An audit of the Village of Fenton reports myriad issues, including improper raises to elected officials, a failure to charge more than a third of customers for utilities, failure to remit employee retirement contributions and money improperly spent on an HR contractor and parties.
The auditor wasn't able to issue an opinion on financial statements for the village because the former mayor allegedly took records with him when he left office. As a result, back in June Eddie Alfred Jr., 59, was booked with Malfeasance in Office and Injuring Public Records and was processed into the Jefferson Davis Parish Correctional Center. To read our story about that, click here.
The audit took a look at the village's operations between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024. That's when Alfred was mayor; he left office in December 2024. Management responses in the audit indicate the current administration is trying to correct issues that have been found.
Here's how the state Legislative Auditor summarized the audit, which you can read for yourself by scrolling down:
"The independent auditor was unable to issue an opinion on the financial statements for the Village’s governmental activities, business-type activities, and general fund because the former mayor took numerous invoices, records, and other documentation with him when he left office. As a result, the auditor could not find sufficient audit evidence to issue an opinion. The audit report had 15 findings, three of which were repeated from the previous year. The auditor found the Village lacked adequate segregation of duties over its financial functions, improperly disposed of surplus property in one instance, and failed to dispose of surplus property in another instance. The auditor also found the Village failed to submit its audit report to the Legislative Auditor’s office within the required time frame and gave raises to the mayor, police chief, Village clerk, and aldermen without adopting an ordinance as required. The amount of overcompensation totaled $66,696 for fiscal year 2024. Additionally, the Village may have suffered a misappropriation when a consultant hired to provide human resources and bookkeeping services was overcompensated by $31,428 in fiscal year 2024. The investigation was ongoing as of the date of the report. The auditor found, too, that the Village failed to remit employee contributions to the Municipal Police Employees Retirement System despite withholding the amounts from employees’ paychecks, failed to charge more than a third of its utility customers for their utility usage, and made improper payments totaling $2,369 for Christmas parties, gifts, and other items. In addition, the Village failed to submit driver’s licenses for suspension for failure to appear violations or to have bench warrants issued, and incurred penalties and interest for late submissions of federal and state payroll reports and payroll taxes. The Village also failed to comply with provisions in the Local Government Budget Act related to the adoption of the General Fund budget and each Special Revenue Fund budget and failed to amend its General Fund budget when actual expenditures exceeded budgeted expenditures by more than 5%. The auditor found as well that the Village paid ongoing electricity costs for streetlights erected on private property owned by the former mayor, a former alderman, and the former alderman’s sibling and lacked procedures to track and record compensated absences earned and used by Village employees."
Among the items listed in the audit are:
- Possible misappropriation of funds when a vendor was paid significantly more than her contract amount; the new administration reported this to the proper authorities.
- Possible misappropriation of funds when security lighting was paid for by the Village at the homes of a former mayor, some former aldermen and even a former alderman's sibling. The new mayor disconnected them, and the village will seek reimbursement.
- Failure to submit payroll taxes withheld from employee wages to state and federal agencies on time, costing the Village more than $2,500 in penalties in interest.
- The Village paid $1,561 for two Christmas parties that no one working for the village attended.
- A $134 McDonald's gift card; gifts totaling $644 were purchased from Oriental Trading Company; and $30 in feminine hygiene products were purchased by the Village.
- Bill checks revealed that 58 out of 150 village utility customers, including the former mayor, had meter readings at the end of the month that were the same as the readings for the month - meaning usage wasn't billed. The current administration reports that the meters were installed "even though Village officials knew they were not working," the audit states, and gives the cause for this finding as "possible intentional oversight by the prior administration."
- The Village withheld police officers' contributions for the state retirement system, but didn't send the money to the system. The previous administration didn't start sending the money to the state until after the system sued the village; that ligitation resulted in a $425,449 settlement as well as a $175,000 liability to one employee. This cause also was listed as "possible intentional oversight by the prior administration."
- The Village Clerk, Chief of Police, Mayor and Aldermen got raises that weren't set by ordinance, which gave them $66,696 more than they should have received, a possible violation of two state laws. The Clerk was supposed to be paid $2,750 a month but received $4,339, a 58 percent raise; the Chief was supposed to make $4,500 per month but received $6,149, a 37 percent raise; the Mayor was supposed to be paid $2,500 but received $3,920, a 66 percent raise; and the aldermen were supposed to receive $300 per month, but received $600 per month, a 100 percent raise. The current administration has adopted ordinances setting salaries, the audit states.
- The Village failed to keep track of paid time off for its employees.
- None of the employees checked had completed cybersecurity training required by state law.
- None of the employees checked had completed sexual harassment training required by state law.
The State Police investigation that resulted in the former mayor's arrest began back in May, when the current administration called to report that the former mayor allegedly had removed village documents when he left office; Alfred had been mayor for about 15 years when he lost another bid for re-election. Detectives found some of the records at Alfred's home, they allege.
Fenton was the subject of an investigative piece by ProPublica in partnership with WVUE-TV back in 2023. They reported that the "village of 226 people collected more money in a single year through fines and forfeitures, primarily traffic tickets, than almost any other municipality in Louisiana, according to audits. In the year ending in June 2022, Fenton brought in $1.3 million that way." Read that story here.
The village's most recent audit before the current one, for the fiscal year ending in June 2023, indicates that the town collected $1,486,446 in fines that year, which amounted to 67% of the town's revenues. This audit showed $1,186,767 in fines collected.
Here's the audit:
