Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, is one of many lawmakers angry with the Louisiana Board of Ethics. (Photo by Allison Allsop/Louisiana Illuminator)
Louisiana lawmakers on Wednesday threatened to subpoena and remove members of the state ethics board in an intensifying move of the struggle to enforce the state’s code of ethics.
Members of the Louisiana House and Governmental Affairs Committee lashed out at the ethics committee for failing to act on legislative requests to delay the hiring of a new administrator until January. At that point, Governor Jeff Landry will gain more control over the administration through a new set of appointees.
“I think this is a situation where we need to take action to remove board members,” Rep. Candance Newell, D-New Orleans, said during a public hearing Wednesday at the state Capitol. “There should be some kind of punishment for them.”
There are two state senators sue the ethics committee on the same issue and had a judge issue a restraining order to temporarily prevent members from serving on their board. Still, House committee members want to go further.
“As for removing board members, do you think this is a legislative issue? A governor’s deal? Who would be responsible for removing board members if they were found to be doing something illegal?” committee chairman Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, asked current ethics administrator Kathleen Allen during Wednesday’s hearing.
The ethics board is responsible for enforcing campaign finance laws and preventing conflicts of interest for elected officials, civil servants and lobbyists. It can impose fines on politicians for several types of violations, including failure to file campaign finance information and personal disclosure forms on time.
Landry had a fraught relationship with the ethics commission long before he became governor. Among several groups of appointees, members have reprimanded him several times.
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In the most high-profile incident, the administration charged Landry last year with failing to disclose a flight he took as attorney general on a political donor’s plane to Hawaii. The case has not yet been resolved and Landry is still negotiating with the board about what his sentence should be.
In recent months, lawmakers from both political parties have attacked the administration for what they describe as aggressive and unlawful investigations. Lawmakers have pushed back against the administration’s interpretation of campaign finance rules who limit the expenditure of their political action committees.
Unless the board fines or charges an official with misconduct, his investigations remain private. That confidentiality makes it difficult to determine whether lawmakers angry about the ethics committee’s actions were ever investigated by the group.
It is also difficult to determine the extent to which Landry’s activities have been questioned by the board.
“Nobody in the public has any idea what you’re doing and why you’re doing it,” Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, told Allen, who represented ethics board members at Wednesday’s hearing.
“I hope this is something you all get charged for. I hope you lose because you are the Ethics Council and that is unacceptable,” he said.
Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, suggested the House committee use its subpoena power to compel ethics board chair La Koshia Roberts of Lake Charles to appear at a future meeting. The board has levied thousands of dollars in fines against Marcelle for filing her campaign finance reports late.
Beaullieu told Marcelle that the committee would explore that option.
Lawmakers allege the ethics commission violated government transparency laws when its members discussed behind closed doors the hiring of an administrator to replace Allen. They said the issue should have been openly discussed at a public meeting.
In their lawsuit, Sens. claim. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, and Stewart Cathey, R-Monroe, also said the ethics committee broke the law by not taking the required vote to go into private session to discuss the administrator’s position.
Allen walked back those allegations Wednesday, telling lawmakers she believes the board has met the state’s legal requirements for open meetings.
She attributed the confusion to the fact that all minutes of the ethics board meetings had not yet been made public. An examination of that missing data would show that board members acted appropriately, she said.
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“Everything we did during [the private] I think an executive session is appropriate,” she told lawmakers.
In addition to choosing a new ethics administrator, Rep. Ed Larvadain, D-Alexandria, also made a personal accusation at Allen.
“You have a history of not including African Americans [on the ethics board’s staff],” Larvadain said to Allen.
“I find it insulting that I excluded African Americans. I have never directed any employee to exclude anyone based on race or gender,” Allen responded.
About 20% of the ethics board’s staff is African American, Allen said, but more than 30% of Louisiana’s population is black.
Black employees are underrepresented in white-collar state government jobs, such as those at ethics commissions, and Black lawmakers often question agencies about the makeup of their workforces.
In the new year, when Landry gains more control over the ethics committee, it will lose some of its current independence.
Landry and lawmakers approved a new law that will allow them to directly elect ethics board members starting in 2025.
Previous governors and legislative leaders had to select board members from lists of candidates that leaders of Louisiana’s private colleges and universities recommend. The old system was an attempt to insulate the government from outside political pressure.
