EBR Council on Aging is pretending to care about their image; DA mulls charges

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While DA mulls Council on Aging case, board tackles its scandalous image

Business Report

More than three months after a Louisiana Legislative Audit report determined that the East Baton Rouge Parish Council on Aging used public funds to campaign for a dedicated 2.25-mill tax in 2016 in an apparent violation of state and federal campaign finance laws, District Attorney Hillar Moore says his office has not yet decided whether to prosecute the matter or if charges are even warranted.

Moore says attorneys from his staff met earlier this summer with representatives from the Legislative Auditor’s office to discuss the audit report. While that report, released in early May, does not suggest any criminal laws were broken, it points to multiple instances in which the COA appeared to have violated campaign finance laws—threatening its nonprofit, tax-exempt status—by using public funds and resources to campaign for the tax.

“We’re still reviewing it all,” Moore says. “Once we finish our review, do we say there is nothing criminal there? Do we need a grand jury? Do we issue subpoenas? It is still kind of early right now to say what we’re going to do.”

While the possibility of a criminal investigation hangs over the agency, the COA has spent the past few months trying to get out from the under the cloud of scandal and controversy that dogged it earlier this year. In May, the COA expanded its board of directors and adopted a stricter ethics policy and new accounting procedures.

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