"The chairman of Louisiana's ethics board has announced his resignation along with at least one other board member and the board's administrator. Chairman Henry Perret and John W. Greene said they are departing effective Friday. The board's administrator, attorney Richard Sherburne, also said he's leaving." (See: "Louisiana Ethics Board Chair Quits").
"Perret and Greene said they are leaving because the role of the ethics board is changing." id.
As you will recall, HB 41, of the First Special Session of 2008, now Act No. 23, gutted the Ethics Board by taking away its adjudicatory function and giving it to the governor controlled Division of Administrative Law, and also contained the Kostelka amendment, put on after consultation with Gov. Jindal's Executive Counsel Jimmy Faircloth, Jr., which makes it harder to prove ethics violations.
This follows closely on the heels of Lake Charles attorney Clayton Davis, who quit in May, and whose replacement hasn't even been picked yet. Also, Pineville attorney Mike Johnson resigned just a few days ago. With the Board unable to have a quorum at last month's meeting, even if there are no other resignations, this will probably shut the Ethics Board down for several months. It is unknown whether or not the Board has even picked the three Administrative Law judges to handle its hearings as of the August 15, 2008 date that they will take over.
Well Governor, it looks like your "Gold Standard" on ethics is off to a terrible start.
Update:
Vice-chairman and Gwen Hamilton of Baton Rouge also has resigned. (See: "State ethics administrator, board members to resign").
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