[StBernard] St. Bernard council asks Taffaro to stop comments onSDT audit

[Westley Annis]

The Parish President "is" the parish's Administration.  It is the Parish President who the electorate of St. Bernard Parish ultimately hold accountable for just about everything.  The Parish President is well within his authority to make his own investigation - especially since it's his name that always goes on the dotted line, not council members.  
 
That is why when creating our parish charter we structured a "strong president" and "weak council" form of government so we the people could look to one person to hold accountable.
 
Let's look at and acknowledge the obvious facts here:  there were clear errors in the forensic audit - that much we can see.  We, including the council members, need to allow the Parish President to follow this through to the end, otherwise we'll never know if St. Bernard has been ripped off.
 
John Scurich
 
P.S.  For the few folks who recently emailed me....yes, that is my house in Chalmette we are rebuilding...I could be making a return soon.
 
 
 
 

	-------------- Original message from "Westley Annis" <westley at da-parish.com>: -------------- 
	> St. Bernard council asks Taffaro to stop comments on SDT audit 
	> 
	> 05:59 PM CST on Saturday, January 31, 2009 
	> 
	> Michael Luke / Eyewitness News 
	> 
	> ST. BERNARD, La. - A rift may be growing between the St. Bernard Parish 
	> Council and Parish President Craig Taffaro over the investigation into the 
	> parish's garbage contracts, after several council members sent a terse press 
	> release telling the president to stop making public comments about the 
	> contract. 
	> 
	> Four members of the council, Wayne J. Landry, George R. Cavignac, Kenny 
	> Henderson and Fred Everhardt released a statement saying, the "council 
	> wishes to strongly clarify that President Taffaro is not speaking for the 
	> governing authority of St. Bernard Parish, nor is he authorized to given the 
	> council's vote to launch the previously mentioned formal investigation." 
	> 
	> The statement follows a story earlier by Eyewitness News Reporter Lee Zurik 
	> in which Taffaro questioned the audit of SDT Waste and Debris Services' 
	> billing to the parish for garbage collection. 
	> 
	> An investigation by Eyewitness News found that SDT may have overbilled the 
	> parish by as much $3 million, but a forensic audit cleared the garbage 
	> hauler. 
	> 
	> Taffaro disagreed with the report after new discoveries that SDT may have 
	> overbilled the parish for something else. When Taffaro reviewed the cart 
	> list -- the homes collected from by SDT and charged to the parish -- the 
	> president found approximately 2,600 were duplicate or triplicate addresses. 
	> 
	> 
	> Taffaro said the parish may have been overbilled $50,000 a month. 
	> 
	> Taffaro is withholding that money until he can investigate, and he said the 
	> report by the forensic accountant is in question because of the discovery. 
	> 
	> "One of the things I've continued to ask is that when we look at this 
	> information, does it pass the reasonable person's test?" Taffaro asked 
	> previously. 
	> 
	> "There are still questions, when I show this to a reasonable person, that 
	> they still have." 
	> 
	> Several auditors in the previous story questioned the effectiveness of the 
	> audit. 
	> 
	> "Obviously there is not enough information to come up with a conclusion," 
	> Lee Yao, a Loyola University accounting professor and certified forensic 
	> accountant, said previously. 
	> 
	> But the council disagrees. "During the investigation, the parish council 
	> allowed the president to select the forensic auditor," reads the statement, 
	> "and an eventual methodology was agreed upon by all parties given the 
	> tremendous amount of incalculable information involved." 
	> 
	> The council, according to the release, said that a settlement between the 
	> SDT and the parish, agreed upon by the council, had been reached, and they 
	> advised Taffaro to accept SDT's offer of more than $200,000.