| Advisory opinion request regarding whether the Code of Governmental Ethics prohibits the brother of the Director of Finance for the City of Opelousas from being employed with the Water Department. |
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LaWanda St. Ann is the Director of Finance for the City of Opelousas. Her brother, Troy St. Ann, is seeking employment with the Water Department as a Laborer III. Ms. St. Ann does not supervise the Water Department.
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La. R.S. 42:1119A states that no member of the immediate family of an agency head shall be employed in his agency.
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. 42:1102 (2)(a)(i) defines "agency" to mean a department, office, division, agency, commission, board, committee, or other organizational unit of a governmental entity.
La. R.S. 42:1102 (2)(a)(vi) For public servants of political subdivisions, "agency" shall mean the agency in which the public servant serves, except that for members of any governing authority and for the elected or appointed chief executive of a governmental entity, it shall mean the governmental entity. Public servants of political subdivisions shall include, but shall not be limited to, elected officials and public employees of municipalities, parishes, and other political subdivisions; sheriffs and their employees; district attorneys and their employees; coroners and their employees; and clerks of court and their employees.
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(13) defines "immediate family" as the term relates to a public servant to mean his children, the spouses of his children, his brothers and their spouses, his sisters and their spouses, his parents, his spouse, and the parents of his spouse.
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Adopt proposed advisory opinion.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Tracy Barker |
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