FERRIDAY — Ferriday Mayor Sherrie Jacobs has suspended a department head for using a town vehicle to attend the Louisiana Police Jury Convention in Lake Charles.

Streets and Sanitation Superintendent Jerry Beatty was suspended for 30 days without pay for using the town’s truck to attend the conference without Jacobs’ knowledge, the mayor said Thursday. Beatty is also a member of the Concordia Parish Police Jury.

“I didn’t know anything about this until my attorney informed me,” Jacobs said. “This is unacceptable.”

Beatty said Thursday he stands behind the mayor’s decision but declined to comment further.

The Police Jury Association of Louisiana’s 93rd annual convention was from Feb. 15 to Feb. 17 in Lake Charles.

Beatty was approved as the street superintendent on July 1, and at the time he had sought an opinion from the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office on whether he could serve as a police juror and also hold a full time job with the Town of Ferriday.

At the time, Beatty had said based on the attorney general opinion that Ferriday Alderman Glenn Henderson could also serve on the Concordia Recreation District No. 3 board, he thought the opinion would come back in his favor.

On Jan. 26, the attorney general’s office released an opinion stating: “The provisions of the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law do not prohibit a member of the Police Jury of Concordia Parish from holding full-time employment with the Town of Ferriday.”