Last year Lafayette Parish School Board member Jeremy Hidalgo’s Broussard bar, The Barrel, regularly posted advertisements on Facebook for “customer appreciation” events, a number of which were sponsored by vendors and contractors doing work for the Lafayette Parish School System, The Current is reporting.
As part of their ongoing investigation into LPSS, the newspaper reports that Hidalgo has now asked the Louisiana Board of Ethics for an advisory opinion on whether the state’s Code of Ethics “prohibits vendors of the Lafayette Parish School Board from sponsoring customer appreciation nights at a bar owned by a member of the Lafayette Parish School Board.”
The Current reports that in the past, Hidalgo has partnered with other local businesses that have volunteered to cook meals and sponsor a limited bar tab for customers, the agenda item reads.
“The businesses get the publicity of being a sponsor and usually have one or more representatives present to greet customers,” the factual basis statement in the agenda notes. “Some of the local businesses also do business with the Lafayette Parish School Board.”
The Ethics Board will take up the matter Friday, according to its agenda published Wednesday.
The relevant Ethics Code provision prohibits public servants from soliciting or accepting anything of economic value — whether directly or indirectly — as a gift or gratuity from any person (or from an officer, director, agent, or employee of such person) when the public servant knows or reasonably should know that this person either has or is seeking to establish contractual, business or financial relationships with the public servant’s agency, The Current reports.
The newspaper found that, among The Barrel’s sponsors last year was Bergeron Metal Buildings, a company that since early 2024 has been awarded millions in no-bid work from the school system, some of which auditors believe violate the state’s public bid laws.
To read the whole Current story with all the details, click here.
