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Ethics Board Docket No. 2024-113 <br /> Page 5 of 11 <br /> 12. <br /> On December 19, 2023, at 10:00 a.m., the road material bids were opened and read aloud <br /> at the UPPJ Office.At 10:33 a.m. on December 19,2023,Tommy Durrett sent a text message that <br /> said, "Congrats. You got the bid. Thanks"to Mark Hartman. <br /> 13. <br /> On December 28, 2023, during a special session meeting, the UPPJ unanimously passed a <br /> motion to award the road material bids for the period of January 1, 2024, through December 31, <br /> 2024, which included the bid awarded to Ergon. <br /> 14. <br /> On February 6, 2024, during a regular session meeting, the UPPJ passed a motion to <br /> terminate Tommy Durrett as the Public Works Director for the stated reason of unsatisfactory <br /> performance. He was then asked to turn in his work cell phone, keys, and truck. <br /> 15. <br /> If called to testify, Tommy Durrett would state that he was invited as a personal friend of <br /> Mr. Hartman to the Ergon Christmas party in Nashville in December 2023 and accepted the <br /> invitation as a friend, not as a representative of UPPJ; that upon their arrival to the hotel, his wife <br /> presented a personal credit card to secure the reservation, as they fully intended to pay for their <br /> stay,but upon checkout they discovered the bill had been settled by Mr. Hartman. Tommy Durrett <br /> would also state that he now understands that, as a public employee with the UPPJ,his acceptance <br /> of hotel accommodations paid for by an employee of a UPPJ vendor was a violation of the <br /> Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics, even though it was not done with ill intent, and that in <br />