The state’s Ethics Adjudicatory Board has ruled that a member of the St. Charles Parish Planning and Zoning Commission and his wife did not violate ethics law when they applied for and received a zoning change for property they own on Highway 90 in Luling.
In January 2010, the parish sent a letter to Neal Clulee advising him that he was in violation of the zoning code when he allowed Phylway Construction, LLC to store trucks, fuel tanks and job trailers on two tracts of land he owns. The land was zoned for residential use.
The parish told Clulee that he must move the construction trailers and fueling tanks off of the residential property, but Clulee instead submitted an application to the parish’s Planning and Zoning Department requesting a rezoning of the property.
Clulee did not attend a public hearing about the rezone held by the Planning and Zoning Commission, but his wife, Mary, did speak in favor of the rezone. The state’s Board of Ethics said that the Clulees violated ethics law when they applied for the rezone while Neal Clulee was a member of the commission. However, the Clulees argued that they did not enter into a transaction with the commission because applications for rezoning are submitted to the Planning and Zoning Department, not the Planning and Zoning Commission.
A panel of administrative law judges with the Ethics Adjudicatory Board agreed with the Clulees, ruling that the laws prohibiting appointees from entering into certain contractual relationships with the parish government does not prohibit a Planning and Zoning Commission member from seeking a zoning change.
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