Louisiana AG launches investigation into ethics board’s alleged open meetings violations

by Julie O’Donoghue, Louisiana Illuminator
December 5, 2024

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has launched an investigation into the state Board of Ethics for allegedly violating government transparency laws through private discussions about replacing its top staff member.

Murrill opened the inquiry in response to a letter from state Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, who chairs the Louisiana House committee that oversees the ethics board. 

The lawmaker sent a letter to Murrill in November outlining seven instances in September and October where he thought the ethics board may have violated the state’s open government meetings statute. 

“We’re treating the letter from the legislator as an open meetings complaint and we are investigating accordingly,” Lester Duhé, Murrill’s spokesman, said in a written statement this week. 

The board’s ethics administrator, Kathleen Allen, maintains that the board did not violate the open meetings law in September and October. She chalked up much of the dispute to missing board meeting minutes not posted on the ethics board’s website for the public to view.

“The minutes posted online do not reflect that the Board always take[s] a vote to resolve into executive session and to exit into general session,” Allen wrote in response to a letter from Murrill’s office. 

The attorney general’s investigation is part of a much larger feud involving the ethics board, state lawmakers and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry.

 

The ethics board investigates local and state government officials – everyone from the governor to small town employees – for potential corruption, conflicts of interest and campaign finance violations. It can fine and charge public servants with violating the state ethics code, though its ability to fully enforce those laws remains relatively weak. 

Landry has had a fraught relationship with the board for years after being reprimanded multiple times for ethical and campaign finance problems. Since he become governor in January, legislators have ramped up their complaints about the board’s conduct. 

The current board appointees come from former Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and Republican state lawmakers who are no longer in office. Landry and the new GOP legislative leadership won’t get to place their own nominees on the board until next month.

Beaullieu and Murrill are both political allies of the governor. 

In his letter, Beaullieu alleged the board did not properly notify the public it was going to discuss Allen’s resignation and inappropriately initiated the process to replace her during its private meeting on Sept. 5. He also said such actions were not properly recorded in the board’s meeting minutes. 

The lawmaker also accused members of inappropriately discussing a request from Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, during another private board meeting Oct. 25. 

Henry had asked the board to delay hiring a new ethics administrator until appointees from himself, Landry and House Speaker Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, join the board in 2025. The board disregarded his request and is likely to pick a new ethics administrator Friday, a month before the new board members join. 

In her letter, Allen said Beaullieu may not have the full picture of what the board had done at its October and September meetings because the board had not made all of its meeting minutes available publicly.

She said the board has been in the habit of only posting the minutes from the second of its two-day monthly meetings on its website. The missing minutes show that the board took the public votes it needed before and after it went into its private discussions, she said.

“[I]t appears that since the Board started the 2- day meeting schedule, (over 14 years ago), the minutes posted online have been from the general meeting only, and did not include the general portion of the first day of the meeting when the Board resolved into executive session,” she wrote. 

Allen also said she did not present her letter of resignation to the board prior to its September meeting, which is why it wasn’t specifically mentioned on the advertised agenda. 

“This decision was not done to avoid disclosure, rather it was done out of respect for the Board and for the staff. I wanted to express my intentions and provide my personal reasons for doing so to the Board first; and, then, inform my staff. I wanted my staff to hear it from me before they heard it from anyone else,” she said. 

In addition attorney general’s investigation, legislators also attempted to halt the board from hiring a new ethics administrator to replace Allen through a lawsuit.

A Baton Rouge judge in the 19th Judicial District Court sided with the ethics board, however, and dismissed that suit earlier this week. The Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal also declined a request from legislators to block the hiring of a new administrator this week.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and X.