The Lafayette City-Parish Government has released the 112-page report prepared by a city-parish attorney looking into a federal loan that an employee obtained via an LCG agency.
Yesterday, Mayor-President Joel Robideaux announced that the report, which he had requested from the attorneys who handle much of his city business, and found that his aide, Marcus Bruno, didn’t violate any laws or policies when he obtained the small business loan. The issue came to light in an Advocate story last week; council members called for an outside, unbiased investigation last week.
This week The Current posted a story about Robideaux’s purchase of a home belonging to Bruno’s wife. You can read about that here.
The report states that Bruno’s loan is legal because he did not “have any functions or responsibilities with respect to CDBG assisted activities,” was not “in a position to participate in a decision-making process with regard to such activities” and was not “in a position to gain inside information with regard to such activities.”
However, emails obtained by the Acadiana Advocate, and today by KATC, show that the loan administrator sent the agency’s draft by-laws to Bruno for review and approval; that Bruno was instrumental in reviewing resumes, interviewing and selecting potential board members for the agency, and that when an employee of the Lafayette chamber of commerce wanted to meet with the agency’s board he contacted Bruno to “plug in.”
Here’s the full report:
