Change prompted by Jefferson Parish's experience under Aaron Broussard administration
BATON ROUGE -- Starting Aug. 15, any major dollar increases in contracts awarded by state, parish or city officials will have to be filed for public inspection at the local parish courthouse, under a bill signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Sen. Conrad Appel, R-MetairieJindal's office said that he signed Senate Bill 242 by Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metairie, on June 29.
"It is a step in the right direction," Appel said Thursday. "We want to find out if we are solving the problem. The public's right to know (about contract increases) is important."
Appel said the bill is an outgrowth of scandals that dogged Jefferson Parish in how contracts were awarded at one cost but were increased with fees split among some public officials under former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard.
The bill applies statewide to change orders and additions to contracts for construction, personal services -- such as hiring consultants, engineers, accountants and lawyers -- and for insurance contracts.
Appel said the bill requires that any time a contract changes by at least 10 percent or a minimum of $10,000 over the original agreement, the add-on and the contract must be filed in the parish courthouse as a public record.
The filing must be done by the public agency that approved the added costs.
The bill also requires that if the aggregate changes over time total a 20 percent increase -- or a $10,000 minimum over of the contract's original terms -- they also have to be filed in the public record.
Appel said that facet of the law is designed to prevent public bodies from awarding changes totaling $9,999.99 at a time to get around the statute.
The bill exempts from the filing requirements increases in costs incurred by the state purchasing office or the Office of Facility Planning and Control, the agency that oversees contracts for state capital construction projects.
The Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, Appel said, must review and sometimes vote on those changes, so the cost increases are made public at that time.
Appel's bill also enhances the penalties for the crime of "receiving or offering to receive" a portion of the profits, fees or commissions from public contracts. The bill increases the penalties from not more than a $1,000 fine and a maximum of two years in prison, or both, to a maximum fine of $10,000, up to 10 years in jail or both.
Jindal's office also said he signed and put into effect July 1 House Bill 292 by Rep. Jim Morris, R-Oil City, that makes permanent a $1 portion of the state driver's license fee that was set to expire Aug. 15. Morris said during the session that the $1 generates about $750,000 a year for anti-litter efforts.
Driver's licenses cost between $21.50 and $24.50 depending on whether local governments tack on their own fees.
Jindal vetoed a permanent retention of a 4-cent tobacco tax that is due to expire in 2012 after being in effect for a decade, but he never opposed the permanent fee for littering.
Asked to explain why Jindal approved the fee and vetoed the tobacco tax extension, spokesman Kyle Plotkin said, "People know the difference between a fee and a tax."
Jindal also has signed Senate Bill 222 by Sen. Fred Mills, R-St. Martinville, that requires driver education courses to include instructions on the economic effects of littering as part of driver training. The bill says the instruction must be included in the same 30-minute block of time allocated to instructions on organ or tissue donation.
It also expands from 30 to 32 the number of questions on the written driver's test with the new questions to deal with the economic effects of littering. The bill goes into effect Jan. 1.
Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5810.