City may call in state police over missing deposit

Published 8:00 am Tuesday, April 2, 2019

ST. MARTINVILLE — At the St. Martinville City Council meeting Monday evening the council passed a motion to call in the Louisiana State Police to investigate a missing $18,000 deposit if the funds could not be found by April 8.

“Why does it sound like no one knows about this?” Mayor Pro Tem Craig Prosper said. “A week ago I talked to (Chief Administrative Officer) Mr. (Shedrick) Berard about this. We should be able to find it In a closet, in a drawer, wherever it is. We also had a discussion today. There’s $18,000 missing for two weeks, and no one can tell us where it is missing.”

Berard said the money orders that made up the deposit were left in a desk drawer on Feb. 20, with the intention that issues with the deposit’s paperwork would be fixed on Feb. 21.

“Kim (Duplechin, the city’s accounting specialist) said there was a discrepancy on the paperwork,” Berard said. “She said they were working on it.”

Duplechin has been on medical leave since Feb. 21 and has not returned to work. In the meantime, Berard and Mayor Melinda Mitchell said multiple people have been in and out of the office where the money orders for the deposit were kept.

“Who’s been in her office?” asked District 1 Councilman Mike Fuselier.

“I called her and she gave the combination (to her office lock) to me,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t get it till later, though. She was already in the hospital.”

Prosper made a motion to turn the investigation of the missing funds over to the Louisiana State Police. District 5 Councilman Edmond Joseph disagreed. 

“We runnin’, we runnin’, we runnin’,” he said. “I’m observing and seeing what is going on. You can’t just point fingers at Mr. Berard. Maybe the money got crossed up with occupational licenses. But you want to get the state involved. That office shouldn’t have four or five people in there all the time.”

Fuselier said no one was pointing fingers, but he did have concerns about how the finance office was being run.

“We had employees from Abbeville come here,” he said. “We had employees from Breaux Bridge come here. It’s because we don’t know what we are doing. Our own auditor told us we did not have qualified people. It’s not April Fool’s. This is serious.”

Mitchell expressed her frustration over the lack of communication between the other council members, who had more details than she did.

“No one came and asked me about the money,” Mitchell said. “I’m the last to know. Sunday I am in church, and someone comes to ask me if $18,000 is missing. I am the last one to know.” 

Prosper fired back.

“I contacted the CFO, who you appointed,” he said, referring to Berard. “Does he communicate with you? It was missing a whole month before this came up. That’s how great our bookkeeping system is.”

The council was then surprised to learn that Mitchell had Janine Coleman, her transition manager, given access to the city’s books and records. Coleman had previously addressed the council when she was attempting to have a consulting contract worth between $65,000 and $165,000 awarded to her company.

“Usually I don’t come and speak,” Coleman said. “I volunteered my time and services. One, that $18,000 was not deposited on Feb. 20. If there were money orders, there should have been controls in place. Since there is a ledger stating who paid, you go back and contact the person who issued money order.”

The discussion went downhill when Coleman questioned why the councilmen, specifically Prosper, knew so much about the missing funds.

“You chose not to help Shedrick,” Coleman shot at Prosper. “You chose not to help anyone but yourself.”

“I chose not to pay you $165,000,” Prosper replied.

Finding out that Coleman had been allowed to go through the city’s financial records raised red flags for Fuselier.

“I don’t know if it is legal to have people not employed or contracted, to have those people in our books,” Fuselier said. “We don’t have the right people in the right places. Until we fix that, we’re going to continue to go down.” 

The discussion of the missing funds was only the tip of the iceberg. Berard was also unable to clearly explain where almost $12,000 in DARE program grant funds were deposited. 

“Kim (Duplechin) set up an expense account for DARE, so if DARE spends money we can pull a certain amount for that,” Berard explained, saying that there was not a separate DARE program account because the council had not passed a resolution authorizing it. “If we don’t have an account, where are we supposed to get the money from?

“I heard she put it in the general fund,” Joseph said.

“When money is put in the general fund for one item and gets spent on something else, it doesn’t mean it goes away,” Prosper said. “It still has to be accounted for.”

“Whatever was sent in, we can put in an account,” Berard said.

According to Police Chief Ricky Martin, the DARE program graduates went through the program in December and were scheduled to graduate in January, but he could not get $1,200 for the graduation certificates, awards and supplies.

“We got $12,156 in grant money and didn’t have $1,200 for the graduation when I requested it,” Martin said. 

Mitchell said a new line item for the DARE funds would be created in the morning so the funds could be tracked and accounted for. But the disarray led District 1 Councilman Mike Fuselier to raise concerns about Berard’s job performance.

“I’ll say one more thing,” Fuselier said. “I’ve said it before. The city needs an accountant.”

Mitchell again said she was not aware of the DARE program issues until the issue appeared in the newspaper.

“I would suggest you put your ear to the ground because it is falling apart pretty bad,” Prosper said. “If the (CAO) doesn’t know where the funds are … He’s guessing at what bank. This is crazy. We’ve got to fix this. And the only way to fix this is to get real people in real positions.”

Prosper then attacked Mitchell for a video she livestreamed on social media of a statement blasting him last week.

“Yes. it was very distasteful to put forth your agenda,” Prosper said. “There are certain things we should do. We should try to work together. But every time I have tried to meet with you or work with you, you have gone behind my back and done something terrible.”

Audience members began to respond in disagreement, especially after Prosper called for someone to start a recall petition against Mitchell.

“I’ll reach out to you again,” he said, striking a more conciliatory tone as he concluded. “I am willing, wanting and able to work with you. I don’t need to be right. But it has to be something reasonable.”