Background
Virgil Penn, Sr. qualified on August 6, 2026, to run for mayor of the Village of Bonita. His notice of candidacy certified that he owed no outstanding fines, fees, or penalties under Louisiana’s Code of Governmental Ethics.
The Board of Ethics objected, alleging Penn owed a $500 late fee for failing to file his 2022 Tier 3 personal financial disclosure statement after his prior term as mayor. The Board submitted evidence of delinquency notices, a late-fee order delivered by certified mail in November 2024, later collection efforts, and an affidavit that the fee remained unpaid when Penn qualified. Penn testified that he did not know of the assessment and was misinformed when he later tried to address it. The trial court denied the objection and purported to allow him to requalify after curing the deficiency.
The Court’s Holding
The Second Circuit reversed and sustained the Board’s objection, disqualifying Penn. The Board established a prima facie case that Penn falsely certified he had no outstanding ethics-related fee: the $500 assessment was unpaid when he filed his notice of candidacy, and the statutory definition covers unpaid ethics fees of $250 or more after appeals are exhausted.
Penn’s claimed good faith, lack of knowledge, and alleged misinformation from Board staff did not rebut that showing. Those circumstances, even if accepted, occurred after he filed the notice and could not retroactively make the certification true. The court also held that the Election Code provides no “requalification process” of the kind ordered by the trial court; once the objection was sustained, disqualification was mandatory.
Key Takeaways
- A candidate’s ethics-fee certification is judged when the notice of candidacy is filed.
- Good faith and post-filing efforts to pay an outstanding fee do not cure a false certification.
- The Election Code did not authorize the trial court to permit Penn to requalify after the qualifying period.
Why It Matters
The decision applies the Election Code’s mandatory disqualification consequence to a false certification concerning outstanding ethics obligations. Candidates must resolve qualifying-related ethics debts before filing, even where they contend they lacked knowledge of the obligation or received later incorrect guidance about how to cure it.