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SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA

No. 96-KA-1742

CITY OF BATON ROUGE versus LONNIE BLAKELY

******************** ON APPEAL FROM BATON ROUGE CITY COURT, PARISH OF EAST BATON ROUGE, JUDGE DONALD R. JOHNSON ********************

Jeannette Theriot Knoll ASSOCIATE JUSTICE

Traylor, J., not on panel. Rule IV, Part 2, Sec.3.

At issue in this case is the ability of the City of Baton Rouge to amend its Plan

of Government to increase the maximum penalty for the violation of a city ordinance after the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. On June 17, 1995, Lonnie Blakely was arrested and charged with misdemeanor theft, a violation of Title 13:67 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Baton Rouge, which carried a maximum penalty of six months in prison, a five hundred dollar fine, or both. Blakely filed a motion to quash, alleging that the penalty provision of 13:67 was unconstitutional in that it exceeded the maximum provided under Act 169 of 1898, the original charter of the City of Baton Rouge, as well as the Plan of Government, enacted in 1948. Blakely also alleged that a 1979 amendment to the Plan of Government, increasing the maximum penalty allowed for city ordinances, violated Art. VI,

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