Handcuffs to fit a McGehee, please.

Posted on the Washington Parish message board by its owner, Lee Kelley, a former resident who has long endeavored to keep the local politicians honest. Long, but I think the first half, about the Bogalusa city charter, is important for context. In other words, it helps explain just how bad a thief he is:

At the May 2, 2006 Bogalusa City Council meeting, Councilwoman, Oneita Graham read the following onto the official record:

Report on Audit Questions – May 2, 2006

At a prior meeting you were told that we would let you know about the problems with out audit for 2005. I will try to be as factual as I can with the information that I have received. Then you can decide for yourself how you feel about the information. Should more problems come out, you will be informed of those too.

Some laws that govern the things I’m about to tell you:

In 1978, the City of Bogalusa became a city that operated under its own charter which was approved by the citizens of our community. The following are quotes from that City Charter:

Section 2-9, council meetings: To meet a public emergency affecting life, health, property, or public safety, the council may meet upon call of the mayor, the presiding officer of the council or the majority of the council membership at whatever notice it shall be convenient to give. (Page 6).

Section 2-10: An act requiring an ordinance shall include (10) authorize any contract on behalf of the city. (Page 7).

Section 2-13: Emergency ordinances shall be effective for no longer than 60 days. The council, however, upon a favorable vote of at least 2/3 of its authorized membership may extend the life of an emergency ordinance for an additional 30 days, but no such ordinance may be extended beyond that period. (Page 10).

Section 3-06: Compensation – No ordinance changing the salary or granting any other monetary compensation shall be adopted during the last year of a term of office, and no such ordinance shall become effective during the term of the council adopting the ordinance. (Page 14).

Section 3-07: Duties of the Mayor – (3) Attend all council meetings with the right to take part in discussion but not vote. (6) Submit to the council and make available to the public, within 60 days after the fiscal year, a complete report on the finances and administrative activities of the city as of the end of each fiscal year. (This would be March 1st). (8) Keep the council fully advised as to the financial condition and future needs of the city and make recommendations to the council concerning the affairs of the city as deemed desirable. (Page 15).

Section 4-01: The salary of the city attorney and directors of departments appointed by the mayor shall be set by the mayor subject to approval by the council. (Page 15/16).

Section 4-04 – Duties of Director of Administration: (4) Ascertain that funds are available for payment of all contracts, purchase orders and any other documents which incur financial obligation to the city and that such documents are in accordance with established procedures. (7) Prepare a monthly statement of revenues and expenditures to show the financial condition of the city. (Page 18).

Section 4-07: Public Works Director shall direct and be responsible for (2) supervision of all contract construction work, (3) maintenance of the city property. (Page 20).

Section 5-04 – Administration of Budget: No payment shall be made or obligation incurred against any allotment or appropriation except in accordance with appropriations duly made and unless the mayor or the mayor’s designee first certifies that there is a sufficient unencumbered balance in such allotment or appropriation and that sufficient funds there from are or will be available to cover the claim or meet the obligation when it becomes due and payable. However, this provision shall not limit the authority of the city to borrow funds in anticipation of revenues as provided in the general laws of the state. Any authorization of payment or incurring of obligation in violation of the provisions in this charter shall be void and any payment so made illegal; such action shall be cause for removal of any official, officer, or employee who knowingly authorizes or makes such payment or incurs such obligation or who causes such payment to be authorized or made or obligation to be incurred. Such persons shall also be liable to the city for any amount so paid. (Page 23).

Section 5-05: (B) Emergency Appropriations: To meet a public emergency affecting life, health, property, or the public peace, the council may make emergency appropriations. Such appropriations may be made by emergency ordinance in accordance with the provisions of section 2-13 (emergency ordinances). To the extent that there are no available unappropriated revenues to meet such appropriations, the council may by such emergency ordinance borrow money in sums necessary to meet the emergency. The repayment of such sums shall be a fixed charge upon the revenues of the year next following the year in which the sums are borrowed and shall be shown in the operating budget for that year. (Page 24).

Louisiana Revised Statutes 38:2221 – Public Contracts, Works and Improvements: No contract shall be let on a cost plus basis.

