BATON ROUGE, La. — The Louisiana Board of Ethics has found that a former St. Landry Parish President failed to file three campaign finance reports as required by law and could face civil penalties of up to $10,000 for each violation.
According to court records, the ethics board held a hearing on Oct. 22 to determine if Donald R. “Don” Menard, who ran unsuccessfully for the Nov. 6, 2019 general election for Parish President in St. Landry Parish, failed to file campaign finance disclosure reports for the Oct. 12, 2019 primary election and the general election.
Menard served as St. Landry Parish President from 2004 - 2012. He was also among three candidates in the race seeking to replace former St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot in last year's election.
Menard was defeated in the Oct. 12, 2019 primary election but was still required to file a campaign finance disclosure report on Sept. 12, 2019, which was 30 days before the primary, and another report on Oct. 2, 2019, which was 10 days before the primary.
Menard was also required to file a third campaign finance disclosure report on Nov. 6, 2019.
The record states that Menard failed to appear for the ethics board’s hearing despite being given notice.
During the hearing, the ethics board determined that Menard failed to file all three reports. They noted that Menard had still failed to file the reports as of Oct. 5, 2020.
The ethics board could impose a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for Menard for each of the three late reports, totaling $30,000.
You can read the full decision from the ethics board below:
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