Ethics cases delayed

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Nov 19, 2008 - Page: 12A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Hearings on state ethics law violations won’t restart until next year — a more than six-month lapse in the policing of Louisiana’s conflict of interest, nepotism and other laws, officials said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Louisiana Board of Ethics on Tuesday received the names of 27 people who have applied to be chief ethics administrator — a job that’s been vacant since late June as mass resignations hit the board.

The applicant pool includes the ethics deputy counsel, a Louisiana Supreme Court executive, current and former assistant attorneys general, government agency lawyers, private practice attorneys and a former section chief in the 19th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

The developments come as officials struggle to get back on track to implement and enforce new laws pushed by Gov. Bobby Jindal.

The trouble began over a Jindal-backed law stripping the Ethics Board of its power to decide whether conflict of interest, nepotism and other laws have been violated.

The law turned the decision-making authority over to panels of administrative law judges — state employees hired by a governor’s appointee. Ten of 11 Ethics Board members resigned in the months after the change as well as ethics administrator and general counsel Richard Sherburne. A new board did not take office until late October.

The Ethics Board has not yet turned over the files on pending charges of misconduct to the newly appointed administrative law judge panels, said Vivian Guillory, general counsel of the Division of Administrative law.

Even if the cases are transferred soon, a 60-day notice of hearing must be given which puts the first hearings into next year, said Guillory.

The administrative law judges chosen in October to sit on the panels won’t hear a single case because their term ends Dec. 31, Guillory said. New panels of judges will be chosen for 2009 at next month’s Ethics Board meeting, she said.

Guillory said her office has not been told how many cases to expect for hearings.

Ethics deputy general counsel Kathleen Allen said her office is working on turning over 30 to 40 cases to the administrative law judges for hearings.

Allen said the cases could be in the law judges’ office by the end of the week.

On Tuesday, the state’s employment agency — Civil Service — sent packets of information about the 27 applicants for the ethics administrator job to all 11 Ethics Board members, said Civil Service official Kenyetta Sewell.