Louisiana Legislators Are Earning Big Money From Government Agencies But Dont Have to Disclose It
One state senator earned $836,000 in legal fees representing a sheriff. The amount he disclosed: $13,328. “The notion that you could get public money and not report it in our flim-flammery of an ethics system is ridiculous,” an ethics expert says.
by Rebekah Allen,
The Advocate April 13, 5 a.m. EDT
When the Louisiana Legislature isn’t in session in Baton Rouge, state Sen. Danny Martiny spends his days in his small law office 80 miles away defending law enforcement agencies.
His biggest client, bar none, is the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.
In 2016, the Sheriff’s Office and its insurance company paid Martiny’s firm $836,266 for this work, according to public records. But on legally mandated disclosure forms that legislators must file with the state ethics office, Martiny listed far more modest earnings from the sheriff that year: $13,328.
Martiny, a Metairie Republican, is complying with the state’s ethics laws, but the wide gulf between what he was paid and what he disclosed shows how these rules are full of loopholes and allow legislators to minimize the income they’ve received from public sources, ethics experts said.
“People can write down whatever they want,” said Elliot Stonecipher, a Shreveport-based pollster and government watchdog. “The whole thing has been boiled down to an honor system.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/louisiana-legislators-are-earning-big-money-from-government-agencies-but-dont-have-to-disclose-it-all
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amazing...................
