State Attorney General Buddy Caldwell Monday issued a definitive opinion that Cypress Trails Limited Partnership, created specifically to develop the publicly funded $10 million Cypress Trails apartment complex in north Lafayette, is subject to the state’s public records law.
Attorney Richard Becker, who represents the Lafayette Public Trust Finance Authority, requested the opinion after denying this paper access to the partnership’s records. LPTFA created a non-profit affiliate that is the general partner in CTLP, and a private entity representing a tax credit investor is the limited partner holding a majority interest. The project was awarded low-income housing tax credits from the state.
This paper has been seeking to review CTLP's records after learning that an LPTFA board member, Greg Gachassin, orchestrated the entire deal and then stepped down from his position as board chairman to become the development consultant, likely earning more than $500,000 (we’ll know the exact amount from the public record soon.)
The state’s Ethics Code requires that appointees to public boards and commissions wait two years before going to work on any project involving the board. State Rep. Rickey Hardy has asked the state’s Board of Ethics to investigate the potential violation.
In the opening line of the opinion, Caldwell notes that his office received from Becker a request for an opinion concerning the application of La. RS. 44:1, the state's public records law, to the LPTFA, a public trust organized under the laws of the state and established for the benefit of the city of Lafayette.
Caldwell then pointed out that the legislation authorizing public trusts specifically subjects them to the public records law. “Permitting a partnership formed by an affiliate of an entity expressly required to comply with the Public Records Law to escape compliance with the [law] could be viewed as a means to circumvent the law,” he wrote.
Thus, in conclusion, although we acknowledge there is a degree of private funding at stake in the Limited Partnership, it is the opinion of this office that such a distinction cannot be made in application to a Limited Partnership created by an affiliate of a public trust to own and develop an affordable housing tax credit project. As such, it is the opinion of this office that, in general, the records of such Limited Partnership are subject to inspection unless the information requested concerns documents otherwise specifically exempt from inspection under Title 44.
“The Public Records Law is interpreted liberally,” Caldwell said, “with any doubt resolved in favor of access.”
Caldwell also notes the difference between an LPTFA affiliate and an affiliate of a housing authority, the latter having previously enjoyed an exemption to the state’s public records law. This year the state Legislature removed that exemption, and the governor signed it into law; the records will be public next month.
On Monday Becker notified this newspaper that he was reviewing the opinion.
Read the AG opinion letter here.
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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