Louisiana Lawmaker Asks AG to Investigate Ethics Committee for Alleged Open Meeting Violation

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana reliever) – A state lawmaker asks the attorney general to investigate the Ethics Council for violations of government transparency laws. He claims the ethics board is using an illegal and secretive process to hire a new state ethics administrator, the board’s key employee.

“It appears that the Council is choosing to engage in political games rather than hold itself to a higher standard,” Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, wrote in a letter sent Tuesday to the chairman of the Ethics Board, La Koshia Roberts, and copied to the attorney. General Liz Murrill.

Beaullieu hopes the investigation can halt the current hiring process for administrators. Republican legislative leaders had asked the ethics board last month to wait to pick a new administrator until January, when most of the board will be filled with new appointees from Gov. Jeff Landry and the Legislature.

However, the ethics board’s current membership, largely chosen by former Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, is quickly moving through the interview process. It plans to have a new one administrator installed at the end of DecemberRoberts told a reporter at the Oct. 25 board meeting.

The board will personally interview four potential candidates Thursday, including: David Bordelon, Matthew McConnell, Charles Reeves and Scott Whitford. At least two of the candidates, Bordelon and Reeves, already work as staff attorneys for the ethics board.

This hiring dispute is just the latest in a series of escalating disagreements between the current ethics commission, the governor and his Republican allies in the Legislature.

The ethics committee has reprimanded and fined Landry several times over the years for violating campaign finance requirements and ethics laws. Shortly after becoming governor in January, he pushed through a law to gain more control over the board’s operations by 2025.

Lawmakers did that also criticized the ethics committee because they are “abusive” and aggressive in their investigation of possible violations of the law. The board has passed cracking down on the activities of political action committees led by lawmakerswhich seems to irritate them.

Beaullieu, an ally of Landry, is chairman of the Louisiana House and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees the ethics board. In his letter to Roberts, he chastised the ethics board members for choosing a new administrator too quickly and keeping too much of their discussion about the new hire in private meetings on September 5 and October 25.

“My question during the meeting ‘who is watching the spectators’ seems most appropriate in this series of events,” Beaullieu wrote in his letter.

Beaullieu wants the attorney general to investigate whether the board violated the state’s open meeting laws, which are intended to ensure transparency in government. Government officials are expected to conduct certain types of business at public meetings, but they may also have certain conversations privately about personnel matters.

Roberts could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Current ethics administrator Kathleen Allen said the board would discuss Beaullieu’s letter later this week.

“The Board of Ethics did not meet to review Representative Beaullieu’s letter, so I have no comment from the Board,” Allen said in an email Wednesday. “However, the letter has been added to the additional general agenda of the Board of Directors so that it can be discussed at Friday’s meeting.”

Beaullieu seems particularly annoyed that the period to apply for the ethics manager position was only open for ten days – from October 15 to 25 – and that it was not widely advertised.

“Such a short time frame for promoting a major role limits opportunities for a diverse candidate pool,” he wrote. “It appears the board met the minimum timeline requirements to announce the position, but without greater effort.”

In this case, Beaullieu claims that the ethics committee’s discussions about the retirement of Allen, the current administrator, were overdone and that the hiring of her replacement took place behind closed doors.

Specifically, Beaullieu alleges that the board failed to hold the required public vote at its September 5 meeting to initiate a closed session to discuss the candidate search. He also said the details of what would be discussed at that meeting were not properly advertised or recorded in advance. Many of the decisions made during that private session — including when the ethics administrator position would be advertised — should also have been discussed publicly, he said.

Beaullieu’s letter also accused the board of acting improperly at its Oct. 25 meeting, when it did not specify whether it would discuss a written request from Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, to delay the hiring of a new administrator until January. If Henry’s request was discussed in the closed session of the board, the board violated the state’s open meetings law because the matter should have been discussed at a public meeting, Beaullieu claims.

In an interview Wednesday, Beaullieu said he did not discuss his request for an investigation with Henry or the attorney general before sending the letter.

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