Louisiana ethics board agrees to keep governor's staff information private in spite of law
The addresses of Gov. Jeff Landry's staff will remain private despite a state law requiring their disclosure. (Photo by Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)
The home addresses of Gov. Jeff Landry's executive staff will be kept out of public records, despite a state law that requires the information to be disclosed.
The Louisiana Board of Ethics voted 11-1 Friday to keep their addresses secret. Its members agreed with Attorney General Liz Murrill's view that the disclosure conflicts with the right to privacy contained in the state constitution, her office said.
'Public employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their home addresses,' Assistant Attorney General Amanda LaGroue wrote in an advisory opinion sent to the board. LaGroue works for Murrill at the Department of Justice. The board's vote won't result in much substantive change.
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Staff for the ethics board had already complied with a request from the governor's office to redact the staff's home addresses. They blacked out the residency information on personal financial disclosure forms filed by Landry's chief of staff Kyle Ruckert, policy director Millard Mulé, general counsel Angelique Freel, deputy chief of staff Andrée Miller and legislative director Lance Maxwell.
Board members had questioned in January whether its staff had taken that action prematurely. Alfred 'Butch' Speer suggested the redactions could amount to a 'criminal act' because the board does not have the authority to alter the public documents. A state statute requires people who hold these five specific jobs in the governor's office to file publicly-available financial disclosure forms annually that include their 'full name and residence address.' The law was approved in 2008 during a rewrite of Louisiana's ethics laws that was supposed to promote government transparency and reduce corruption. Speer and fellow Ethics Board member La Koshia Roberts said in previous board meetings that the law tied their hands, and the board could not keep the staff addresses confidential even if they wanted to do so. The Louisiana Legislature would have to pass a new law if they wanted the addresses to stay private, they maintained.
But Murrill's office said the 2008 law can be ignored. The five members of the governor's office not only have a right to privacy, but legislators had already voted to keep addresses of all state employees contained in their personnel files out of the public eye.
'The public's interest in a home address is vastly outweighed by the employee's personal interest in protecting his or her privacy,' LaGroue wrote. The vote in favor of Landry's staff comes a month after the Republican governor gained more influence over the ethics board. Landry pushed a new law that lets him put more appointees on the board and pick them directly. Previously, governors have had to select their ethics board members from a list of nominees private college leaders submit.
The governor has also promoted other secrecy measures since he took office in 2024. He has approved laws that allow him to keep more records about his travel and the governor's mansion private.
Landry's new ethics board appointees weren't the only members to vote to keep the governor's staff addresses a secret. Six other members also voted in their favor. Roberts, a Louisiana House of Representatives appointee, voted against the request. Speer was absent from Friday's meeting and did not vote.
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