Baton Rouge businessman fined $25,000 for lease deal with Bridge Center for Hope

Collis B. Temple Jr., a Baton Rouge business owner and former LSU basketball player, was fined $25,000 by the Louisiana Board of Ethics for a land lease deal involving the Bridge Center for Hope.

The Ethics Board found that Temple suggested his office building on Florida Boulevard as a site for the Bridge Center for Hope facility in December 2019 while he was still on its board, which created a conflict of interest under state law.

Temple attempted to resign from the board to avoid the conflict, but state law requires former agency heads to wait more than two years before contracting with the agency.

The Bridge Center for Hope is a nonprofit established in 2016 to provide substance abuse and mental health treatment, funded through a property tax approved in 2018.

Temple owns the Human Resource Group Inc., which purchased the office building in 2006, and he was appointed to the Bridge Center for Hope board in April 2019 for a two-year term.

In December 2019, the Bridge Center for Hope board, including Temple, approved a contract with Recovery International Inc. for clinical services and discussed potential facility locations, with Temple suggesting his building.