LHA’s St. Pierre barred from doing business with residents

A member of the Lafourche Parish Housing Authority is prohibited from selling insurance to housing authority residents, according to a decision of the Louisiana Board of Governmental Ethics.

Aneatra Boykin, writing on behalf of the board, notified District Attorney Camille Morvant of the ruling in response to an inquiry by Morvant.

Morvant, in his request, noted that Jerimiah St. Pierre was appointed to the housing authority board last September as a non-compensated commissioner. He said St. Pierre, who also serves on two other parish boards, is a licensed insurance agent and wants to sell policies to housing authority residents.

Boykin, in her letter, said the Code of Governmental Ethics “prohibits a public servant from accepting anything of economic value for services rendered from a person who has a contractual or any other business or financial relationship with the agency of the public servant.”

Residents must submit an application and enter into a leasing agreement with the housing authority.

“The leasing agreement between the residents and the housing authority is a contractual relationship,” Boykin said. “Therefore, as long as those residents have the contractual relationship with the housing authority, Mr. St. Pierre, as a member of the commission, is prohibited from accepting anything of economic value from those residents of the housing authority for providing insurance services.”