FRANKLIN — Franklin Mayor Raymond Harris said he is honored by his recent appointment to a state board.

Harris, 49, was one of 11 people from around the state appointed last week to the Louisiana Crime Victims Reparations Board by Gov. Bobby Jindal.

First signed into law in 1982, the crime victims board regulates award payments from the Crime Victims Reparation Fund. The funds are intended to assist victims of violent crime with unrecovered costs associated with personal injury, death and catastrophic property loss, according to a press release.

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Harris, who was asked to apply to the board and whose start date on the board is pending, wants to see assistance to crime victims extended beyond the period immediately after the crime against them takes place.

“As time goes on, they kind of get forgotten about,” Harris said of they way assistance to crime victims tends to occur. “I just want to see that the process is fair.”

Harris considers the fact that he is not a crime victim to be a “blessing.”

“I’ve never been a victim of violent crime, nor has anyone in my immediate family,” Harris said.

“I just want to see that those victimized by crime receive the help they need. I’m honored to have the chance to serve in this capacity.”

Jindal said he believes that the work of the state reparations board represents a community effort.

“It is so important that we take every action possible to keep our communities safe and protect our families from crime,” Jindal said in a prepared statement.

“This means we need to have the strictest penalties and ensure that justice prevails when a crime is committed. We also need to support our fellow citizens who have been victims of crime and help them as they work through their healing process, through the work of the Crime Victims Reparations Board and others.”

A Franklin native, Harris and his wife, Connie, have two children, Christen, 17 and Raymond III, 13. A graduate of Southern University with a degree in accounting, he is the owner of Harris Tax Services in Franklin and Colbertball Tax Services in New Iberia.