Landry’s ethics charges unresolved as governor gains more power over ethics board

Gov. Jeff Landry’s standoff with the Louisiana Board of Ethics over ethical charges it brought against him will continue after he gains control over some of the board’s seats next month. 

The board alleges Landry violated state laws when he failed to disclose flights he took to and from Hawaii on a private donor’s plane in 2021. Landry was attending a professional conference in his capacity as Louisiana’s attorney general at the time.

The board filed the charges in August 2023, two months before Landry won his election for governor. Since then, Landry has been in negotiations with the ethics board over what the appropriate punishment for him should be. 

The governor and board have not been able to reach an agreement, and the makeup of the board could dramatically change next month. 

The governor’s office and an attorney representing him before the ethics board, Stephen Gelé, declined to comment for this report. A conference call with the state administrative law judge is scheduled for Dec. 19. 

In January, Landry will be able to immediately appoint five people to an expanded, 15-member ethics board thanks to a new law he personally pushed earlier this year. The Louisiana Legislature will also get two more appointees through the new configuration.

Currently, the board is made up of seven appointees from former Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and four appointees from state lawmakers elected during the previous term.

If Landry stays governor for a second term, he will eventually get to nominate nine of the board’s 15 members under the new law. Legislators will pick the other six. 

But unlike previous governors, Landry will get to pick his new appointees to the ethics board without any outside input.

Previously, governors and lawmakers had to select their ethics board members from a short list of nominees picked by leaders of Louisiana private colleges and universities. The process was meant to insulate the board from political pressure, but Landry and legislators removed that step during their law change earlier this year. 

There is a recommendation in the new law that the board be made up of five retired judges, five other retired elected officials and five people who have never served in public office – but it is not a requirement. 

Landry and legislators also won’t have to pick ethics board members based on where they live. Their rewrite of the law removed requirements that board members represent different congressional districts in the state. 

The donor who loaned Landry the private plane, retired oil and gas executive Greg Mosing, is also facing state ethics charges over failing to disclose the flights through his company, Stanton Aviation. His negotiations with the board also aren’t settled.

Mosing and Landry are both using the same attorney, Gelé, to represent them in the dispute.