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STATE OF LOUISIANA ,.oF'LO''i'' DEPARTMENT OF STATE CIVIL SERVICE e 'y= LOUISIANA BOARD OF ETHICS w!; P. O.BOX 4368 Ii sZ;i. $ BATON ROUGE,LA 70821 °"",o• (225)219-5600 FAX:(225)381-7271 1-800-842-6630 www.ethics.la.gov December 17,2018 Kim Nesmith 9447 Wyndham Way Denham Springs,Louisiana 70821 Re: Louisiana Board of Ethics Docket No.2018-1421 Dear Ms. Nesmith, The Louisiana Board of Ethics, at its December 14, 2018, meeting, considered your request for an advisory opinion as to whether the Code of Governmental Ethics ("Code") would prohibit you from contracting with a non-profit organization while you are employed by the La. Depart- ment of Education ("DOE") as the Data Governance and Privacy Director. As part of your du- ties, you advise and train on student data privacy laws, data governance best practices, and data security. You present in several national forums regarding data governance and privacy, as well as the materials you create for DOE. You have been asked by the non-profit organization, Future of Privacy Forum, to contract with them to develop materials to educate other state departments of education regarding student da- ta privacy. You stated that these materials would not be based on the materials you have pro- duced for DOE and that all work would be performed in the evenings and weekends, outside of your normal working hours. You stated that Future of Privacy Forum has no contracts with DOE and neither provides,nor receives,any services from DOE. La. R.S. 42:1111A(1)(a) prohibits a public servant from receiving anything of economic value, other than compensation and benefits from the governmental entity to which he is duly entitled, for the performance of the duties and responsibilities of his office or position. Further, La. R.S. 42:1111C(1)(a) prohibits a public servant from receiving anything of economic value for any service, the subject matter of which is devoted substantially to the responsibilities, programs, or operations of the agency of the public servant and in which the public servant has participated. The Board concluded, and instructed me to inform you, since you will not use materials created in your public capacity, your position does not require you to provide services to agencies of other states, and your agency, the DOE, does not provide these services to other states, you would not be prohibited by the Code from providing contract services to the Future of Privacy Forum to assist other state departments of education. Page 1 of 2 (Docket No. 2018-1421) AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER