| Request for an Advisory Opinion from Caddo Parish (pop. 254,969) School Board member, Susannah Walter Poljak, relative to her serving as executive director of a local political action committee and whether she could serve on the South Highlands Elementary Magnet Foundation Board, a private 501(c)(3) corporation serving a public elementary school in Caddo Parish. |
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Susannah Walter Poljak is a member of the Caddo Parish School Board whose term ends in January 2019. Ms. Poljak desires to serve as the paid executive director for a local political action committee called Citizens For A Better Caddo (PAC). The executive director of the PAC is responsible for finding candidates to run for City Council seats, help candidates for City Council create an election strategy, assist in fundraising efforts on behalf of candidates for City Council, and inform the PAC about issues that affect the City Council.
Ms. Poljak would also like to serve on the South Highlands Elementary Magnet Foundation Board (Foundation). South Highlands Elementary Magnet School is a Caddo Parish public school in which Ms. Poljak's children attend. The Foundation is a private 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation and Ms. Poljak would receive no compensation for her service on the board of the Foundation. The foundation does not appear before the Caddo Parish School Board.
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La. R.S. 42:1111C(2)(d) prohibits a public servant and a legal entity in which the public servant exercises control or owns an interest from receiving any thing of economic value for services rendered to or for any person during his public service unless such services are neither performed for nor compensated by any person who (1) has or is seeking to have a contractual, business or financial relationship with the public servant's agency; (2) conducts operations or activities that are regulated by the public employee's agency; or, (3) has a substantial economic interest which may be substantially affected by the performance or nonperformance of the public employee's official duty.
La. R.S. 42:1112B(3) prohibits a public servant, except as provided in R.S. 42:1120, from participating in a transaction involving the governmental entity in which, to his actual knowledge, any person of which he is an officer, director, trustee, partner, or employee has a substantial economic interest.
La. R.S. 42:1123(1) excludes from the Code of Governmental Ethics participation in the affairs of charitable, religious, nonprofit educational, public service, or civic organizations.
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Adopt the proposed advisory opinion.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Greg Thibodeaux |
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