| Advisory Opinion request from Deirdre Fontenot, Child Welfare Services Assistant with the Dept. of Children & Family Services in St. Mary Parish. |
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Dierdre Fontenot is currently employed as a Child Welfare Service Assistant in the Child Welfare Division with the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services ("DCFS") in St. Mary Parish. Her husband, Alex Fontenot, is also employed as a Child Welfare Service Assistant with DCFS in St. Martin Parish. Ms. Fonetnot's office provides services for children that are being placed in foster care in St. Mary Parish, while her husband's office provides the same services in St. Martin Parish. Their duties include assisting support staff in providing child welfare services to clients, transporting clients to various services, monitoring family visitation between caregivers and children with parents, and scheduling client transportation for follow-up visits. Neither Ms. Fontenot, nor Mr. Fontenot, provide services outside of their respective parishes.
DCFS has created a certification process that allows DCFS employees to become approved as a foster home setting for children, provided that certain additional requirements are met that are designed to prevent bias, abuse of authority, favoritism, and/or use of influence in the certification, placement, or service delivery processes. DCFS requires the employee to enter into an Employee Certification Agreement, prior to approval, to avoid any conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest. DCFS requires the employee to apply in the same manner as non-employee applicants and prohibits the employee from participating in all staff or agency transactions involving the approval or denial of the foster home application. DCFS requires the applicant to pass a background check, investigation, and walk-through of the home prior to being approved as a foster home setting. The DCFS process requires that all approval activities be conducted by a DCFS office outside of the parish in which the employee serves. Any approval of the application would come from the DCFS Regional Administrator. Once approved, DCFS policy prohibits the employee from accepting a foster placement for any child for whom he is responsible as part of the employee's job duties. Additionally, any child placement would be assigned by the DCFS Regional Administrator, with the agreement and supervision of the Child Welfare Manager.
Ms. Fontenot has created Serenity Place Foster Services, LLC. She intends to provide a temporary home for children to be placed into while awaiting placement with a foster home. She would provide hot meals, bath facilities, entertainment, warm beds, and an overall safe environment for the children while the DCFS case worker locates a foster home that can house children and their siblings in one place. Ms. Fontenot stated that she would not house children from either the St. Mary Parish or St. Martin Parish DCFS offices.
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La. R.S. 42:1113A(1)(a): No public servant, excluding any legislator and any appointed member of any board or 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.
La. R.S. 42:1102(2)(a)(i) defines "agency" for public servants in an executive branch department of state government to mean the office in which such public servant carries out his primary responsibilities.
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Adopt the proposed advisory opinion.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
David Bordelon |
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