An investigative audit by state officials found a number of problems with the finances of the Town of Oberlin.
After receiving several complaints, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor staff looked into the Allen Parish town's finances and found several issues. If you want to read the audit for yourself, scroll down.
They found that Town officials:
- Could not show it properly adopted a budget for fiscal years 2021 through 2024
- Failed to maintain an ordinance book listing all of the ordinances approved by the Town Council
- Failed to budget $640,365 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds
- Made improper payments totaling $35,076 to town officials
- Paid four employees and the town attorney for working on the ARPA funds, but had no records to document the work
- Operated its own Local Agency Compensated Enforcement (LACE) Program through the Mayor’s Court without an agreement with the District Attorney
- Issued citations that specified violations of state law instead of Town ordinances
- Did not remit all mandatory court costs as required
- Used $192,579 of restricted sales tax revenue for general payroll expenses that likely were not allowable
Investigative auditors also learned that the Town's former finance clerk paid herself for unearned leave and did not record all the sick leave she used; that the former town clerk was improperly paid $10,896 for 404 hours of overtime; and that the police chief improperly reduced and modified 25 LACE tickets from October 2021 to February 2023, and failed to sign the tickets as required by state law.
In response to the findings, the current mayor writes that systems have been put in place to prevent the issues that were found, that the LACE program was discontinued and that the town is working with the District Attorney to set up a system for prosecuting traffic and misdemeanor violations. That letter is included in the audit, which is embedded below.
Since April 2022, the town has had three mayors, auditors note. They also wrote that a former clerk told them council meetings were recorded in the past, but no recordings could be found for any of the meetings in 2021 and 2022.
Here are some details about the findings above:
The Town’s budget documents for each fiscal year ending between June 30, 2021 and June 30, 2024, do not include most of the information required by state law. By failing to maintain an ordinance book and records showing it complied with the Local Government Budget Act for fiscal years ended June 30, 2021 through June 30, 2024, the Town appears to have violated state law, the audit found.
"The Town received $640,365 in federal ARPA payments, deposited them into a separate ARPA bank account, then later transferred the ARPA funds to the Town’s general fund bank account. The Town failed to budget the use of the ARPA funds by ordinance, as required by state law, and cannot provide an accounting of how the ARPA funds were spent after the transfer to the general fund bank account. Additionally, it appears the Town paid $35,076 of improper premium pay to elected and appointed officials. Since the Town did not budget or account for the ARPA funds as required and made improper payments to Town officials, the Town’s use of ARPA funds may have violated state law," auditors wrote.
The state Attorney General's office issued three opinions saying that elected officials couldn't be paid "premium pay" during the pandemic, but payments were made to the elected chief of police and council members, the audit found.
Additionally, four town employees and the town's attorney were paid for working on the ARPA funds, but there were no records of what work was done or when. Paying people without any documentation could be a violation of state law and the state constitution, auditors wrote.
On the issue of the former finance clerk, auditors found that the person who served as finance clerk for only nine months used 43 hours of sick leave she had not earned. During that period her timecards show the use of 123 hours of sick leave, but the accounting system shows 76 hours of sick leave. Since she had access to the accounting system, was responsible for payroll, used leave she didn't earn and paid herself regular hours when her timecards showed sick leave, she may have violated town policy and state law, auditors found. They said they tried to talk to her but she never responded to their requests.
On the issue of the former town clerk, the former town clerk was paid more than $10,000 in overtime between March and December 2022. That's despite a council ordinance passed in March 2022 elminating ovetime in all departments. Also, the clerk's time cards were not approved by the mayor and she signed all but one of her own payroll checks, auditors found. It doesn't appear she was entitled to the overtime, and she may have violated state law, auditors wrote.
Auditors found a number of issues with the town's Local Agency Compensated Enforcement (LACE) program. LACE programs were created after an Attorney General's opinion stated that each District Attorney has the authority to use discretionary funds to pay off-duty officers to write tickets. But neither the town nor the chief of police had any documentation to show the District Attorney was involved in their program at all; instead it was created through the town's Mayor's Court.
Under state law, a Mayor's Court has authority over violations of local ordinances and laws. If a local ordinance is similar to a state law, the Mayor's Court shouldn't set fines that exceed the state's fine for a similar violation. But the town has increased fines, and is enforcing state laws, and those actions may violate state law, the audit found.
On the issue of tickets, auditors found that the chief wasn't signing traffic tickets as he's supposed to, but he said he never signed them because his predecessor hadn't been doing that. They also found he had reduced 25 tickets issued under the LACE program from moving to non-moving violations, which reduced fines by more than $4,000. The chief told auditors he was allowed to change tickets as long as they hadn't been entered into the computer system, and he did so when people called asking for help.
Finally, on the sales tax issue, auditors found that town officials used more than $190,000 in sales tax revenue to pay salaries. The dedications on the taxes that raised that money did not allow those payments, auditors say.
Here's the audit:
