In re Schneckenburger

518 So. 2d 497, 1988 La. LEXIS 126, 1988 WL 1917
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJanuary 18, 1988
DocketNo. 87-C-1729
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 518 So. 2d 497 (In re Schneckenburger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Schneckenburger, 518 So. 2d 497, 1988 La. LEXIS 126, 1988 WL 1917 (La. 1988).

Opinions

DIXON, Chief Justice.

The issue here is whether the Code of Ethics for Governmental Employees was violated when the Director of Inspection and Code Enforcement for the City of Har-ahan bought a city lot, obtained a zoning variance on the lot, and later sold the property at a profit to a contractor/builder, who obtained a permit to build including the variance.

[498]*498The Commission on Ethics for Public Employees held that Peter Schneckenburger violated R.S. 42:llll(C)(2)(d) and R.S. 42:1113(A) of the Code of Ethics for Governmental Employees and fined him $1000 for each of the two violations. The court of appeal reversed. In re Peter Schneckenburger, III, 509 So.2d 790 (La.App. 1st Cir.1987). We reverse in part and affirm in part.

Schneckenburger has been the Regulatory Director or the Director of Inspection and Code Enforcement for the City of Har-ahan since 1980. This is an appointed position for which Schneckenburger works four hours a week in the evening. His duties include supervising “field inspections of buildings and structures for safe construction and condition, and for compliance with city building code and zoning ordinances.” Employees under his supervision grant permits and perform inspections in connection with those permits.

On August 16, 1984 Schneckenburger purchased Lot 155, Sq. N-2, Harahan City Subdivision from Bennie Zahn and other members of her family for $7500. Prior to the sale Mrs. Zahn had the lot surveyed by Don Garland, a surveyor, in preparation for removal of decayed trees which had been the subject of neighborhood complaints. Mrs. Zahn had been administering the property, which was part of an inheritance, and told Garland she was interested in selling the property for $8000 to $10,000. Garland told Zahn the lot was worth from $18,000 to $20,000. In passing, Garland mentioned to Schneckenburger and to Steven Richard, a local builder, that Zahn was interested in selling the lot. Schneckenburger bought the property to build a house for his daughter, who was to be married the following spring. The $7500 price was arrived at by deducting from Zahn’s $10,000 price the expense necessary to cut and remove the decaying trees.

After Schneckenburger’s verbal offer, but prior to the sale, Zahn received an offer from Richard to buy the lot for $15,000, but Zahn testified she felt a “moral,” not a legal, obligation to sell to Schneckenbur-ger.

For a short time at the end of October or beginning of November, Schneckenburger put a “For Sale” sign up at the lot to invite offers in order to arrive at the value of the property for purposes of obtaining a bank loan for building. Schneckenburger also applied for a variance from the Harahan Appeals Board. The variance was granted on November 28, 1984 over the objections of several neighboring property owners. The lot was a 30’ by 120’ corner lot on which a 14V2' x 80' single family dwelling could have been built in accordance with the zoning laws. The variance allowed a 22' x 80' house to be built on the lot.

Three days after getting the variance Schneckenburger took his daughter to see the lot and told her of his plan. She refused the offer, saying she did not like the area and preferred to live in an apartment.

The following week Schneckenburger contacted Peter Fabacher, an electrical contractor and builder whom he had asked to build and draw plans for the house. Schneckenburger told Fabacher not to proceed any further with the plans. Fabacher and Steven Richard were partners, and Richard was the one who was actually doing the work on the plans. At this time Fabacher offered to buy the lot. A purchase agreement was signed on December 7, 1984, and the sale to Fabacher was consummated on March 15, 1985 for a sale price of $18,000.

Fabacher and Richard obtained a building permit which included the variance. The permit was obtained from Hilton J. Duvernay, a plan reviewer and building inspector for the regulatory department. Members of the Board of Appeals testified that they had been under the impression that variances were not transferable on the same lot from one owner to another, until the Attorney General of the State of Louisiana issued Opinion Number 85-316 on April 18, 1985 stating that a new owner may execute the same variance when the conditions leading to the granting of the variance remain the same. Duvernay also testified that it was his impression that a variance was granted on the lot, not to the person and was therefore transferable. [499]*499Schneckenburger received a letter informing him that the variance had been granted. Although the letters which were sent out up to and including August, 1984 contained a phrase informing the landowner that the variances were not transferable, the letter which Schneckenburger received, and the letters after this time, did not include this non-transferability information.

After an investigative hearing, the Louisiana State Board of Ethics found Sehneck-enburger violated R.S. 42:llll(C)(2)(d) and 42:1113(A). He was fined $1000 for each of the two violations.

The court of appeal reversed the finding of the Commission on Ethics. On the R.S. 42:llll(C)(2)(d) violation the court found no “service” had been performed since no “salary” was received and no work was performed in selling the property to a company doing business with his agency. The court of appeal also held that the evidence failed to show that Schneckenburger “received anything more than an honest profit in negotiating the property.” The court went on to say that Schneckenburger did not receive compensation for services rendered to Fabacher “whereby he knew or reasonably should have known that Mr. Fabacher may have been seeking to obtain a business relationship with the regulatory department.” On the R.S. 42:1113(A) violation the court found no indication that Schneckenburger personally or directly participated in the granting of a building permit with the transferable variance to Fabacher and no evidence that he influenced the Board of Appeals in approving his variance. “There is no indication that Schneckenburger’s part-time (four hours a week) position of supervising the regulatory department created any impropriety., on his part.”

R.S. 42:llll(C)(2)(d) provides as follows: “(2) No public servant and no legal entity in which the public servant exercises control or owns an interest in excess of twenty-five percent, shall receive any thing of economic value for or in consideration of services rendered, or to be rendered, to or for any person during his public service unless such services are: (d) Neither performed for nor compensated by any person from whom such public servant would be prohibited by R.S. 42:1115(A)(1) or (B) from receiving a gift.”1

Schneckenburger is prohibited by this section of the code from receiving anything of economic value for services rendered to a person from whom he would be prohibited from receiving a gift, and under R.S. 42:1102(24) “services” is defined to include the sale of immovable property. Section 1115(B) of the code (R.S. 42:1115(B)) prohibits Schneckenburger from receiving a gift from a person who is regulated by his agency or who has interests that may be substantially affected by the performance or nonperformance of his official duties. Schneckenburger sold a lot to Fabacher and Richard, who are contractors and developers. In order to build a house on the lot, permits were obtained by Fabacher and Richard from the department of which Schneckenburger is the director.

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Related

In re Marceaux
689 So. 2d 670 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1997)
Bagert v. State, Board of Ethics for Elected Officials
588 So. 2d 1264 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1991)

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Bluebook (online)
518 So. 2d 497, 1988 La. LEXIS 126, 1988 WL 1917, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-schneckenburger-la-1988.