[StBernard] Despite ethics questions, St. Bernard councilman's father serves as volunteer parish CAO

[Westley Annis]

Despite ethics questions, St. Bernard councilman's father serves as
volunteer parish CAO

Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
Email the author | Follow on Twitter 
on December 17, 2013 at 5:45 PM, updated December 17, 2013 at 5:47 PM

Despite a state ethics official allegedly telling St. Bernard Parish
President Dave Peralta that hiring Councilman Nathan Gorbaty's father would
violate state ethics nepotism provisions, retired St. Bernard and state 4th
Circuit Court of Appeal Judge David Gorbaty sat beside Peralta at Tuesday's
bimonthly council meeting. He sat where the parish chief administrative
officer typically sits.

At the last Parish Council meeting, on Dec. 3, Peralta announced that he was
going to appoint David Gorbaty as the new parish CAO. Three days later,
Peralta said parish attorney Billy McGoey had been told by an ethics board
attorney that hiring Gorbaty would be a violation of the code's nepotism
provisions.

At that last council meeting, Nathan Gorbaty joked about whether he should
continue referring to his father as "Dad."

According to the state ethics code, "No member of the immediate family of a
member of a governing authority or the chief executive of a governmental
entity shall be employed by the governmental entity."

Peralta said on Tuesday that he has asked the ethics board to provide an
official determination on whether hiring Gorbaty would violate the state
code. He said Gorbaty has been volunteering his time to the parish since
last week.

"Out of an abundance of caution, our legal department has prepared and
delivered to the Louisiana ethics board an expedited opinion on Gorbaty,"
Peralta said. "I feel fairly confident that I will be in a position to have
Judge Gorbaty in a position as a chief administrative officer."

Peralta said that in addition to asking about whether Gorbaty can serve as a
full-time CAO, the parish also has asked the ethics board whether, if
Gorbaty cannot be hired as a full-time employee, he can work "through a
professional services agreement." Peralta said the parish government also
has asked if Gorbaty simply could continue to volunteer his services, which
"he is doing at this time, being the great guy that he is."

"...He has taken the lead in so many things," Peralta told the council of
Gorbaty's volunteer role the past week or so. "He has given me unbelievable
help."

Peralta said he anticipates hearing from the ethics board "in the next week
or 10 days."

According to the state ethics code, a public employee is defined as "anyone,
whether compensated or not, who is (a) an officer or official of a
governmental entity who is not filling an elective office; (b) appointed by
an elected official to a position to serve the government or government
agency, when the elected official was acting in his official capacity; (c)
engaged in the performance of a governmental function; or (d) under the
supervision or authority of an elected official or another governmental
employee."

And "participating" is defined in the state code as "not only to have final
decision-making authority, but to take part in or to have or share
responsibility for an action of the governmental entity through approval,
disapproval, decision, recommendation, the rendering of advice,
investigation, or the failure to act or perform a duty."

About two weeks ago, then-St. Bernard Parish Chief Administrative Officer
Jerry Graves announced he was leaving St. Bernard government for a new job
at the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority. Graves had been Peralta's first
hire after Peralta took over the parish's top post in January 2012.