Were cell-tower lease payments to a Louisiana volunteer fire department public or private funds?

Plain-English summary

In 2015, the Louisiana Attorney General classified rent from a telecommunications tower on Luling Volunteer Fire Department's privately owned land as private funds. Luling was a private nonprofit, although its association provided fire services under a tax-funded parish contract. The parish had built the fire station on Luling's land and leased it to the department. The tower, however, was built with the telecommunications company's funds, was separate from the station, and had separate utilities. The AG concluded that the rent did not derive from public funds or property.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2015. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Q: Why did the AG call the tower rent private funds? A: The AG said the payments arose from use of Luling's privately owned land. The tower was privately built, unconnected to the parish-built fire station, and had separate utilities, so the rent did not derive from public funds or property.

Q: Did the department's tax-funded fire-service contract make this rent public? A: The opinion described the association's tax-funded parish contract but based its classification of this rent on the privately owned land and the tower's separation from the station. It did not treat every receipt of the department alike.

Q: Had Luling always placed the lease payments in a private-funds account? A: No. The request said an earlier treasurer had deposited them in a public-funds account, and that Luling began placing them in its private-funds account after discovering the practice. The AG's classification turned on the source of the payments.

Background and statutory framework

Luling asked the AG to resolve a classification dispute with its auditors. The opinion cited earlier AG analyses that treated legislative appropriations, taxes, governmental receipts, and money derived from public funds as public funds. Applying that framework to the tower lease, the AG focused on ownership and use of the land and facilities rather than the account into which earlier rent checks had been deposited.

Citations and references

• Louisiana Attorney General Opinions 09-0156 and 10-0292, discussed in the opinion as earlier public-funds analyses.

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/14-0210

Original opinion text

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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
P.O. BOX 94005
BATON ROUGE
JAMES D. "BUDDY" CALDWELL
70B04-9005
ATTORNEY GENERAL

MAR 042015
OPINION 14-0210

Mr. Jack R. Crais
90-A-1 PUBLIC FUNDS & CONTRACTS
Vice President
Lease payments derived' from the use of privately owned property are Luling Volunteer Fire Department properly classified as private funds.
67 St. Anthony Street
Luling, LA 70070

Dear Mr. Crais:

Your request for an Attorney General's Opinion has been assigned to me for research and reply. On behalf of the Luling Volunteer Fire Department ("Luling"), you have asked for our opinion as to whether certain lease payments should be classified as public, or private funds.

According to your request, Luling is a private, not-for-profit corporation organized under Louisiana law and is a member of the St. Charles Parish Fireman's Association ("Association"). Your request indicates that the Association has a contract with St.
Charles Parish to provide fire and other emergency services. The contract is funded through ad valorem and sales taxes.

Your request further indicates that Luling's main fire station is located on land that was donated to Luling several years ago. The title to the property is solely in Luling's name.
However, the actual fire station was designed and constructed by St. Charles Parish and then leased to Luling. Several years after the fire station was built, a telecommunications company requested permission to build a tower on Luling's property. After an agreement was reached, the telecommunications company built a tower using its own funds. Your request goes on to state that initially the telecommunications company paid for use of the property by providing certain telephones and telephone services. However, the agreement was eventually changed to provide for monetary lease payments.

According to your request, somewhere along the way, a previous treasurer for Luling began depositing lease payments into Luling's public funds account, instead of its private funds account. This practice was discovered a few years ago, and upon discovery, Luling began depositing the lease payments into its private funds account.
You have indicated that a dispute has arisen between Luling and its auditors as to what is the proper classification of these lease payments. As such, you now ask for our

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Opinion 14-0210
Mr. Crais
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opinion as to whether such lease payments are properly classified as public, or private funds.

This office has previously addressed the issue of whether certain funds are properly classified as public funds. In Attorney General Opinion Nos. 09-0156 and 10-0292, we noted that the Legislature, in various statutes, has defined public funds as "any funds obtained from legislative appropriation or any form of state or local taxation." In Attorney General Opinion NO.10-0292, we recognized that the general prevailing meaning of the term public funds includes those funds or monies that are either obtained from legislative appropriation, or any state or local taxation; judicial expense funds; funds self-generated by governmental units; other funds of federal, state, local, parish or municipal governments; and any other funds or monies derived from public funds.

Turning attention now to the question presented, the lease payments at issue are derived from the use of privately owned property. As stated above, the telecommunications company built the tower on land privately owned by Luling. It is our understanding that the tower is located near the fire station, but is not connected to the fire station in any way. Further, you have indicated that the tower and its supporting building have separate utilities. Accordingly, since the lease payments at issue are not derived from the use of public funds or property, it is the opinion of this office that such funds are properly classified as private funds.

We trust this adequately responds to your request. If you should have any questions about the response contained herein, please feel free to contact our office.

Yours very truIy,

BY:
y General
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