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Last modified
7/12/2021 11:03:14 AM
Creation date
1/23/2017 3:27:19 PM
Metadata
2016-1045
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Opinion Item
Opinion Type
Advisory Opinion
Docket Number
2016-1045
Requesting Party
Wallace Sibley
Decision Date
1/20/2017
Caption
Advisory opinion that Quad Area Community Action Agency, Inc.’s employees and members of its Board of Directors are not considered public employees of a public agency and are not required to take the annual mandatory ethics training contained in the Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics since the agency was not created by the legislature, its powers were not specifically defined by the legislature, and its property does not belong to the public.
Ethics Subject Matters
Training
Public Employee - Definition
Boards and Commissions
No Board Issue
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and programmatic issues that other grants do not provide. Additionally, the <br /> Agency provides services for emergency assistance, including rent/mortgage, <br /> utility assistance and food; life alert systems and fans/heaters for the elderly; book <br /> sacks to children for the current school year. <br /> For LIHEAP, WAP, AEP, and CSBG, the federal agencies dictate the program <br /> requirements and the state agencies serve in a supervisory capacity with limited <br /> discretion. The duties performed by the state agencies are ministerial and they simply <br /> serve as a conduit through which federal funds are disbursed to non-profits like the <br /> Agency, which actually carry out the functions and purposes of the programs. <br /> The Board concluded, and instructed me to inform you, that the Agency is not a <br /> governmental entity subject to the Code of Governmental Ethics. The Louisiana Supreme <br /> Court, in PIAL v. Theriot, 99-1152 (La. 2010), found that all of the following four <br /> factors, originally set forth in State v. Smith, 357 So.2d 505 (La. 1978), must be present in <br /> order to find that an entity is public: (1) whether the entity was created by the legislature; <br /> (2) whether its powers were specifically defined by the legislature; (3) whether the <br /> property of the entity belongs to the public; and (4) whether the entity's functions are <br /> exclusively of a public character and performed solely for the public benefit. The <br /> Agency was not created by the legislature, its powers were not specifically defined by the <br /> legislature, and its property does not belong to the public. Therefore, the Agency is not a <br /> governmental entity subject to the Code. <br /> The Board further concluded, and instructed me to inform you, that the Agency's <br /> employees and board members are not "public employees" and thus are not required to <br /> take the annual training on the Code of Governmental Ethics. La. R.S. 42:1170A requires <br /> each public servant to receive a minimum of one hour of education and training on the <br /> Code of Governmental Ethics during each year of his public employment or term of <br /> office, as the case may be. La. R.S. 42:1102(19) provides that "public servant" means a <br /> public employee or an elected official. La. R.S. 42:1102(18)(a) provides that "public <br /> employee" means anyone, whether compensated or not, who is: (i) an administrative <br /> officer or official of a governmental entity who is not filling an elective office; (ii) <br /> appointed by any elected official when acting in an official capacity, and the appointment <br /> is to a post or position wherein the appointee is to serve the governmental entity or an <br /> agency thereof, either as a member of an agency, or as an employee thereof; (iii) engaged <br /> in the performance of a governmental function; or (iv) under the supervision or authority <br /> of an elected official or another employee of the governmental entity. The duties <br /> performed by the state agencies are ministerial and they simply serve as a conduit <br /> through which federal funds are disbursed to the Agency, which actually carries out the <br /> functions and purposes of LIHEAP, WAP, AEP, and CSBG. Therefore, the Agency's <br /> employees and board members are not public employees and thus are not required to take <br /> the annual ethics training, pursuant to La. R.S. 42:1170A. <br />
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