RIDGECREST — Ridgecrest’s aldermen are required to hold meetings, but the individual board members have no particular requirement to attend them, the Louisiana State Attorney General’s Office has opined.

Even though no individual is required to attend, failure for a majority of the board to do so could ultimately be a criminal matter.

The opinion, issued in March at the request of Mayor Bobby Sheppard, was in response to a query if any law existed requiring an alderman to resign if he or she missed three consecutive monthly meetings. It did not address a specific alderman.

Issued by Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Wale, the opinion says the attorney general’s office is not aware of any state law that requires an alderman to attend a meeting, but that mayors and board of aldermen are required to have at least one monthly meeting, and that meetings that fail for lack of quorum can only be continued once.

Failure to hold at least one meeting a month with a quorum could be considered malfeasance in office, Wale wrote.

Malfeasance in office is a criminal matter, but it ultimately depends on the “broad discretion of the local district attorney as to whether or not it will be prosecuted, he wrote.

The attorney general’s office has in the past opined and reaffirmed that “continued absence over a considerable period of time would constitute grounds for removal from office,” Wale wrote, but previous opinions issued by the office have also clarified that local municipalities can pass ordinances requiring aldermen to attend meetings to be compensated.