Lafayette developer Greg Gachassin is charged with violating the state's Code of Governmental Ethics while he was a member of the LPTFA's board of trustees. Board of Ethics Deputy General Counsel Michael Dupree and Lafayette developer Greg Gachassin's attorney, Gray Sexton, who was the ethics board's chief administrator for four decades, will be part of a telephone status conference Tuesday at 10 a.m. It's unknown what options will be discussed or whether they might include settlement talks.
In June the Louisiana Board of Ethics voted to charge Gachassin's Cartesian Co. with violating the state's Code of Governmental Ethics while he was a member of the Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority's board of trustees and again after he resigned from its board. The Ethics Board's action is much like filing a civil lawsuit against Gachassin. It's now up to the Ethics Adjudicatory Board, a three-member panel of administrative law judges, to determine whether they should stick and assess a penalty based on the Ethics Board's recommendation. Those administrative law judges and Gachassin himself will also be part of tomorrow's call, according to Alainna Giacone, communications director for the ethics administration and Board of Ethics.
Photo by Robin May
Developer Greg Gachassin's alleged ethics violations involve Villa Gardens,
a single-family low-income development on Patterson Street (pictured), and Cypress Trails,
a low-income apartment complex on Sophie Street in north Lafayette.
Among the possible topics in this type of telephone status conference are "stipulations, settlement possibilities, contested issues, prehearing deadlines, and other case related matters [including the scheduling of a hearing date]," Giacone writes in an email to IND Monthly.
A conference report will be issued after the conference call, she adds.
Read here for more on why Sexton says his client will beat the charges and here for more on the local developer's troubles unrelated to his ethics dilemma.