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January 16, 2013
Gun debate takes many forms locally
January 22, 2013Lafourche Councilman John Arnold said Wednesday he plans to pull his ordinance extending weekend bar hours from consideration at the council’s next meeting, on Jan. 22.
The ordinance proposed extending bar hours to 3 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings in unincorporated Lafourche Parish. Arnold, who owns a nightclub outside Thibodaux city limits, revealed the plan one day after the district attorney advised against his participation in sponsoring or voting on the measure due to ethical questions.
“I think we’re not ready for it yet,” said Arnold. “I’m going to pull it now until we can get our ducks in a row and get this off with no hitches and no drama.”
Arnold said the additional two hours of business each week would have a ripple effect on bars and supply stores during what he described as tough economic times.
The Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area had one of the five-lowest unemployment rates in the nation in November 2012 at 3.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
District Attorney Cam Morvant II, in response to a unanimously approved council inquiry, said Arnold’s participation would violate the state Code of Ethics because he has more than 25 percent ownership interest in a business that would be impacted by the new law.
State ethics law would preclude Arnold “from not only sponsoring an ordinance regulating the source of economic interest, but also voting on the ordinance regulating the source of economic interest,” the one-page opinion says.
The opinion states the council has typically regulated itself with abstentions from voting on measures that would impact their place of business, and that the ethics law in question has been “well settled” in the past.
“Please note that while this office does not regularly issue opinions on the ethics code, the issue presented in this instance is one in which the law is well settled,” the opinion reads. “In addition, we have current council members that abstain from voting on ordinances and other agenda items that come up involving the companies they own or work for.”
The district attorney’s opinion deviates from guidance offered by a Board of Ethics spokesperson earlier this month. The spokesperson defined “substantial economic interest” as occurring when the issue is a greater benefit to the public servant than to a general group of his peers.
Because Arnold’s establishment is located just outside city limits – which impose a 2 a.m. closing time for bars – it’s possible that he would be in violation of the more forgiving interpretation.
Arnold said he had not yet read the district attorney’s opinion and that his decision was not based on ethical questions. He plans to reintroduce the measure at a later time.
