Lafourche council seeks ethics opinions on parish’s audit

The Lafourche Parish Council is asking the district attorney, state Board of Ethics and attorney general to review the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s report for possible ethics violations.

The audit, released in late November, cited discrepancies in travel reimbursements, personal spending with parish credit cards and instances of waste of taxpayer money for credit card late fees.

The council, by a 6-3 vote, is seeking a forensic audit of the parish’s finances between 2005 and 2006 and any other year deemed necessary. Councilmen Phillip Gouaux, Tyrone Williams and Mike Delatte opposed the audit request.

In a follow-up motion, the council agreed to ask Lafourche Parish District Attorney Cam Morvant, Attorney General Charles Foti and the state Board of Ethics to review the state audit for code of ethics violations. Councilmen Mark Atzenhoffer, Williams and Delatte voted against the action.

Parish President Charlotte Randolph, who is cited in the audit, said at last week’s council meeting that she would not speak again about the audit.

Louisiana Legislative Auditor Steve Theriot cited a $200 speaker’s fee Randolph received at a Washington, D.C., conference earlier this year. Although the parish paid for the trip, Randolph initially kept the $200 fee, he said in the audit.

Randolph has since returned the $200 to the parish. A copy of the cancelled check was included in Randolph’s response to the audit.

She has since said the council’s request for an in-depth analysis is a personal attack against her.

“You’ve got to understand if the councilmen vote against the investigation then it leave the perception that they agree with the fact that we were not completely compliant,” she said. “It was the intent of the author of those resolutions – to make it difficult to vote against.”

Council chairman Tommy Lasseigne, who lost to Randolph in the recent parish president race, penned the investigation requests. He said the forensic report would be far more comprehensive than the recent audit, which investigated only parish employee’s expenses, credit card use and reimbursements.

“Let them come in and do what they have to do,” he said.

Randolph, however, said it is time for the parish to move on.

“I think those who did vote against it recognize that what we achieved in this parish was far greater than what has been accomplished in the past, and they want to move on move this parish forward,” she said.

Randolph and the council was divided about budget issues too at last week’s meeting. She vetoed several amendments to the 2008 Operation and Capital budget following the Nov. 27 council meeting.

Prior to requesting the investigation, the parish council overrode several of Randolph’s vetoes, transferring nearly $2.6 million back into the $60.5 million parish budget.