Latest news with #Dickerson
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Whistleblower tips to Louisiana ethics board will remain confidential
The Louisiana State Capitol. (Julie O'Donoghue/Louisiana Illuminator) An effort to eliminate confidentiality for people who provide tips to the Louisiana Board of Ethics over government misconduct has failed. Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said House Bill 160 won't come up for consideration after it missed a crucial deadline for an initial vote in the Senate chamber Monday. 'There weren't the votes' to pass the proposal, Rep. Kellee Hennessey Dickerson, R-Denham Springs, who sponsored the legislation, said in an interview Monday night. The bill would have required the ethics board to reveal the name of a person who provides a tip about alleged wrongdoing to whoever the person accuses of misconduct. Currently, the ethics board never shares a tipster's identity with the target of the investigation. The proposal would also have required ethics board tips to be either signed by a notary or delivered in person to the ethics board staff at their office in downtown Baton Rouge. The board enforces the state's ethics and campaign finance laws for elected officials, public employees, lobbyists and government contractors. On Friday, board members sent a letter to senators encouraging them to vote against the legislation, saying it would have a chilling effect on the public's willingness to provide the board information. Dickerson described the ethics board's letter as 'harassing' and said it helped kill the bill. 'I guess people fear the retaliation of the ethics board being against it,' she said. Dickerson drafted the legislation in response to her own experience with the ethics board. In 2023, the board fined her $1,500 when she was a member of the Livingston Parish School Board and running for state representative. The ethics board concluded she had broken state ethics laws by inappropriately helping a public school teacher get a construction contract at the high school where the teacher was employed. Before Dickerson's bill stalled, lawmakers had already approved another piece of legislation that creates new barriers for bringing charges over an ethics violation. A large share of the board will need to vote in favor of launching an ethics investigation, and the deadline for bringing charges will be more difficult to meet, under House Bill 674 by Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Louisiana ethics board wants state Senate to reject bill that lifts complaint confidentiality
The Louisiana Board of Ethics is pushing back against legislation that would eliminate confidentiality for people for provide tips about misconduct. (Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator). The Louisiana Board of Ethics expressed alarm Friday that the Louisiana Legislature is just one vote away from eliminating confidentiality for people who provide tips about government misconduct. 'This is all just abusive. It's just trying to dissuade someone from filing a complaint,' said retired attorney William Grimley, a Louisiana Senate appointee to the ethics board since 2022, about House Bill 160 sponsored by Rep. Kellee Hennessy Dickerson, R-Denham Springs. Other members of the 15-person board nodded in agreement with Grimley. As a last-minute effort to stop the legislation, they instructed their staff to send a letter from the board expressing their concerns about the bill. The board members also said they intended to personally contact their own senators and Gov. Jeff Landry's office to warn about the legislation. 'I think it will have a drastic chilling effect on the number of complaints you receive,' Ethics Administrator David Bordelon told board members. 'We often receive complaints that are asking not to be disclosed because there's some sort of relationship or some sort of fear of retaliation.' Under the bill, investigations into ethics law violations would still be kept private and shielded from the public unless the board votes to bring charges. But the name of a person who provides a tip about alleged wrongdoing would be revealed to whoever they accused of misconduct. Currently, the identity of someone providing a tip to the ethics board is never shared with the target of an investigation. Dickerson said she is bringing the bill to protect government officials from political retaliation similar to what she experienced personally. In 2023, the ethics board voted to fine Dickerson $1,500 when she was a member of the Livingston Parish School Board and running for state representative. The members concluded she had broken state ethics laws by inappropriately helping a public school teacher get paid for doing construction work at the high school where the teacher was employed. State law doesn't allow public employees to perform contract work for their employers. 'I believe this is a fight for truth and justice and to give you the knowledge to know who is fighting against you,' Dickerson said of her legislation. Her bill would likely encourage 'witness tampering and documents not being provided,' Bordelon said. The tipster might experience harassment and intimidation from the subject of the investigation even before the probe gets underway, he added. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Dickerson said she has guarded against intimidation in her bill by allowing any tipsters to sue the accused for damages if they experience harassment. Critics of the legislation said those lawsuits would be expensive and not financially feasible for many members of the public. The ethics administrator also reiterated that the board – not the person providing the tip – decides whether to charge someone with ethical misconduct. Even if the person who submitted the complaint to the board is politically motivated, the board is not. 'It's the board that is the accuser,' Bordelon told members. 'You make your decision based on the facts and the evidence that we present to you as staff.' Dickerson included another barrier to ethics investigations the board found troubling. It requires people submitting tips to the board to either have them signed by a notary, which costs money, or to deliver them personally to state ethics administration headquarters in downtown Baton Rouge. Currently, the public can submit tips via mail and sometimes electronically. 'Imagine somebody in Grand Isle complaining about their local councilman. They would have to either pay a notary to notarize a statement … or drive to Baton Rouge and file it with us in person here,' Bordelon said. Dickerson also wants to limit materials the ethics board can use to launch an investigation to just tips from the public and reports from state officials. The board has no existing limits on the sources it can use to launch an investigation. For example, it undertook 18 investigations from 2020-23 based on news reports that resulted in a discovery of wrongdoing. Under the bill from Dickerson, a former broadcast journalist, they would no longer be able to use a news story as the basis for an inquiry. This year, Landry and legislative leaders have gotten behind a few bills that would dramatically curb the ethics board's authority to pursue investigations. Lawmakers said the effort is a response to overzealous enforcement by the ethics board that crossed the line into harassment. Still, it's not clear whether Landry supports Dickerson's legislation. His staff hasn't endorsed it during public hearings like they have other ethics bills. Recent ethics board appointees from Landry and lawmakers are also among those worried about Dickerson's bill. 'I would love for 100% compliance and to put us out of business. But you know, that's not happening,' said Jason Amato, a former St. James Parish Council member who Landry picked to lead the ethics board earlier this year. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE 'I'd love to be able to cancel our monthly meeting because we didn't have any items on the agenda. But I'm only six months in, and that isn't happening anytime soon,' he added. Lawmakers have until Thursday to decide whether to send Dickerson's proposal to Gov. Jeff Landry's desk to be signed into law. The House voted 88-7 for the bill last month, and it is scheduled for Senate debate Sunday.
02-06-2025
- Sport
Dickerson delivers go-ahead home run and Oklahoma tops North Carolina 9-5 to force deciding game
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Drew Dickerson hit a go-ahead home run in a five-run sixth inning and Oklahoma went on to defeat No. 5 national seed North Carolina 9-5 on Sunday night, forcing a winner-take-all game in the Chapel Hill Regional. The two teams will face off Monday with a berth in the super regionals at stake. North Carolina's Gavin Gallaher drove in three runs with a leadoff home run in the fourth inning and a two-run double in the sixth, giving the Tar Heels a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the sixth, Dickerson's two-run home run put Oklahoma ahead 4-3. Jaxon Willits added a double that scored two unearned runs for a 6-3 lead. After an RBI groundout by Luke Stevenson, Gallaher doubled to score another run to make it 7-5 in the seventh. Gallaher finished with three hits and four RBIs for the Tar Heels (44-13). Trailing 8-5 in the top of the eighth, North Carolina loaded the bases on a walk, single and another walk with nobody out. Reliever Dylan Crooks got a strikeout and two flyouts to get out of the jam. Dasan Harris added a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth to cap the scoring. James Hitt (3-0) got the win although he allowed four runs in two innings. Crooks picked up his 15th save for Oklahoma (38-21). Olin Johnson (2-1), who gave up Dickerson's home run in the sixth, took the loss.
Washington Post
02-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Maryland county may spend $57 million on incinerator it wants to close
Montgomery County may need to spend more than $57 million over four years on maintenance for the county's trash incinerator in Dickerson despite County Executive Marc Elrich promising years ago to close it. The incinerator, which started operating in 1995, burns about 565,000 tons of the county's waste each year, according to the county's Department of Environmental Protection. It's also authorized to emit numerous toxic pollutants. That's why Elrich campaigned on closing the facility and finding alternatives to it during his run for office in 2018 and again when he began his second term in 2022.
Fox Sports
02-06-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Dickerson delivers go-ahead home run and Oklahoma tops North Carolina 9-5 to force deciding game
Associated Press CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Drew Dickerson hit a go-ahead home run in a five-run sixth inning and Oklahoma went on to defeat No. 5 national seed North Carolina 9-5 on Sunday night, forcing a winner-take-all game in the Chapel Hill Regional. The two teams will face off Monday with a berth in the super regionals at stake. North Carolina's Gavin Gallaher drove in three runs with a leadoff home run in the fourth inning and a two-run double in the sixth, giving the Tar Heels a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the sixth, Dickerson's two-run home run put Oklahoma ahead 4-3. Jaxon Willits added a double that scored two unearned runs for a 6-3 lead. After an RBI groundout by Luke Stevenson, Gallaher doubled to score another run to make it 7-5 in the seventh. Gallaher finished with three hits and four RBIs for the Tar Heels (44-13). Trailing 8-5 in the top of the eighth, North Carolina loaded the bases on a walk, single and another walk with nobody out. Reliever Dylan Crooks got a strikeout and two flyouts to get out of the jam. Dasan Harris added a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth to cap the scoring. James Hitt (3-0) got the win although he allowed four runs in two innings. Crooks picked up his 15th save for Oklahoma (38-21). Olin Johnson (2-1), who gave up Dickerson's home run in the sixth, took the loss. ___ AP college sports: recommended in this topic
