| Advisory opinion request regarding whether Tishia Boldene's company is prohibited from entering into a subcontractor agreement with Chartwells Higher Education to operate as a food and beverage vendor at LSU New Orleans while her husband works at LSU New Orleans. |
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Tishia Boldene is the sole owner and manager of Squeezy Fresh Juice & Cuzins LLC ("Squeezy Fresh"), a cold-pressed juice business that offers fresh juices, smoothies, and açai bowls. She would like Squeezy Fresh to enter into a subcontractor agreement with Chartwells Higher Education ("Chartwells") to operate as a food and beverage vendor at LSU New Orleans. Chartwells, a division of Compass Group, USA, Inc., is the contracted foodservice management company that operates Dining Services at LSU New Orleans.
Tishia Boldene's husband, Brent Davis, is a Fire and Safety Supervisor in the Office of Facility Services at LSU New Orleans. She states that he has no supervisory or decision-making authority over vendor contracts, procurements, or dining services at LSU New Orleans, and that he has no role or involvement of any kind in the management, operations, or finances of Squeezy Fresh.
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La. R.S. 42:1113A(1)(a) states no public servant, excluding any legislator and any appointed member of any board of commission and any member of a governing authority of a parish with a population of ten thousand or less, or member of such a public servant's immediate family, or legal entity in which he has a controlling interest shall bid on or enter into any contract, subcontract, or other transaction that is under the supervision or jurisdiction of the agency of such public servant.
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(7) defines "controlling interest" to mean any ownership in any legal entity or beneficial interest in a trust, held by or on behalf of an individual or a member of his immediate family, either individually or collectively, which exceeds twenty-five percent of that legal entity.
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.
La. R.S. 42:1102(17)(a) defines "public employee" to mean anyone, whether compensated or not, who is: (i) An administrative officer or official of a governmental entity who is not filling an elective office. (ii) Appointed by any elected official when acting in an official capacity, and the appointment is to a post or position wherein the appointee is to serve the governmental entity or an agency thereof, either as a member of an agency, or as an employee thereof. (iii) Engaged in the performance of a governmental function. (iv) Under the supervision or authority of an elected official or another employee of the governmental entity.
La. R.S. 42:1102(18) defines "public servant" to mean a public employee or an elected official.
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Adopt the proposed advisory opinion.
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| Assigned Attorney: |
Jessica Meiners |
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