the scenario, the attorney general’s office is of the opinion that “it is within the authority of the Police Jury President, as presiding officer, to utilize his discretion in determining the most appropriate manner to address suggested agenda items at upcoming meetings.”

After the attorney general’s opinion was released, Ferrington said Dunbar had apparently sought the clarification independently of the rest of the jury.

“As far as I am concerned, that is a dead issue,” Ferrington said. “It is the president’s job and obligation to prepare the agenda, and it is my job — and the secretary-treasurer — to get it prepared correctly.”

While the opinion notes the president of the jury can adjust the agenda ahead of time, Boyce wrote that if a juror “wishes to add an item to the agenda at the time of the meeting, he or she may move to amend the agenda as pursuant to (Louisiana law).”

Dunbar could not be reached for comment Thursday.