While state lawmakers last December were scooping up coveted tickets to the College Football Playoff National Championship between LSU and Clemson, one member of the LSU Board of Supervisors suggested he’d like to scrap the policy that gives legislators priority access to the tickets and, instead, let board members dole them out to lawmakers who vote to support LSU.
In a text message sent Dec. 9, board member Rémy Starns—a Metairie attorney who recently was named state public defender—says, “I want to end this. I want ALL tickets to anything under my committee. We will dole them out.”
Starns, who chairs the board’s external affairs committee, sent the message to LSU administrator Chris Vidrine in response to an article that day in The Advocate, detailing how lawmakers were “scooping up” the playoff tickets, taking advantage of “a perk of the job.”
Though state law prohibits lawmakers and other elected officials from receiving free game tickets, LSU policy allows them to purchase tickets at face value, before they’re sold on pricey secondary markets. Under the policy, members of the state Legislature are allowed to purchase two tickets each.
Starns linked to the article in his text message to Vidrine, who works in the president’s office as interim associate vice president of governmental relations and public policy.
“We should discuss this,” Vidrine replies. “There are many issues.”
Replies Starns: “YES there are. Among them are state legislators who vote against LSU.”
Daily Report received a copy of the text message in response to a public records request.
Starns, appointed to the board by Gov. John Bel Edwards, did not return calls seeking comment about whether he was just venting or actually plans to act on his text message and propose a change to the ticket policy.
But Jim Sabourin, LSU’s vice president for strategic communications who returned a request for comment on Starns’ behalf, says the message reflects only the opinion of Starns.
“The text was sent by a member of the Board of Supervisors to an LSU staff member about revisiting LSU’s football ticket allotment and it was purely the opinion of that individual rather than board policy,” Sabourin says. “We believe the recipient understood that, which is why no action was taken.”
Board Chair Mary Werner echoes Sabourin’s statement in a brief text message, saying, “There has been no discussion relating to Mr. Starns’ opinion on the matter of ticket allotment.”
Does that mean Starns will not bring up the issue at a future board meeting? Neither Sabourin nor Werner could say. But government watchdog experts say such a move would be bad for several reasons.
“LSU should not be in charge of deciding who gets to have these perks, one versus another based on some subjective idea of voting,” Council for a Better Louisiana Executive Director Barry Irwin says. “That is way too political. It is bad for the university. It is certainly not an ethical way of doing things and it is something that should be avoided at all costs.”
