| Advisory Opinion Request from Sarah Nash, on behalf of RoyaltyStat, LLC (the "Company"), as to whether the Company may hire a former employee of the Louisiana Department of Revenue ("LDR") to provide certain services to its clients. |
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Casey Fontenot is a former employee of LDR. Ms. Fontenot served as a Revenue Tax Auditor for three years in the Field Audit Income Tax Division of LDR, and then served an additional year as a Revenue Tax Auditor Supervisor. In her role as a supervisor, her duties included accompanying auditors in their meetings with taxpayers, assigning case inventory, monitoring performance standards, conducting performance evaluations, and supervising audit procedures. The supervisor role is expressly designed to be an assistant to the Revenue Tax Director over a team of auditors in a defined geographical area. Ms. Fontenot's employment with LDR ended in January 2022.
RoyaltyStat would like to hire Ms. Fontenot to provide certain services relating to transfer pricing, including certain matters related to LDR. Ms. Fontenot would not be performing any services on any matters she was involved in with LDR and would not be performing the same services she provided for LDR.
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La. R.S. 42:1121B provides that no former public employee shall (1) for a period of two years following the termination of his public employment, assist another person, for compensation, in a transaction, or in an appearance in connection with a transaction in which such former public employee participated at any time during his public employment and involving the governmental entity by which he was formerly employed, or (2) for a period of two years following the termination of his public employment, render, any service which such former public employee had rendered to the agency during the term of his public employment on a contractual basis, regardless of the parties to the contract, to, for, or on behalf of the agency with which he was formerly employed.
La. R.S. 42:1102(3) defines "agency head" to mean the chief executive or administrative officer of an agency or any member of a board or commission who exercises supervision over the agency.
La. R.S. 42:1102(18)(a) defines "public employee" to mean anyone, whether compensated or not, who is (i) an administrative officer or official of a governmental entity who is not filling an elective office; (ii) appointed by any elected official when acting in an official capacity, and the appointment is to a post or position wherein the appointee is to serve the governmental entity or an agency thereof, either as a member of an agency, or as an employee thereof; (iii) engaged in the performance of a governmental function; (iv) under the supervision or authority of an elected official or another employee of the governmental entity.
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Adopt proposed advisory opinion.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Charles Reeves |
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