After receiving two separate complaints in 2018 of Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine allegedly misusing her city vehicle, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor set out on investigating and released its findings Monday, May 13.
The main finding is the mayor and several city council members appeared to have received compensation in excess of city ordinance. “From July 2017 to June 2018, the city appears to have paid Mayor Jennifer Vidrine and the board of aldermen (board) $40,734 in excess compensation,” according to an audit summary. “Although their salaries were set by ordinance, Mayor Vidrine received monthly vehicle and phone allowances and per diem payments for attending regular monthly board meetings, while board members also received monthly vehicle allowances and per diem payments for attending regular monthly board meetings. These allowances and per diem payments increased their respective compensation above the amounts set by ordinance. Payments in excess of the salaries set by the board may violate state law.”
City attorney Eric LaFleur, in a press release, stated, “For approximately 15 years prior to this administration, the city provided allowances to the mayor and council members that should have been defined and included in compensation. Regrettably, this technical error was never pointed out in the 14 or so previous audits that were conducted each year. But, now that we do know about it, it has been corrected. That’s why we have and need auditors.”
LaFleur continued in the press release, “As the report indicates, the allowances are compensation. The city administration issued W-2s, and they were accounted for as compensation. The mayor and the council members paid taxes for the allowances. Again, the problem since 2003 was that the allowances were not included in the compensation ordinance as required by law. There is no theft; there is failure to properly report the allowances.”
The full audit broke down the alleged extra compensation for vehicle allowances, phone allowances, and per diems to attend board meetings as follows:
Vehicle allowances
While the audit did not find evidence the city council members provided any documentation of actual expenditures related to their personal vehicles, the audit reported “it appears the board members received a flat, monthly amount of $300 each regardless of how much they used their personal vehicles. In addition, the vehicle allowances were reported as taxable income on the board members’ W-2 forms for IRS reporting purposes, indicating this was additional compensation to board members and not reimbursement for expenses incurred.”
Phone allowance
As was the case with the vehicle allowances, the audit found nothing to prove the mayor was using her personal phone for city business. However, the audit reported “it appears the mayor received a flat, monthly amount of $125 regardless of how much she used her personal phone for city business. In addition, the mayor’s phone allowance was reported as taxable income on her W-2 form for IRS reporting purposes.”
It further reported, “These facts support our belief that the mayor’s phone allowance was additional compensation to the mayor not reimbursement for expenses incurred. Moreover, it appears that $125 is excessive for a single phone with unlimited phone, text, and data in today’s competitive marketplace.”
Per diem
“Mayor Vidrine stated that she and the board members receive allowances and per diem payments because that is what the previous administration did,” according to the audit. “Mayor Vidrine could not provide documentation to show that the allowances and per diem payments were authorized by ordinance. We spoke with the city’s payroll clerk, who told us that allowances and per diem payments have been paid to the mayor and board members since at least 2003. Because the mayor and board members’ salaries were set by ordinance, and the board did not authorize any increases by ordinance, the allowances and per diem payments received by Mayor Vidrine and the board members appear to have increased their compensation above the amounts approved by ordinance. Payments in excess of the salaries set by the board may violate state law.”
In her management’s response which is attached to the audit, Mayor Vidrine also said the allowances and per diems date back to 2003. According to her response, “Consistent with the compensation policy adopted by previous administrations, the current mayor and council continued to provide for those allowances and issued W-2 forms to the mayor and council members for tax purposes.”
As set out in the audit, the auditors included recommendations such as adopting “policies and procedures to ensure municipal officers are paid according to the appropriate salary ordinances adopted by the board and that additional compensation in the form of allowances and per diems be addressed clearly in such ordinances.”
The recommendations continued, “in lieu of providing individual phone allowances, the city (should) consider providing phones needed for public purposes at a lower group volume price.”
In her response, Mayor Vidrine addressed these recommendations. “In order for the city to come into compliance with the law and what is certainly considered best practices, the mayor and council can confirm that the current budget for 2018-2019 and the draft of the proposed 2019-2020 budget provide a specific appropriation for each of these line items,” the mayor said in her response.
“In addition, the city council will timely adopt an appropriate ordinance to properly define all of these items as compensation and will continue to issue appropriate tax filings consistent with provisions of the IRS Tax Code. At this time, we believe that a phone allowance is appropriate and will be provided as an ‘allowance’ only to the mayor and the chief of police, however, it will be reduced per your recommendation to $60.00 so that it properly corresponds with those costs.”
Another finding in the audit revolves around the alleged misuse of the mayor’s city vehicle. According to the audit summary, “Mayor Vidrine may have violated city policy and state law by using her city vehicle for personal purposes. In addition, the city’s practice of assigning a city-owned vehicle to the mayor and paying the mayor an annual vehicle allowance appears to duplicate benefits in possible violation of the Louisiana Constitution. Finally, we observed that the city-owned vehicle assigned to Mayor Vidrine did not have a public license plate or a logo bearing the city’s name, in accordance with state law.”
The full audit states a city resident provided the Louisiana Legislative Auditor with a video “purportedly showing Mayor Vidrine using her city-owned vehicle to move campaign signs.”
It continued, “Mayor Vidrine acknowledged that she has used her city-owned vehicle to remove and place her campaign signs. Mayor Vidrine stated she uses her city-owned vehicle to commute to and from city hall and in the performance of her duties as mayor. She stated she drives the vehicle to meetings throughout the city and to funerals for constituents of the city.”
The recommendations set out in the audit include the city to “develop and implement policies and procedures for the use of city vehicles to ensure that public vehicles are used only for public purposes. These policies and procedures should require that vehicle mileage and use logs be maintained for all city vehicles. We further recommend that the city obtain public license plates for city vehicles and mark all city vehicles in accordance with state law.”
The mayor in her response stated, “The mayor acknowledged, while in her city vehicle in 2018, she removed campaign signs placed in the city’s rights-of-way. She recognized the unlawful location of those signs, exited her city vehicle and removed the signs out of the city’s rights-of-way and moved them appropriately onto private property.”
Her response continued, “The mayor inherited the 2007 city vehicle, with a city decal on the front driver’s side corner window. The city decal was weather-worn and is no longer clearly identifiable. New city vehicle decals for placement on the vehicle as required by law have been ordered and the weather-worn decal has been replaced. The appropriate public license plate has been placed on the vehicle.”
The press release from the city attorney confirmed the “logo bearing the city’s name on the 2007 inherited city-owned vehicle assigned to the mayor has been replaced with a new city bearing logo and a public license plate.”