| Advisory Opinion request from Andrew Price Gay, Jr., Chairman of the Upper Delta Soil & Water Conservation District's Board of Supervisors, regarding his daughter-in-law being employed by a potential district vendor. |
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The Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Office of Soil & Water Conservation provides financial assistance, administrative support, centralized direction, and coordination to Louisiana's 44 Soil & Water Conservation Districts ("SWCDs"). SWCDs are established at the request of resident landowners from within the proposed SWCD to provide conservation planning services within their individual districts. SWCDs are local units of state government and are governed by a board of five supervisors, three of whom are locally elected and two who are appointed by the state Soil and Water Conservation Commission. SWCDs are funded by the Louisiana Legislature and self-generated income, as well as assistance by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The Upper Delta SWCD provides conservation services to landowners within Pointe Coupee and West Baton Rouge Parish Parishes. Andrew Gay Jr. is the appointed chairman of the Upper Delta SWCD's Board of Supervisors in New Roads.
The Upper Delta SWCD has received a grant from the Louisiana Watershed Initiative, which requires it to obtain a Grant Manager to oversee the project. Upper Delta SWCD is considering Rostan Solutions, LLC ("Rostan") as one of the companies for the grant manager position. Mr. Gay's daughter-in-law, Jan Lanoue Gay, is employed by Rostan as a timekeeper and has no ownership interest in Rostan. Mr. Gay stated that Rostan's transaction with the Upper Delta SWCD would have no impact on his daughter-in-law's salary.
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La. R.S. 42:1113B provides that no appointed member of any board or commission, member of his immediate family, or a legal entity in which he has a substantial economic interest, shall bid on or enter into any contract, subcontract, or other transaction which is under the supervision or jurisdiction of the agency of such appointed member.
La. R.S. 42:1112B(1) states that no public servant shall participate in a transaction involving the governmental entity in which, to his actual knowledge, any member of his immediate family has a substantial economic interest.
La. R.S. 42:1114 provides that each public servant and each member of his immediate family ... 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.
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Adopt the proposed advisory opinion.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Jessica Meiners |
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