| Advisory opinion request regarding whether Spencer Guilbeau may be appointed to the Cottonport Town Council while he is employed as a Vice President, Branch Manager and Loan Officer for Cottonport Bank. |
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Mr. Guilbeau has been offered an appointment to the Town of Cottonport Town Council to fill a vacant position for the remaining term. The Town of Cottonport has several deposit accounts and credit cards with the Cottonport Bank, of which he is the account officer. His appointment to the Town Council would not involve him being placed on any signature cards or being added to any accounts at the Cottonport Bank. The Bank occasionally purchases bond securities issued by the Town of Cottonport, however, these purchases are handled by another department of the Bank, and he is in no way involved in those transactions.
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La. R.S. 42:1111C(2)(d) provides that no public servant and no legal entity in which the public servant exercises control or owns an interest in excess of twenty-five percent, shall receive any thing of economic value for or in consideration of services rendered, or to be rendered, to or for any person during his public service unless such services are neither performed for nor compensated by any person from who such public servant would be prohibited by R.S. 42:1115A(1) or (B) from receiving a gift.
La. R.S. 42:1115A(1) provides that no public servant shall solicit or accept, directly or indirectly, anything of economic value as a gift or gratuity from any person or from any officer, director, agent, or employee of such person, if such public servant knows or reasonably should know that such person has or is seeking to obtain contractual or other business or financial relationships with the public servant's agency.
La. R.S. 42:1114A provides that each public servant and each member of his immediate family who derives anything of economic value, directly, through any transaction involving the agency of such public servant or who derives any thing of economic value of which he may be reasonably expected to know through a person which (1) is regulated by the agency of such public servant, or (2) has bid on or entered into or is in any way financially interested in any contract, subcontract, or any transaction under the supervision or jurisdiction of the agency of such public servant shall disclose certain information as set forth in Section 1114.
La. R.S. 39:1233.1 provides that notwithstanding any provision of Chapter 15 of Title 42 of the Revised Statutes of 1950 or any other law to the contrary, any member of a local depositing authority, including the chief executive officer thereof, may serve as an officer, director, or employee, whether compensated or not, of any national or state bank; provided that he shall recuse himself from voting in favor of any such bank and shall disclose the reason for such recusal by filing same into the minutes or record of the local depositing authority and by forwarding a disclosure form to the Board of Ethics.
La. R.S. 42:1102 (9) "Elected official" means any person holding an office in a governmental entity which is filled by the vote of the appropriate electorate. It shall also include any person appointed to fill a vacancy in such offices.
La. R.S. 42:1102 (19) "Public servant" means a public employee or an elected official.
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Adopt draft advisory opinion.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Suzanne Mooney |
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