Meetings
 
Agenda Item
Docket No. 20-570
 
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RE:
A Request for an Advisory Opinion, submitted by Tanya Wood, regarding whether the Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics ("Code") would prohibit deputy sheriffs from patronizing Perfect Stitches embroidery shop after Sheriff Mark Wood was elected as Rapides Parish Sheriff.
Facts:
Sheriff Mark Wood was elected to the position of Sheriff of Rapides Parish on October 12, 2019. Prior to his election, he was a deputy with the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office ("RPSO"). The RPSO deputies would patronize his business, Perfect Stitches, to have personal shirts embroidered with their names and badge numbers. The items to be embroidered were purchased personally by the individual deputies, not the RPSO. Furthermore, the individual deputies personally remitted payments for the invoices reflecting the embroidery ordered.
Law:
La. R.S. 42:1111(C)(2)(d) provides that no public servant and no legal entity in which the public servant exercises control or owns an interest in excess of twenty-five percent, shall receive any thing of economic value for or in consideration of services rendered, or to be rendered, to or for any person during his public service unless such services are: (d) Neither performed for nor compensated by 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 obtain contractual or other business or financial relationships with the public servant's agency; conducts operations or activities which are regulated by the public employee's agency; or has substantial economic interests which may be substantially affected by the performance or nonperformance of the public employee's official duty.

La. R.S. 42:1112(A) states that no public servant, except as provided in R.S. 42:1120, shall participate in a transaction in which he has a personal substantial economic interest of which he may be reasonably expected to know involving the governmental entity.
La. R.S. 42:1112(B)(1) states that no public servant shall participate in a transaction involving the governmental entity in which, to his actual knowledge, any member of his immediate family has a substantial economic interest.
La. R.S. 42:1113(A)(1)(a) states no public servant, excluding any legislator and any appointed member of any board of commission and any member of a governing authority of a parish with a population of ten thousand or less, or member of such a public servant's immediate family, or legal entity in which he has a controlling interest shall bid on or enter into any contract, subcontract, or other transaction that is under the supervision or jurisdiction of the agency of such public servant.


Recommendations:
Adopt the proposed advisory opinion.
Assigned Attorney: LaToya D. Jordan
 
 
ATTACHMENTS:
Description:
2020-09-21 Advisory Opinion.v2.draft (Docket No. 2020-570)
2020-570 - Advisory Opinion Request Tonya Wood