The Lafourche Parish Tax Payers Lose Again.
AUDIT FINDINGS:
A) In January 2006, the Parish paid $4162 to transfer the personal cellular phone accounts of two Council members to the Parish cellular phone plan. This amount included$1,095 in charges incurred in 2005 as well as $3,000 ($1,500 per council member) to advance each member a cellular phone allowance for the year. The Parish should refrain from paying expenses before incurred as this practice is prohibited by the Louisiana Constitution.
B) Mr. Windell Curole is employed on a full time basis as the general manager of the South Lafourche Levee District (SLLD). From June 28, 1993, to January 9,2005, Mr. Curole also served as the assistant director for the Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP). On January 10, 2005, Mr. Curole was appointed as the Parish’s Coastal Zone Management (CZM) director while he retained his duties as the OEP assistant director. Mr. Curole’s annual salary increased from $6,024 to $21, 024 for these two part time positions. Mr. Curole’s time sheets do not indicate hours worked or duties performed for each position making it difficult to determine what services were provided to the Parish.
OPINION:
A) In my opinion, the auditor did all of the leg work for the DA. The DA stated, at several Council meetings, if you do not abide by the charter, you will answer to me. The two individuals in these findings are alleged to be Phillip Gouaux ll and Mark Atzenhoffer.
The Louisiana State Attorney General opined to what amounts to be, expense allowances paid in advance to Council members should be treated as additional compensation. The Parish Charter is specific on the amount of compensation a Council member is entitled. In my opinion, these two Council members should be indicted on possible violations of the State Constitution and the Charter. If Cam cannot accomplish this simple task, he should resign as DA.
B) Wake up Sheriff Webre and DA Cam Morvant. Again, it seems that the auditor completed your investigation for you. Could you be looking at theft of tax payers money? Who is Windell Curole?
According to the audit findings, OEP Director Chris Boudreaux stated that Mr. Curole mainly works as a consultant in the southern part of the Parish during hurricanes. According to Ms. Randolph, Mr. Curole’s main CZM duties include handling coastal assistance funds and projects, attending monthly meetings to discuss projects, and overseeing coastal permits. However, Ms. Randolph later informed auditors that the CZM program has never managed any projects because funding was not available until 2007. In addition, We (auditor) spoke with Mr. Vince Melvin, CZM administrator for the Parish. Mr. Melvin stated that he (Melvin) handles all the coastal permits for Lafourche Parish and that Mr. Curole was rarely at the office. The auditors stated that they could not determine the hours worked by Mr. Curole or whether the allocation of his salary for the two part time positions was accurate.
In my humble opinion, Windell is being paid for helping Charlotte in her campaign. He cannot prove that he is actually doing work for the tax dollars he is receiving. He is milking the tax payers’ dollars as my good friend Cam place his head in the sand.
