BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The fire chief of Hammond and his son have paid a $2,000 fine for violating state nepotism laws, settling ethics charges against the pair.
Fire Chief Paul Collura and his son, Chris, agreed to a consent opinion which concluded that they violated ethics law because of the son's employment with the fire department while his father served as fire chief.
In addition, the board said the chief violated state ethics law when he approved personnel action forms for his son's promotion to first-class firefighter in 1998 and then fire operator in 2001.
Chris Collura became a fire department employee in 1995 and left on June 28. His father has been Hammond fire chief since 1987.
The state ethics board had earlier advised the mayor of Hammond that an ongoing violation of anti-nepotism laws occurred with Chris Collura's employment while his father served as fire chief.
