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It’s a small world after all.

This Disney-inspired truism was proven once again by the situation the Port of Greater Baton Rouge finds itself in after getting involved with Pointe Sunshine: 1,000 acres of riverfront property in Ascension Parish recently certified as the only deepwater port “megasite” in the country ready for industrial development.

The certification, by Kentucky-based Peake Consulting, cost somewhere between $50,000 and $60,000. The Ascension Economic Development Corporation, leading the push for a megasite development in the parish, paid for half the certification cost. The Greater Baton Rouge Port Commission signed a cooperative endeavor agreement with the AEDC and kicked in $10,000 toward consultant fees for the site evaluation.

The certification, it is hoped, will help attract a major developer who will buy and develop Pointe Sunshine [formerly Pointe Houmas], with AEDC essentially acting as real estate agent. Tommy Kurtz, AEDC’s president and CEO, says the site was chosen over another contender because it was the only one providing his organization with an option to buy.

Here’s where things get a little murky. Charles Thibaut is a member of the family corporation that owns the 1,000 acres comprising Pointe Sunshine and stands to make tens of millions of dollars if a developer buys the property. Thibaut also sits on the Greater Baton Rouge Port Commission, which helped pay for the process that eventually pointed to the Thibaut property as having the most marketable megasite potential.

Conflict-of-interest questions naturally arise, specifically state ethics laws that bar public officials from having “substantial economic interest” in transactions conducted by the governmental entities to which they belong.

But Jay Hardman, executive director of the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, says no site had been chosen when the port commission signed the cooperative endeavor agreement with AEDC. When the Baton Rouge port started talking with AEDC in late summer or early fall 2006, the only goal was to locate and certify a 750-plus-acre site to be marketed by AEDC for commercial/industrial development, Hardman says.

He says the port was only interested in deepwater sites on the Mississippi River, and saw no reason to get involved in inland “industrial parks” not located on the river, an idea that had been kicked around by Ascension Parish and AEDC officials.

Still, not only was there no “short list” of potential sites on the river, Hardman says, there wasn’t even a long list. As such, nobody could have known the Thibaut property would be the one ultimately chosen as the megasite, Hardman says. Eventually, as potential sites were considered, the commission became aware that the Thibaut property was a potential, he says, but there was no way to know whose land would be identified as most suitable for a megasite.

The $10,000 spent by the port commission was to help cover the cost of the search and evaluation process, Hardman says, adding that the commission had no hand in picking the site itself. While the port signed its cooperative endeavor agreement with the AEDC in October 2006, the consultant’s report recommending Pointe Sunshine—the Thibaut property—didn’t come out until December 2007, he notes.

“At that time [October 2006], Mr. Thibaut did not have a substantial economic interest as defined by [ethics code],” Hardman says. “His potential economic interest was the same as any/all other persons owning property in Ascension Parish meeting yet-to-be-determined criteria and standards.”

That said, Hardman acknowledges that “there would be a problem” for Thibaut to be involved in future port decisions regarding any continuing participation with the Pointe Sunshine project.

There’s no discussion of further cooperation between the port and AEDC on Pointe Sunshine, though the potential exists. Hardman says that’s why he included the matter on the commission’s January agenda, with the recommendation that commissioners seek an opinion from the Louisiana Board of Ethics. The cooperative endeavor agreement calls for the port to pay for 20% of each phase of the project. So far it’s only been involved in Phase One, which led to certification of Pointe Sunshine.

Tracy Walker, a staff lawyer with the ethics board, says only the board can make the ultimate call whether any violations of the Code of Ethics took place. At the same time, and notwithstanding Hardman’s explanation, she suspects there might “still be some issues” with Thibaut’s participation as a member of the port commission during the site evaluation process that eventually led to the Thibaut property.

“I would like to know how many landowners in Ascension Parish owned acreage along the Mississippi River of a size large enough to potentially earn the distinction of a megasite,” Walker says. “That would help determine the class and whether Mr. Thibaut had an economic interest greater than a general class or group of persons.”

Kurtz says his organization approached the port on the megasite deal—not the other way around. Most of the developable sites on the east side of the Mississippi are owned by plants, so there wasn’t much choice but to concentrate on the west side, he says. And the Thibauts are big landowners on the west side, Kurtz says.

“Chances were we were going to run into the Thibauts,” he says. “And if you can’t build a dock on the river at the site, that site is worthless. Don’t think we chose the site just because he’s on the board.”

Kurtz says the family—which put $30,000 or so of its own money into the certification process through its corporation, Crawford and Thibaut Inc.—was skeptical at first when AEDC approached them about having their land holdings considered for development.

“It took months and months of trying to cajole them into doing this,” he says.