| A Request for an Advisory Opinion, submitted Lynn Dias-Button, regarding whether the Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics ("Code") would prohibit her from accepting a part-time position with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana ("BCBSLA") while maintaining her employment with the Louisiana Workforce Commission ("LWC") - Unemployment Insurance division ("UI"). |
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Mrs. Dias-Button is currently employed full-time by LWC/UI as a Workforce Development Specialist 5. Her duties include: 1) drafting communications for use in messaging to unemployment claimants; and, 2) handling staff administration access for unemployment-affiliated staff to the LWC's online HiRE system. HiRE is an online job seeker/workforce services system, accessed as a web site on the Internet or an Intranet at a OneStop Center. It was specifically designed for job seekers, students, case managers, employers, training providers, workforce professionals, and others seeking benefits and services. She serves as the primary administrator for LWC/UI's use of HiRE, including system settings, message blasts, setting system holidays, etc. She has been employed by LWC since April 2009 and in UI since 2011.
Prior to her employment with LWC, she was employed at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana ("BCBSLA"), in what is now the Strategic Communications Department. She was approached by the Strategic Communications Department with the opportunity to work part-time (evenings and weekends only) as a proofreader. She would continue to work full-time in her current position, with her planned retirement scheduled for February 2023.
Since BCBSLA provides health insurance services through the Office of Group Benefits ("OGB") and she has coverage with BCBSLA through the OGB, both the BCBSLA hiring managers and she want to ensure that there is no ethics concerns involved with working part-time for BCBSLA outside of her normal LWC/UI work hours.
She does not handle any health insurance matters for the LWC/UI. Likewise, she would not be doing any writing for BCBSLA. Her proposed job duties would only be providing a final proofread of communications that has already been vetted and approved by BCBSLA subject matter experts. Her responsibilities will be restricted to only reviewing and identifying any misspellings or grammatical and punctuation errors that need correction.
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La. R.S. 42:1102(2)(a)(i) defines "agency" to mean a department, office, division, agency, commission, board, committee, or other organizational unit of a governmental entity. "Agency of the public servant" and "his agency" when used in reference to the agency of a public servant shall mean for public servants in the twenty principal departments of the executive branch of state government, the office in which such public servant carries out his primary responsibilities.
La. R.S. 42:1102(15) defines "participate" as meaning to take part in or to has or share responsibility for action of a governmental entity or a proceeding, personally, as a public servant of the governmental entity, through approval, disapproval, decision, recommendation, the rendering of advice, investigation, or the failure to act or perform a duty.
La. R.S. 42:1111(C)(1)(a) prohibits a public servant from receiving any thing of economic value for any service, the subject matter of which is devoted substantially to the responsibilities, programs, or operations of the agency of the public servant and in which the public servant has participated.
La. R.S. 42:1112(B)(3) prohibits a public servant from participating in a governmental transaction, involving the governmental entity, in which any person of which he is an officer, director, trustee, partner, or employee has a substantial economic interest.
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Adopt the proposed opinion.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
LaToya D. Jordan |
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