Facts previously unknown by the council and presented to the council by auditor on March 27, 2006 that occurred from September 2005 through February 2006.

Problem 1: The City retirement system is continued to be under funded. Notice was given the council with the 2004 audit in which the auditor stated the city should develop a corrective action plan to generate additional revenue to ensure proper funding of the retirement system. Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:3034(A) states: The city shall make contributions to the system each year on an actuarially funded basis, towards the annuities and benefits herein provided.

Our Bogalusa City Retirement has been under funded for quite some time. The city must begin to fund this system so that it is financially sound. This system covers all city workers. By the time the amounts are paid to the state for the fire and police retirement, not enough remains to cover all the other employees in an amount that is considered proper funding.

Problem 2: The city has collected too much money in a General Obligation Bond Debt Service Fund. We must stop collecting this millage until the excess amounts have been used to pay the bond. The millage on this is 10.45 mils.

State law requires that we not collect more than enough to satisfy the debt each year. Right now we have enough built up to cover a period of time.

Problem 3: The Mayor signed a contract with a local construction company without being properly notarized or witnessed. There was no information presented to the city council of this action; therefore, there was no ordinance permitting it. There is no evidence of the proper bidding process on most of these. Upon receiving our agenda for this meeting we have been provided copies for the bids for the work at VeeCor, Model Crafts, and the ball parks and the North Royal Street bridge. The city has produced a contract signed January 5, 2005. No emergency was foreseen at that time. As of the end of March the city has been billed by this contractor over $800,000 for work through February 16th. As of now, I don’t know what has been billed and paid since that time. Some of this work has been reimbursed by insurance to the city, including a check for $244,000. I have rounded off all dollar amounts. The work include repairs from September through February 16, 2006 to buildings in the industrial park – Model Craft $11,000; VeeCor $8,000; American Fabrics $122,000; Cabinet World $123,000; Client Logic $2,800; fire stations $36,000; Senior Citizens Center $55,000; city dump $21,000; city hall roof $38,000; city hall $39,000; Mayor’s office $33,000; assorted water tower sites $8,000; Lake Vista $15,000; city sheds and storage buildings $30,000; ball park $700; animal shelter $400; and Deli in the Park $67,000. Some work temporary, some work was permanent, and work has been continuing even today.

This contract was a cost plus contract with an additional 15% of the total amount of the materials being added to the bill. The minimum labor bill per hour has been $31.45 for an apprentice; the maximum has been for the supervisor at $89.85. There has also been overtime paid on these amounts. Wages probably included some overhead for workers’ benefits, Social Security, etc. Equipment per day included $10 for a pickup truck, scaffolding $15, concrete saw $60, and skid steer bobcat $65. I noticed we were billed $18,060 total for the pickup truck. Invoices were submitted for the supplies purchased. In the supplies were a wheel barrow, extension cord, several staple guns, hammers, chisel, saw horse bracket, tool belts, sprayer, buckets, caulk guns, tin snips, etc., in addition was the 15%.

There were two projects, Model Crafts and VeeCor buildings in the industrial park for which bids were obtained and did not involve the cost plus problem. I cannot tell you whether contracts were signed on these. I can tell you that the council has not passed an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter these contracts, but the ordinance has been introduced tonight. These amounts - $183,000 for VeeCor and $378,000 for Model Crafts, were not included in the above cost plus jobs. An architect oversaw these projects and issued the substantial completion certificate last Friday, April 28th. This means they were complete except for a few touch up items. These were the only two buildings in which he was involved, other than to do a damage assessment.

It is against state law for a government body to enter into a cost plus contract. The council must pass an ordinance in order for the mayor to have authority to sign any contract. The first knowledge the council had of this was when it was brought to our attention by the auditor. The council has not been asked to authorize the mayor to sign these contracts until this week.

Problem 4: The mayor signed an emergency contract with a local ambulance company, without the knowledge of the council, and no ordinance authorizing it.

This contract was not dated, signed, notarized, or witnessed. The emergency contract calls for a three year contract with option to renew for another four years. The emergency contract also required the ambulance company to work football games and teach the fire department and the police department emergency medical techniques.

