| Advisory opinion regarding whether Hammond City Fire Chief John Thomas may accept an all-expense paid trip as part of winning the Liberty Mutual Firemark Award. |
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Liberty Mutual Insurance sponsors an award entitled the Liberty Mutual Firemark Award. Persons may be nominated who are legal residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia, who are 18 years of age or older and who are currently employed as a volunteer or career firefighter as of the time of entry. Chief John Thomas was nominated for the Liberty Mutual Firemark Award for Community Service, which is an award given to a firefighter who demonstrates a commitment to serving his community. It recognizes firefighters who have given back to their communities beyond their daily responsibilities.
The City of Hammond has been informed that Chief John Thomas won the Liberty Mutual Firemark Award for his outstanding community service. Chief Thomas will be given a trip to New York City for four people.
Liberty Mutual Insurance has no contractual, financial, or other business relationship with the City of Hammond or the Hammond City Fire Department.
Additional Information:
Chief Thomas was nominated by Dawson Primes, the Director of the Tangipahoa Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Mr. Primes states that Chief Thomas serves as a volunteer board member for the Parish Citizen Corp, which meets monthly at the Parish Council Chambers. Chief Thomas volunteers his time to teach the Community Emergency Response Team certification class two to three times per year for the last ten years. Chief Thomas also volunteers his time to serve as an instructor for Incident Command System 300 and 400 level certification classes, which he teaches to assist first responders throughout the parish to be better prepared and equipped to respond to and recover from disasters the parish may experience. Chief Thomas also serves as the Louisiana Wireless Information System 700mhz coordinator for the parish and volunteers to program all radios that have been purchased for the system. Chief Thomas also served as the Emergency Manager for the City of Hammond during hurricanes Katrina, Gustav, and Isaac. Mr. Primes states that Chief Thomas was rightfully awarded this award due to his actions outside of his daily duties of managing the largest fire department in Tangipahoa Parish.
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The Board first considered this matter at its May meeting. The Board directed the staff to gather additional information regarding the community service the fire chief participated in which formed the basis for his nomination for the award. The additional information was obtained and presented to the Board at its September 2016 meeting. The Board was unable to render an opinion by majority vote. This matter is being brought back before the Board for its consideration.
The Board did render an opinion advising that the City of Hammond could accept the $10,000 donation portion of the award since Liberty Mutual was not a prohibited source as defined by the Code of Ethics.
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La. R.S. 42:1111A prohibits a public employee from receiving anything of economic value, other than compensation and benefits from the governmental entity to which he is duly entitled, for the performance of the duties and responsibilities of his office or position.
La. R.S. 42:1115A(1) prohibits a public servant from soliciting or accepting, directly or indirectly, any thing of economic value as a gift or gratuity from any person or from any officer, director, agent, or employee of such person, if such public servant knows or reasonably should know that such person has or is seeking to have a contractual, business or financial relationship with the public servant's agency.
La. R.S. 42:1115B(1) prohibits a public employee from soliciting or accepting, directly or indirectly, any thing of economic value as a gift or gratuity from any person or from any officer, director, agent, or employee of such person, if such public servant knows or reasonably should know that such person conducts operations or activities that are regulated by the public employees' agency.
La. R.S. 42:1115B(2) prohibits a public employee from soliciting or accepting, directly or indirectly, any thing of economic value as a gift or gratuity from any person or from any officer, director, agent, or employee of such person, if such public servant knows or reasonably should know that such person has a substantial economic interest which may be substantially affected by the performance or nonperformance of the public employee's office duty.
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Adopt proposed advisory opinion.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Tracy Barker |
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