A Baton Rouge firm has been tapped to conduct the Lafayette City Council's investigation into the Guillory administration.
Council President Nanette Cook said discussions have been held with Faulk & Winkler, a Baton Rouge-based CPA firm, to conduct the investigation. Now that the resolution setting the scope of it has been passed, and the funds have been allocated, a contract review is scheduled for next week. Cook said it is hoped that the investigation can begin as soon as possible.
The Lafayette City-Parish Charter specifically states in Section 2-13 that the Mayor President cannot veto any ordinance passed by the council that deals with an investigation of any part of the executive branch. Last night, the council approved an ordinance to allocate $100,000 to fund the investigation.
The investigation will cover all employees of the "executive branch of the city of Lafayette," but "shall also include an investigation of third-party entities and/or persons directly or indirectly involved, financially or otherwise" in the subjects laid out by the resolution for the investigation.
Those subjects are:
"All drainage-related projects and/or works (including but not limited to all transactions, events, occurances, facts and/or circumstances, financially or otherwise, related directly and/or indirectly therein), involving the direct or indirect expenditures of public funds, use of personnel, employees, assets and/or resources, either in whole or in part, of the City of Lafayette, for the time period beginning May 1 2021 through the present date..."
and also:
"The direct or indirect expenditure of public funds, use of personnel, employees, assets and/or resources, either in whole or in part, of the City of Lafayette by the Mayor President, at the discretion of the Mayor President or benefiting the Mayor President for the time period beginning January 6, 2020 through the present date."
January 6, 2020 is the day Guillory was sworn in as Mayor-President.
