| Advisory opinion regarding whether Quad Area Community Action Agency, Inc.'s employees and members of its Board of Directors are required to take the annual ethics training, in accordance with La. R.S. 42:1170A. |
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The Quad Area Community Action Agency, Inc. (Agency) is a private, non-profit community action agency that has operated in Louisiana since 1976. It administers federal grants to assist low-income, needy, elderly, and disabled residents in various parishes including Ascension, East Feliciana, Livingston, St. Helena, Tangipahoa, Washington, and West Feliciana. The following federal grants are awarded to the Agency through the State of Louisiana:
1. Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) - federal funds received through the Louisiana Housing Corporation (LHC) to assist low income households in offsetting the burden of high energy costs.
2. Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) - federal funds received through LHC insulate the dwellings of low income persons particularly the elderly and handicapped, in order to aid those persons least able to afford higher energy costs and to conserve energy.
3. Adult Education Program (AEP) - federal funds received through the Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS) to prepare individuals for GED testing, allowing them to raise their education level to successfully enter the workforce.
4. Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) - federal funds received through the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) to support the Agency's administration and programmatic issues that other grants do not provide. Additionally, the Agency provides services for emergency assistance, including rent/mortgage, utility assistance and food; life alert systems and fans/heaters for the elderly; book sacks to children for the current school year.
For LIHEAP, WAP, AEP, and CSBG, the federal agencies dictate the program requirements and the state agencies serve in a supervisory capacity with limited discretion. The duties performed by the state agencies are ministerial and they simply serve as a conduit through which federal funds are disbursed to non-profits like the Agency, which actually carry out the functions and purposes of the programs.
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The Louisiana Supreme Court, in PIAL v. Theriot, 99-1152 (La. 2010), found that all of the following four factors, originally set forth in State v. Smith, 357 So.2d 505 (La. 1978), must be present in order to find that an entity is public: (1) whether the entity was created by the legislature; (2) whether its powers were specifically defined by the legislature; (3) whether the property of the entity belongs to the public; and (4) whether the entity's functions are exclusively of a public character and performed solely for the public benefit.
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La. R.S. 42:1170A requires each public servant to receive a minimum of one hour of education and training on the Code of Governmental Ethics during each year of his public employment or term of office, as the case may be.
La. R.S. 42:1102(19) provides that "public servant" means a public employee or an elected official.
La. R.S. 42:1102(18)(a) provides that "public employee" means anyone, whether compensated or not, who is: (i) an administrative officer or official of a governmental entity who is not filling an elective office; (ii) appointed by any elected official when acting in an official capacity, and the appointment is to a post or position wherein the appointee is to serve the governmental entity or an agency thereof, either as a member of an agency, or as an employee thereof; (iii) engaged in the performance of a governmental function; or (iv) under the supervision or authority of an elected official or another employee of the governmental entity.
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Adopt the proposed advisory opinion.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Haley Williams |
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