Proposed crackdown on Jefferson Parish Inspector General might be amended before vote

By Chris Joseph

Source: FOX 8

December 10, 2024

JEFFERSON PARISH, La. (WVUE) – The Jefferson Parish Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday (Dec. 11) on a proposed ordinance that would curb what the parish inspector general can say to the public and media.

A sponsor of the ordinance told Fox 8 the proposed ordinance might be amended before the vote.

Councilmember Hans Liljeberg co-sponsored the ordinance along with the four other district councilmembers (Marion Edwards, Byron Lee, Deano Bonano and Arita Bohannan).

As currently written, the proposed ordinance places a series of restrictions on Inspector General Kim Chatelain’s professional speech.

It would prohibit public statements that might heighten “public condemnation” of any individual or entity connected to an investigation. It also prohibits providing “non-public” information to the media without authorization.

Additionally, it prohibits the IG or any office employees from working in parish government for five years after leaving the IG‘s office.

Liljeberg said he is working on an amendment to the proposal which will allow the inspector general to comment on reports the office issues.

Current parish ordinances require the inspector general to give investigated parties time to respond in reports.

“She can talk all about you if she wants, but she just needs to give you a chance to respond,” Liljeberg said.

The proposed ordinance follows councilmembers’ displeasure with a letter Chatelain issued in September about a controversial Gretna brewpub deal involving some taxpayer funds.

Chatelain publicly questioned the transparency and benefits of the deal, but did not first interview anyone connected to the project.

Councilmembers in support of the deal have questioned her investigatory practices, while Chatelain has argued the office worked to obtain evidence that was publicly available.

“We as people don’t want the IG’s opinions spewed out there with her official government seal. We want a full, vetted report,” Liljeberg said.

Chatelain argues the proposed ordinance threatens her office’s ability to act as a watchdog.

“If you’re an elected official doing your job, you should welcome the challenge to do better at what you are doing and to be accountable to the citizens,” she said. “You should not be running from speech, you should be running towards it.”

She also called the five-year employment prohibition “discriminatory.”

Liljeberg said he prefers a two-year window and argued the clause is designed to reciprocate similar restrictions on parish employees moving to the inspector general’s office.

Chatelain will soon be under investigation. The sponsoring five councilmembers successfully lobbied the Jefferson Parish Ethics and Compliance Commission (ECC), which controls Chatelain’s employment, to hire a law firm to investigate her work.

“Jefferson Parish Council members do not engage with oversight in a healthy, meaningful way, in the best interest of the citizens, and I have no idea what they fear about this office because we are here to help them,” Chatelain said.

Chatelain said she reached out to the Association of Inspectors General (of which she’s a vice president) to oppose the proposed ordinance. The association released a letter calling for the proposed ordinance to be rejected.

Additionally, the Bureau of Governmental Research released a letter opposing the ordinance.

Ethics attorney Dane Ciolino, a Loyola University law professor, also expressed concern.

“This proposal is quite unartfully drafted,” he said. “It is taking standards that are meant to apply to lawyers and shoehorning them to apply to an inspector’s general’s office.”

The language in the proposed ordinance is nearly identical to what’s found in American Bar Association guidelines for prosecutors. Liljeberg is a former Jefferson Parish prosecutor, district judge and appellate court judge.

Ciolino pointed to a clause stating the inspector general has a duty of “loyalty.”

“They do not. They are supposed to be independent,” Ciolino said.

The council is scheduled to meet Wednesday at 10 a.m.

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