When an engineering consulting firm sought an audience with Jefferson Parish Councilman Mark Spears Jr., it added a sweetener. "Would a campaign contribution make the meeting happen any quicker?" wrote G.E.C. Inc. office manager Betty Mizell, who was hoping in March to schedule face time for company Vice-President Jim Martin, about work in Spears' district. Now that email has...
When an engineering consulting firm sought an audience with Jefferson Parish Councilman Mark Spears Jr., it added a sweetener. "Would a campaign contribution make the meeting happen any quicker?" wrote G.E.C. Inc. office manager Betty Mizell, who was hoping in March to schedule face time for company Vice-President Jim Martin, about work in Spears' district.
Now that email has made G.E.C. the first company ever to be hauled before the Jefferson Governmental Ethics and Compliance Audit Committee. The panel was founded in 2010.
The committee took evidence on the case Tuesday but decided not to act, at least in this instance. (Read the documents.) Members deemed the G.E.C. e-mail an instance of a company employee acting alone -- not part of a corporate ethical breach.
And besides, it was easier -- and cheaper -- not to act. Making an example of a single employee of a single company that holds parish contracts valued at $40 million would slow down engineering work on public projects and perhaps damage Jefferson's economy, committee members said.
It was Spears who shared the G.E.C. correspondence with the committee, which he also chairs. His reply to G.E.C.: "I would respectfully ask that you keep your contribution and not waste your time waiting on a meeting with me."
The company was made aware of Mizell's overture to Spears on Friday, March 15. By the following Monday, she was fired. In a hand-written note of apology, Mizell wrote to the G.E.C. human resources office: "I am so very ashamed."
Mizell is now under investigation by the district attorney's office. The parish attorney's office, advising the ethics committee, disclosed the results of its preliminary investigation: "At this time our office has not received any evidence that the actions taken by Miss Mizell, a former employee of G.E.C., was part of a pattern of practice of G.E.C."
View full sizeAn e-mail sent to councilman Mark Spears led to a hearing before Jefferson Parish's Governmental Ethics and Compliance Audit Committee.Martin, the G.E.C. executive, would not discuss the matter other than to say: "We think the parish has done a thorough investigation."
Campaign finance records on file with the state Ethics Administration show nothing from G.E.C. to Spears in 2010, 2011 or 2012. The company company gave $500 to Councilman Paul Johnston and $2,000 to Councilman Ben Zahn in 2011, according to the records.
The ethics committee has authority to recommend that the Parish Council terminate G.E.C. Inc.'s contracts. That could be a blow -- for the company as well as the parish -- as G.E.C. holds 15 contracts collectively valued at more than $40 million on both sides of the Mississippi River
"If the committee were to terminate the contracts, what would the process involve?" Councilwoman Cynthia Lee-Sheng asked.
"We would have to slow some of the work down," Councilman Elton Lagasse said. "I mean we would have to start over. That's a real concern for me."
It was a concern for Lee-Sheng as well. "This is a company that does have a lot of contracts in Jefferson Parish. They employ a lot of Jefferson Parish residents who work hard. You have to put it in perspective."
Asked whether the first such hearing of the ethics committee was a success, Chris Cox, chief administrative officer to Parish President John Young and a member of the panel, paused. "It's unfortunate that we have to do one at all," he said.