Pitre Prefiles Ray Cheramie Memorial Generator Bill
State Representative Loulan J. Pitre, Jr. of Cut Off has prefiled a bill, HB212, for the legislative session beginning April 30, which would prohibit "a public servant from converting to personal use certain governmental property or resources or from allocating certain governmental property or resources to his immediate family members in a manner that is preferential over members of the general public during gubernatorially declared disasters or emergencies". This bill comes as a direct result of the generators loaned by Lafourche DPW Director Ray Cheramie to members of his family and friends after Katrina, which was first revealed here May 26, 2006.

If the bill becomes law, it would make these actions violations of the Code of Governmental Ethics punishable by "censure and/or a fine of up to $10,000, removal, suspension, reduction in pay, or demotion."

While this writer applauds Loulan for recognizing the problem and for this effort, as presently worded, the bill begs the question whether it should ever be legal for a public servant to convert governmental property to his personal use or that of his family, not solely "during gubernatorially declared disasters or emergencies."