| Advisory opinion regarding William Owens working for the Mary Rives Gallaspy Trust #2, which has a financial relationship with Northwestern State University Foundation while William Owens is employed with Northwestern State University. |
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William Owens is employed with Northwestern State University as the Director of University Advancement. He manages the departments of Alumni Affairs, Institutional Development and University Marketing and Branding. His responsibilities include coordinating university wide fund raising and alumni outreach efforts, maintaining open lines of communication with key internal and external constituents and working closely with university administration to ensure institutional mission and corresponding initiatives are carried out.
By virtue of his position, Mr. Owens also serves as the Executive Director of the NSU Foundation, a private nonprofit corporation, organized to serve the University, its students and its faculty, primarily through financial resources secured and distributed by the Foundation. The Foundation was named the sole income beneficiary of the Mary Rives Gallaspy Trust #2, which constitutes a substantial grant of scholarship money to the Foundation. The Foundation, through its board of directors, will serve as the trustee. The Foundation will be responsible for managing and conducting the affairs of the Trust and its property to maximize the scholarship funds for the University. The Foundation intends to hire a manager to handle this oversight. The Foundation would like to hire Mr. Owens to manage the Trust. Mr. Owens would be paid directly by the Trust for his outside and part-time services.
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Mr. Owens has requested to withdraw his request for an advisory opinion as the trustees of the trust have conferred and determined there will not be a need for management of the trust assets at any time in the near future. The trust is involved in litigation involving property willed to the trust, which will be ongoing for a considerable amount of time. Since the succession will not be complete until the litigation is complete, the executors of the estate will continue to manage the assets.
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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 that has or is seeking to have a contractual, business or financial relationship with the public servant's agency; that conducts operations or activities that are regulated by the public employees' agency; or has a substantial economic interest which may be substantially affected by the performance or nonperformance of the public employee's official duty.
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Allow the request for advisory opinion to be withdrawn.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Tracy Barker |
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