A Lafayette councilman is serving on an athletic association board. Is that legal? (2024)

The Brown Park Athletic Association recently elected a new board that includes City Councilman Elroy Broussard, which is prompting questions about a possible violation of a state law prohibiting dual office-holding.

The newly elected board, Broussard said, is trying to get a handle on the group's finances, including documents and equipment and how $500,000 in state funds allocated by the legislature to the association was spent.

Asked last week about the dual office-holding matter, Broussard said he didn't think he was in violation of state law, but would request a legal opinion, possibly from the Attorney General's Office. On Monday, he said a request for an opinion was being worked on via the Council Clerk's Office.

Council Clerk Veronica Arceneaux said Tuesday a request was submitted for the legal department to review the matter and advise whether Broussard should seek a legal opinion from other agencies.

Louisiana Revised Statute 42:61, et. seq., the state's dual office-holding law, describes which state and local offices, employment and appointed positions individuals are allowed to serve on.

"Classifying the correct nature of the positions held is essential for the purposes of applying the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law," Assistant Attorney General Madeline Carbonette wrote in a March 19 opinion to Lafayette Parish School Board member Amy Trahan.

The school board and Lafayette Planning Commission are considered separate political subdivisions under the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law, Carbonette wrote. But she ultimately opined that Trahan could not hold both seats because the law specifically prohibits someone from serving on a planning commission and an elected office.

The law, Carbonette wrote, generally does not prohibit holding a part-time appointive office and an elective office in separate political subdivisions.

The decision on whether Broussard may continue to serve on the Brown Park Athletic Association board may hinge on how attorneys classify his position on the board.

Former state legislator and Lafayette Parish School Board member Rickey Hardy believes Broussard cannot serve on both because the City Council oversees the city's parks and recreation activities.

"That’s a clear violation of dual office holding," Hardy said.

Athletic association boards are not appointed by City Council members or other city officials. They're elected by coaches, parents, volunteers and other people in the community. Broussard was elected to the interim board in May.

Associations get their money from selling concessions at games, registrations and sponsorships, not from the city, Broussard said.

There have long been working relationships between Lafayette Consolidated Government and its parks and recreation department and local athletic associations, Jamie Boudreaux, LCG's chief communications officer, said. But the management and oversight of the associations, she said, is not a function of government.

"LCG/PARC (Parks, Arts, Recreation and Culture)and the Brown Park Athletic Association are separate entities," Boudreaux said.

Meanwhile, Broussard said the new board is asking the PARC department to help retrieve documents, including financial statements, from the previous board and is trying to locate equipment. The board was supposed to submit to PARC minutes of meetings, financial statements, lists of those participating in programs and coaches, he said.

"The paper trail was not there," Broussard said.

Three years after the Brown Park Athletic Association received $500,000 from the state for baseball and softball field upgrades and equipment, a final report on how the money was spent still has not been submitted to the state. The group received several deadline extensions. The latest deadline is June 30.

The application for state funds was written by Walter Guillory, the former Lafayette Housing Authority director who went to prison on federal bribery and wire charges. Guillory worked for LCG's recreation department as athletic program supervisor serving as liaison between PARC and youth sports associations from June 19 until May, when he suddenly resigned.

An internal investigation was conducted and handed over to Lafayette Police to pursue, although no one in Mayor Monique Boulet's administration has said the investigation is in any way connected with Guillory.