NEW ORLEANS -- Gov. Bobby Jindal and his legislative allies, who won passage of highly touted, tougher ethics laws earlier this year, now must scramble to fill 10 vacancies on the 11-member board that is supposed to investigate violations of those laws.

Alex Brandon / Associated Press

Bobby Jindal.

"This is going to cause a huge logjam and create problems that are going to go on for months," said Barry Erwin, director of the Council for a Better Louisiana, a nonpartisan government watchdog group.

Most of the resignations from the state Ethics Board took place last week after what appeared to be a routine meeting. Also resigning was Richard Sherburne, the administrator and top lawyer for the board, who had been criticized by a key legislator for raising questions about the new law.

"They don't have an administrator. You can't hire an administrator unless you have a board ... They're going to be without permanent leadership in that position for a long, long time. If it's just a few months I'd be shocked," said Erwin, a former journalist and longtime observer of Capitol politics.

The mass resignation of ethics board members came as they themselves faced tougher scrutiny of their own finances under laws that took effect Tuesday. And it occurred months after they asked Jindal to veto a bill that drastically changed their jobs, effective Aug. 15: The board will continue to investigate allegations of ethics code violations, but the amount and quality of evidence needed to prove violations is higher. Decisions on whether laws actually were violated move from the Ethics Board to administrative law judges selected by an appointee of the governor.

The nonpartisan Public Affairs Research Council argued against the changes, as did political consultant and demographer Elliott Stonecipher of Shreveport, who has become one of the harshest critics of the changes. Stonecipher said this week that the mass resignations of board members, together with the new laws, give Jindal great influence in shaping the board. He said Jindal and future governors will have strong influence on the outcome of ethics cases.

"At every important point in the process, gubernatorial-political pressures are certain, and designed into the new process," said Stonecipher, who is considering a lawsuit to block the changes. "If a person subject to a complaint has political stroke, 'no problem.' If a person who complained does not have political stroke, the complaint goes nowhere."

The administration did not grant a request for an interview with Jindal or an administration official about the abrupt departure of the Ethics Board members.

In April, Jindal said anyone with a complaint about the new setup should make their case to the Legislature, which did not change the standard of evidence or the role of the board in the session that ended June 23. Lawmakers have defended the new setup, saying the new standard of proof is appropriate and that the role of investigator and judge should be separated.

Seven ethics board members are appointees of the governor, two are appointed by the House and two by the Senate (one Senate appointee remains on the board). All must come from a list of nominees submitted by a committee comprising the presidents of eight private colleges. Mary Ann Noble, of the Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said Wednesday that the college presidents haven't been faced with this many ethics nominations since the board was established in 1996.

Complicating the task are the tougher ethics laws, which include requirements that Ethics Board members disclose extensive details about their income. The new laws also prohibit members, or businesses in which they have an interest, from having contracts with the state. That could rule out otherwise qualified attorneys whose partners do business with the state, Noble said.

Jindal issued a statement Tuesday night saying, "We are confident that there will be no shortage of qualified, talented Louisianians wanting to serve their state on a board or commission, even with the ethics standards overwhelmingly approved in the first special session."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)