| Advisory opinion request and proposed disqualification plan concerning the potential promotion of Emily Stephens as the Assistant Finance Director for the City of Baton Rouge-Parish of East Baton Rouge ("City-Parish"), while her brother's spouse, Marjorie Hanegan, is an employee in the City-Parish Finance Department. |
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The City-Parish Finance Department is comprised of seven divisions, including the Administration Division, which is responsible for supplying general supervision and direction over the other six divisions within the Finance Department. The Assistant Finance Director position in the Administration Division will be advertised in the upcoming months. This is a civil service position, whereby candidates must apply and are appointed by the Finance Director. In the absence of the Finance Director, this position would be considered the agency head.
One of the candidates interested in this position is Emily Stephens, the Finance Department Budgeting Manager. However, her brother's spouse, Marjorie Hanegan, has been employed by the City-Parish of East Baton Rouge since January 18, 2022, initially working in the Purchasing Office before transferring to the Finance Department-Service Fee Business Office Division as the Account Service Specialist on September 9, 2024.
Proposed Disqualification Plan
If Emily Stephens is promoted as the Assistant Finance Director, she is prohibited by La. R.S. 42:1112(B)(1) from participating in any transaction in which Marjorie Hanegan, her brother's spouse, has a substantial economic interest; she will not be involved in any employment decisions regarding leave requests/approvals, performance evaluations, disciplinary actions, pay increases, promotions, demotions, or any other activity that pertains to Marjorie Hanegan's employment with the Finance Department; she will not be an authorized signature on payroll distribution reports; and any decisions or activities regarding Marjorie Hanegan, which are normally performed by the Assistant Finance Director, will be assigned to the Finance Director who is currently Angie Savoy.
Additionally, the following policy and procedure would be enforced to further ensure that no supervisor responsibilities are performed by Emily Stephens with respect to Marjorie Hanegan, whose immediate supervisor is the Revenue Supervisor in the Finance Department-Service Fee Business Office Division. In the absence of the Revenue Supervisor, the Assistant Service Fee Business Manager and/or Service Fee Business Manager would supervise Marjorie Hanegan. If, for some reason, none of these positions are available to supervise Marjorie Hanegan, her chain of supervisors would be the Assistant Financial Projects Coordinator, the Financial Projects Coordinator, and/or the Finance Director.
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La. R.S. 42:1112B(1) provides 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. 42:1112C allows a disqualification plan to be developed in accordance with rules adopted by the Board to remove a public servant from participating in transactions that would otherwise present violations of Section 1112 of the Code.
La. R.S. 42:1119A provides that no member of the immediate family of an agency head shall be employed in his agency.
La. R.S. 42:1102(2)(a) 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(3) defines "agency head" to mean the chief executive or administrative officer of an agency.
La. R.S. 42:1102(12) 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 the proposed advisory opinion and approve the proposed disqualification plan.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Jessica Meiners |
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