Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing independent reporting series that started in late 2025 examining municipal operations, public accountability and transparency in the Town of Cullen. The reporting and original work in this series were independently produced.

Written by Tiffany Flournoy

MINDEN, La. — A Webster Parish judge has ordered the Town of Cullen to pay Police Chief Fannie Rankin $10,680 in back pay after the parties reached a series of stipulations in a lawsuit over her employment and compensation.

The Sept. 10 hearing before Judge Parker Self also resolved challenges involving a town ordinance regulating business hours and alcohol sales and addressed a contempt issue involving now former Mayor Terry Hoof. The ordinance will be null and void effective Oct. 27, while Rankin’s claim for attorney fees remains pending.

Under the stipulation, Rankin’s annual salary was set at $37,440, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025, the date she was sworn in. Her salary is to be paid weekly, with retirement contributions and federal and state withholdings calculated accordingly.

The court also awarded Rankin $10,680 in gross back pay for the period from Jan. 1, 2025, through Sept. 10, 2026, subject to proper withholding and taxes. 

Rankin’s petition alleged that Terry Hoof, while serving as mayor, directed the town clerk to underpay Chief Rankin.

The petition filed in 2025, claims Rankin repeatedly sought records showing the pay of the former chief and former officers, as well as the Town of Cullen ordinance governing the chief’s salary. The town clerk reportedly said the relevant ordinance page was missing and that she did not know the former pay rates.

Rankin alleged she later saw a former chief’s paycheck at Town Hall showing $17.20 an hour. The petition said Rankin was being paid $15 an hour and Officer Brian Montgomery $14 an hour. 

Separate from the Sept. 10 judgment regarding Rankin’s  rate of pay and the town ordinance, Rankin faces ongoing payroll issues with the municipality. According to Rankin, as of Wednesday, she has gone 10 weeks without receiving a weekly paycheck. That period does not include the paychecks that prompted Rankin and her lone officer to file separate lawsuits for unpaid wages in early August — matters that remain pending.

Ordinance 362

The lawsuit also challenged Cullen Ordinance No. 362, which amended rules concerning business hours and alcohol sales.

Before Ordinance 362, establishments and alcohol sales closed at midnight, and alcohol sales were not permitted on Sundays. Rankin’s argument against the changes was based in part on police manpower, asserting that the town had not provided the police department with an adequate number of officers to handle the additional hours.

According to Rankin’s petition and a municipal-record exhibit attached to it, Ordinance 362 was introduced and voted on March 24, 2025.

Floydean White abstained, while Bianchi Veal and Barbara Green voted against the ordinance. Denise Epps-Hoof and Alderwoman Yolanda Castleman voted for it.

With the vote tied, then-town attorney Michael Kelly, now the town’s former attorney, instructed Mayor Terry Hoof to cast the tie-breaking vote. Hoof voted in favor.

The ordinance required Cullen businesses to close by 2 a.m. and remain closed until 6 a.m. It also addressed when nonemployees could remain on business premises after closing and allowed the sale of alcohol on Sundays. 

 Portions of the ordinance were allegedly difficult to follow in the format in which the town clerk recorded them, making some of its provisions difficult to interpret.

Rankin argued that the extended business hours and Sunday alcohol sales placed an undue strain on an already shorthanded department, pointing out that the town was unwilling to supply the additional manpower needed to handle the longer hours. Self ultimately granted Rankin’s request for a declaratory judgment and ruled that Ordinance 362, as presently enacted, is null and void.

 The court ordered the town’s business hours and alcohol-sale hours to revert to those that existed before the ordinance, without preventing Cullen from making future changes through the proper procedures under Louisiana law.

The ordinance will become null and void Oct. 27. Josh Chevallier, an attorney representing the town, asked for time to notify business proprietors who were not parties to the lawsuit before the change takes effect, saying he wanted to avoid prejudicing them and potentially exposing them to additional lawsuits. Self agreed to Oct. 27 as the effective date. 

Hoof contempt

The parties also stipulated that Terry Hoof was in constructive contempt of the court’s November 2025 order.

Chevallier said that if Hoof had been called to testify, he would have testified that any nonpayment or failure to make payments required by the November order during his time as mayor were caused by the Town of Cullen’s insolvency and lack of funds.

Attorney F. Pearlette Gipson, representing Rankin, said her witnesses, including former clerk Dominique Parish, Chief Rankin and Alderwomen Barbara Green and Bianchi Veal, would have testified that the Town of Cullen had sufficient means to comply with the Nov. 19, 2025, order and was not insolvent.

A temporary restraining order involving Alderwoman Yolanda Castleman had expired by operation of law, and the associated request for a permanent injunction was dismissed.

A separate request for injunctive relief concerning Hoof’s alleged interference with the police department became moot after he resigned and was no longer mayor.

The court also awarded Rankin $707.13 in Clerk of Court costs and filing fees, including filing fees and costs associated with opening court that day.

Rankin’s request for attorney fees remains unresolved. The court scheduled the attorney-fee hearing for 9 a.m. Oct. 27. 

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