The contract said that the city would pay the ambulance company for any patients picked up in Bogalusa and the amounts not paid by insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid. There were thirteen of the pick ups billed and paid for by the city from locations outside Bogalusa. Upon checking, those outside the city were not billed to the parish. Of the 9 patient bills I checked on, all had insurance or Medicare and a supplement, except one, who only had Medicaid. When asked, the patients stated they had not been notified by their insurance they were paying or had been billed. There were at least two patients that should have been covered by city health insurance.

When payment for this was denied by FEMA, on February 24, 2006, one month after payment was made to the ambulance company, an attachment was added to the contract, stating the contract began August 29th and ended December 31st. Dates on the invoices were from August 30, 2005 through January 12, 2006. The city was billed and paid $31,631. The ambulance company has repaid the city that amount.

Again, an ordinance must be passed by the council in order for the mayor to have authority to sign a contract. The council had no knowledge of this contract until brought to its attention by the auditor.

Problem 5: After Hurricane Katrina, the mayor and some other salaried employees received overtime compensation. The time sheets indicate that some worked multiple days, 24-hours a day. When this was submitted to FEMA for payment, it was returned. FEMA only pays this compensation when there is a prior established procedure. The administration responded by constructing minutes of a meeting held two days before the storm in which the mayor told the department heads and some other salaried employees they would be required to stay at City Hall a while. Upon these instructions, the group decided they should receive overtime pay. These minutes were an attempt to create a prior policy to allow the compensation. This was resubmitted to FEMA. The first checks paid by the City for overtime were on September 15th. Total paid to those attending the meeting was $44,000.

The City Charter requires the council to fix the pay of the mayor and approve the pay requested by the mayor for the department heads. Those receiving the overtime had no authority to pay themselves extra without council approval.

Checked but noted as a problem by the auditor: City paid a local company $4,000 a month for a storage warehouse from September through January, totaling $20,000. This was a large building and was used to stock supplies after the storm.

City Council: On September 15th the City Council held a special meeting to handle several ordinances the mayor needed passed in order to handle the emergency situation. The overtime, the ambulance contract, nor the construction contract were mentioned to the council. Being brought to the council’s attention by the auditor at the end of March, these things were unknown to the council before that time.

Almost everyday following the storm, most of the city council checked in at City Hall to get updates of the situation. Had the council been requested to have a special meeting at anytime from late August through September, there were enough members to constitute a quorum who could have attended.

On April 25th, the Council President, the auditor, the mayor, the city attorney, the city administrator, our state senator and our state representative attended a meeting with the Louisiana Legislative Auditor. At the end of the meeting, the state auditor told the council president he would meet with the city council to discuss his findings after the due date of the audit, June 30th.


TONIGHT’S AGENDA: Our agenda tonight includes ordinances authorizing the mayor to enter into contracts for the ball parks, North Royal Street bridge, VeeCor and Model Crafts.

The VeeCor and the Model Crafts work have been completed. Payments have been made and the city has received some insurance reimbursements. Work has been done at all three ballparks included. Avenue U and Davis Street ballparks are complete as far as I can tell. Avenue B complex ballparks, the work is almost complete, still needing a cover for one dugout/bleacher and completion of the light alignment. These things were being worked on today but he dugout roof is not complete as of this afternoon. The concession there does need repairs but was not shown on the request for bids and no work has been done on it to my knowledge. North Royal Street bridge has not begun as far as I can tell. The low bid for the work on the three ballparks is $237,900.

These are the facts as I understand them to be. Again, let me say that I am not trying to tell you these things were right or wrong, legal or illegal, just the facts. You can each make your own determination in that regard.

As I said in a previous meeting, the council was kept in the dark about these things until the auditor brought them to our attention. My feeling is that you have just as much right as the council does to know what is happening anytime in our city. If you have any questions or would like to see documentation, please feel free to see me later.

The only thing I won’t share are invoices showing names of ambulance patients and some notes from the auditor that are not public information until his audit is presented to the council in an open meeting. There is a confidentiality law that might govern those items.

Bubba awaits, Mackie-boy.