Two Democratic Baton Rouge legislators who have publicly advocated in recent weeks for the East Baton Rouge Council on Aging and defended its management in the face of mounting criticism have close relatives on the payroll of the organization.
State Sen. Regina Barrow’s daughter, Shanrika Barrow, and state Rep. Pat Smith’s stepdaughter, Cynthia Smith, are both COA employees. It’s unclear when Barrow’s daughter was hired, though Barrow was on the COA board of directors at the time. The state senator has since resigned from the board to “avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.” Smith’s stepdaughter was hired in 2014.
Barrow testified earlier this month before a House legislative committee against a bill that would have reorganized the COA’s board and given outside entities greater oversight of the embattled agency.
Smith is a member of that committee—the House Committee on Municipal, Cultural and Parochial affairs—and voted against the bill, which was defeated 8-7 along party lines.
Neither lawmaker disclosed her relative’s employment with the COA to the committee before the bill came up for debate. Both say there was no need to disclose the ties—or, in the case of Smith, recuse herself from the vote—because there was no conflict of interest.
“The bill was about reorganizing the board,” Smith says. “(Cynthia) was not hired by the board. Her job has nothing to do with the board. This bill was about the board. That is why I should not have had to disclose it. Her job is for the COA, not working for the board.”
Barrow offers a similar explanation.
“I testified against the House bill as a legislator representing my constituents who use the services provided by the EBR Council on Aging,” she says in a written response to questions from Daily Report. “I was not voting on the matter, merely expressing my thoughts … I was not in a position that called for the disclosure of any potential conflict of interest.”
Barrow and Smith both say they didn’t have anything to do with the COA’s decision to hire their relatives, nor did they use their position as elected officials to lobby on behalf of their relatives.
Barrow, who was on the COA board at the time of Shanrika Barrow’s hire, says her daughter was hired by the COA after interning there “… because of her great work ethic and obtaining her degree in recreational therapy, which was beneficial to the COA.” The state senator says she was not aware of any conflicts of interest as a result of her daughter’s appointment, but that she resigned from the board following the hire.
LSU Law Professor Elizabeth Carter, who has been following unfolding developments with the COA, says while Smith and Barrow may not have violated any ethics laws, best practices dictate at the very least that they should have disclosed their relatives’ employment with the agency.
“At a minimum, you need to disclose the potential conflict, to point out the interest you have,” Carter says. “That is the general thrust of most of our state ethics laws.”
Shanrika Barrow and Cynthia Smith are not the only well-connected COA employees. Executive director Tasha Clark-Amar’s mother is 19th Judicial District Court Judge Janice Clark, who has served on the bench since 1992 and is considered one of the most powerful members of the local judiciary.
The issue of the COA employees’ political connections comes as the agency is under increasing scrutiny since narrowly winning voter approval last fall for a 2.25-mill dedicated tax that will generate nearly $8 million a year for the agency.
Earlier this month, a Louisiana Legislative Audit report found that the nonprofit could have violated federal and state election laws by using agency resources to campaign for the tax.
Clark-Amar has also been criticized for the agency’s poor financial performance and has come under fire for naming herself to a key overseer’s role in administering the will of a COA client.
Barrow and Smith have publicly defended Clark-Amar, most notably in a press conference with other elected officials last month on the steps of City Hall.
“I was there because there was a call for a person’s resignation before there was any proof she’d done anything wrong,” Smith tells Daily Report. “She never had a chance to clear her name and I think that’s unfair … it had nothing to do with my step daughter.”
—Stephanie Riegel
