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Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Louisiana lawmakers put some limits back in place on gifts to public officials
Rep. Beau Beaullieu has updated his proposal to change state ethics laws concerning gifts to public officials. (Allison Allsop/Louisiana Illuminator) Louisiana lawmakers are no longer looking to broadly lift restrictions on gifts to elected officials and public employees while doing their jobs, but they appear intent on discouraging ethics investigations. Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-Iberia, removed language from House Bill 674 that would have allowed public servants to receive $200 worth of gifts annually. This would have applied to all local and state government employees, from a local police officer to the governor. Instead, Beaullieu has rewritten the legislation to keep a portion of a current limitation on government worker gifts in place. Now, gifts that aren't food would be mostly restricted to $200 worth of flowers or a charitable donation to express sympathy for a family death. New allowances for 'seasonal' food and beverages remain in the legislation, however. Under current law, most public officials are not supposed to receive food and drink as gifts unless it's at a party or reception. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Under existing rules, they have to consume the food in person at the event where it is given. The edible gift can cost no more than $79 per person, a cutoff the Louisiana Board of Ethics adjusts every year based on the Consumer Price Index. Beaullieu's updated proposal would allow elected leaders and public employees to take seasonal or holiday foods as gifts for a religious or state holiday, even outside of a party or reception. The cap on food gifts would also be $79 per person per holiday or whatever new price the ethics board adopts in future years. Besides the gift policy changes, Beaullieu's bill contains several ethics law modifications that would make it much harder for the state ethics board to investigate and charge people with misconduct. The ethics board oversees enforcement of campaign finance laws and the state ethics code for public employees, elected officials and lobbyists. Anyone from a public school teacher to the governor can be subject of one of its investigations. The adjustments Beaullieu proposes would require more members of the ethics board to vote in favor of pursuing an investigation and give the board far less time to decide whether a person should be charged with ethical wrongdoing. People accused of ethics violations would also have more ability to push back on the allegations under Beaullieu's bill. If the legislation were to pass, the new standards that would have to be met in order for the ethics board to launch an investigation would be very difficult to achieve. For example, the ethics board would have to be confident that wrongdoing had occurred in order to sign off on any preliminary probe into the alleged misconduct. Ethics Administrator David Bordelon said earlier this month the process Beaullieu seeks would 'skew' the process in favor of the public servant accused of wrongdoing. He also took issue with a new restriction Beaullieu proposed Tuesday on ethical investigations and charges. The state representative added language to his bill prohibiting the ethics board from launching an investigation based on information it received through an advisory opinion request. The board is frequently asked to explain how ethics laws apply in specific situations through advisory opinions. It issues at least a few of these public letters monthly providing feedback. 'If someone submits an advisory opinion request that indicates a violation has already occurred, it should be within the board's prerogative to initiate an investigation of that,' Bordelon told senators at a committee hearing Tuesday. Beaullieu said he is trying to overhaul state ethics investigations because many elected officials feel the board has been too aggressive when pursuing allegations. The state's preeminent state government watchdog, the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, has come out strongly against the bill. 'This is designed to make sure we don't have ethics investigations,' Steven Procopio, the organization's president, said of the proposed changes. The legislation is backed by Gov. Jeff Landry, who has had several personal conflicts with the ethics board over his nine years in statewide office. In 2023, the board charged Landry in 2023 with the ethics violation of failing to disclose flights he took on a political donor's private plane to Hawaii for an attorneys general conference. That dispute is ongoing because the governor and board members have not reached an agreement on what Landry's punishment for the violation should be. Stephen Gelé, the attorney representing Landry in this ethics dispute, also helped write Beaullieu's legislation to overhaul the state's ethics laws. The Louisiana Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the bill Tuesday with no objections. An earlier version of the proposal also passed the Louisiana House unanimously, but both the Senate and the House will have to approve the amended version before it can become law. It must pass by the Louisiana Legislature's session adjournment June 12. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
American Press
21-05-2025
- Politics
- American Press
Jim Beam column:Ethics, campaigns on hit list
Members of the Louisiana Legislature have decided to make their political lives much easier by weakening the state's ethics and campaign finance laws.(Photo courtesy of WVUE-Fox 8 in New Orleans). Louisiana legislators have obviously decided they don't want to have to worry much about whether they are performing ethically. They also want fewer rules when it comes to receiving campaign contributions. The best evidence about both of those issues can be found in House Bills 160 and 674, both ethics measures, and in HB 693, a 100-page bill dealing with campaign contributions. HB 674 passed the House unanimously and is awaiting a hearing in the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee. HB 160 is awaiting a final vote in the House. The Public Affairs Research Council said legislators should strengthen, not undermine the state's ethics and disclosure laws. 'That's the wrong message to send in a state riddled with Louisiana's long and sordid political history, particularly when polls show public trust in government is at historic lows,' the non-profit research agency said. The Advocate in an editorial said, 'There's more packed into this bill — from changes to when officials can accept privately paid travel to what amount they can accept as gifts — so you would expect it to have sparked spirited debate on the House floor. Yet not a single Republican or Democrat raised any questions.' The newspaper said government watchdog groups worry that if the bill passes, future investigations could be shut down before they even get off the ground. Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, author of HB 674 and chairman of the House and Governmental Affairs Committee, said legislators from both parties are frustrated with the ethics board, which has been accused of harassing public officials and lacking transparency. Rep. Kellee Dickerson, R-Denham Springs, is sponsor of HB 160 that would give the subject of an ethics complaint the ability to know the identity of the person leveling the accusations, which is currently confidential. The Advocate reported that Dickerson was the subject of an ethics board investigation that found she improperly hired a teacher for a contract job while she was a Livingston Parish School Board member. Her bill is awaiting final action in the House. Members of the Board of Ethics in a May 12 letter to legislators said, 'House Bill 160 proposes to remove the confidential nature of complaints, which will have a drastic chilling effect on the filing of formal complaints. The ethics administrator said, 'The opportunity to face your accuser comes once the board files public charges.' PAR said of the HB 674 ethics changes, 'The measure clearly aims to make it harder for the ethics board and its administrative staff to bring charges against officials. Are lawmakers trying to make it nearly impossible, though?' The research agency said HB 693, the 100-page campaign finance bill, is 'a similar vast redesign of the laws governing the spending and disclosure of the money candidates, political parties and others raise for politicking.' The agency said that makes it harder to investigate possible campaign finance violations. The bill is awaiting a final vote in the House. The Advocate in an ethics editorial said the campaign finance bill would make numerous changes to campaign finance laws, including eliminating the requirement that money spent to promote or defeat tax propositions or other elections that don't involve candidates be disclosed. 'The state seems to go through cycles where rampant corruption gives way to good government reforms prompted by public outcry,' the newspaper said. 'Then, politicians, weary of the constraints placed upon them, push to weaken ethics rules, hoping the public will have forgotten why they were needed in the first place.' The Illuminator reported one of the unusual aspects of this sudden rush to change the state's ethics laws. It is the fact that Stephen Gele´, an attorney representing Gov. Jeff Landry in his negotiations with the ethics board over his 2023 case, helped to draft the legislation. Although the proposed changes will only affect future ethics cases and not Landry's, it's still an unusual situation to have Landry's attorney involved. If Landry's case ever surfaces, don't look for any possible penalties. The Legislature last year made changes to the ethics board that give the governor more control over appointing its members. Landry took office on Jan. 8, 2024, and legislators have given him an unbelievable number of new powers. And the odds are the power grab won't stop until he leaves office. Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or Reply Forward Add reaction
