Iberia Parish Council approves penalizing uncooperative employees

Posted: Jun 15, 2012 6:20 PM by Chris Welty
Updated: Jun 15, 2012 6:23 PM

The Iberia Parish Council is fed up with the lack of cooperation from employees hired by the parish president. President Romo Romero has been under investigation. The council approved an ordinance this week that would penalize employees for not cooperating. If people don't cooperate with an internal investigation, they could see fines or possibly jail time. That's after subpoenaed employees didn't show up when the council wanted answers. "As we were researching the process, we knew we needed to do some housekeeping in the format," said Parish Councilman Troy Comeaux

This all started when Romero filed a complaint with the attorney general's office questioning the district attorney and parish council. "After that investigation was started by the state agencies, it was found to be that some of the people who signed sworn affidavits were recanting on their statements that was actually printed and sworn to was not actually what happened." The council wants to know why sworn statements have changed, and council members tell us an audit alleges some of Romero's hires are not qualified for employment. Comeaux says the attorney general sent a letter to the council and parish president suggesting a felony may have been committed, but he did not say what crimes may have been committed. "The public is asking what happened and what you all are going to do about it. In order to fulfill our obligations to make this public knowledge and to find out if something is going on, wrong and why it went wrong, and let the truth be told. It's set up in the charter and it's our obligation to pursue that if we find it necessary," said Comeaux. If wrongdoing is discovered, the findings will be turned over to the state police.