Greer to leave Jeanerette in much better fiscal shape

Published 8:00 am Sunday, February 21, 2021

JEANERETTE — After three years of work in the city of Jeanerette, fiscal administrator David Greer is nearing the end of his tenure in the town’s government.

As someone who has served as a fiscal administrator for many municipalities who found themselves in financial trouble across Louisiana, it was safe for Greer to say that Jeanerette was in dire trouble when he first arrived in 2018 but the ship is now on course.

“The shape of it was awful when I got there,” Greer said. “It was really bad, on the borderline of not being able to function.”

Greer first arrived in Jeanerette after an order for state takeover of Jeanerette arrived in early 2018 following the town being unable to complete three years worth of audits in a row.

The fiscal administration meant a lockdown on the town being able to apply for grants and the authority of the mayor being superseded by Greer to remedy the situation.

One of the most important aspects to correcting the many financial problems was the lack of qualified staff. Greer was happy to say the problem is now solved.

“We’ve got good people in there now and we have a mayor who is actively involved,” Greer said. “This is one of the difficult questions, you have X number of dollars to pay for qualified people and getting the ones with qualifications is a difficult thing.”

After a year working as fiscal administrator, Greer said the town was still receiving invoices from a year prior that needed to be reconciled. Other issues like IRS penalties and water and sewer continued to be a lingering problem during his tenure, but the fiscal administrator said that the Jeanerette administration and staff are mostly running things for themselves.

“I am there very little now, I communicate with them to make sure everything is being done right,” Greer said.

However, the official end of the fiscal administration has to be signed off by a 16th Judicial District Court judge.

As for future endeavors, Greer said he plans on stepping back from fiscal administration duties in the short term.

“I think it’s time for a little break,” he said with a chuckle.