Some disputing good of ethics bill

By Howell Dennis

CITY EDITOR

CROWLEY – Louisiana’s new financial disclosure laws that went into effect this week have raised eyebrows with the mass resignations of officials across the state. The laws require all public officials - from elected leaders to those who serve on boards and commissions - to disclose all personal and business financial records for public record. Thursday it was reported that nearly eighty percent of the Louisiana Arts Council had resigned.

In Lafayette, over 100 officials and counting have resigned rather than turn over their records. Some have expressed anger about having to release their records, saying that their private ventures should not be the business of the public. Some have even said that public knowledge of their finances could be dangerous, possibly making them targets for criminals.

In Acadia parish, the uproar hasn’t been quite as bad. When interviewed, Crowley Mayor Greg Jones and Chief of Police K.P. Gibson both say that they have no problem turning over their own financial records for public scrutiny. Both say, however, that having other records probed - their wives for example - could set a dangerous precedent.

“Say you have a wife who is in a competitive business,” said Jones. “It would seem to me that public disclosure of how much money they made could affect them and their work in a negative way.”

“I have no problem with turning over the records for myself or my department,” said Gibson. “But the things that I personally invest in for my family and things like that, it makes me somewhat uncomfortable having it out there for all to see.”

As previously mentioned, both officials say that they have no problem complying with the law.

“What a lot of people don’t understand is that we had many of these ethics laws in effect before, they just weren’t properly enforced,” said Gibson.