[StBernard] St. Bernard finance committee to discuss taking control of employee hires, salaries from parish president

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard finance committee to discuss taking control of employee hires,
salaries from parish president
Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on October 16, 2014 at 2:08 PM, updated October 16, 2014 at 3:31 PM

The St. Bernard Parish Council's Executive Finance Committee is set to meet
Thursday afternoon (Oct. 16) to discuss ordinances that would take control
of employee hires and salaries away from embattled Parish President Dave
Peralta.

The Parish Council on Oct. 7 introduced those two ordinances, and the full
council is expected to vote on whether to officially pass them at its next
meeting on Tuesday.

The three-person Executive Finance Committee is chaired by Councilman Richie
Lewis and also consists of Councilmen Casey Hunnicutt and Monty Montelongo.
Often, other councilmen sit in and participate in the meetings.

The meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday in Council Chambers, 8201 West
Judge Perez Drive, Chalmette.

The two proposed ordinances would introduce six-month moratoriums. One
moratorium would halt "all salary increases" for parish government
employees, and order the administration "to produce a record of all salary
increase for the last six months." The measure propose that the council
"allow, affirm or deny all future salary increase by a 2/3 vote of the
entire membership of the council."

The other ordinance, imposing a six-month moratorium on new hires, states
that the council "shall allow new hires according to the following
exception: Any new hire shall be approved by a 2/3 vote of the entire
membership of the council."

Hunnicutt said after the Oct. 7 meeting that the proposed moratoriums are to
"review and ratify any salary adjustments to ensure that the salary
increases were professionally merited instead of politically motivated just
to make sure that everything is correct."

The council's move came after a grand jury on Sept. 24 indicted Peralta on a
charge of felony stalking, after listening to testimony from Peralta's
ex-wife, Sharon Schaefer. Peralta already was indicted on a charge of sexual
battery of Schaefer, related to an October 2013 incident in which she said
he raped her. Peralta, who has said the sex was consensual, has denied
wrongdoing.

On Wednesday, a recall petition against St. Bernard Parish President Dave
Peralta officially began collecting signatures after its 24-year-old filer,
Christian Serigne, of Meraux, delivered the paperwork to the Secretary of
State's Office in Baton Rouge.

In other matters at the Thursday finance committee meeting, councilmen are
scheduled to discuss the parish financial audit released last month. At the
previous council meeting, they asked a representative from the Postlethwaite
& Netterville accounting firm, which compiled that audit, to attend the
Thursday afternoon finance meeting.

The audit, released on Sept. 15, stated that the parish government officials
failed to properly monitor the use of federal housing dollars and to track
some items bought with other federal money.

The "improper tracking" of housing money in 2013 violated federal rules and
could lead to sanctions against the parish, the auditors' report said.

The parish, in a response to auditors, said it has hired an accounting firm
to correct the problems and put the parish's Housing Authority in
compliance.

The audit said officials also failed to update the parish budget when some
expenses exceeded forecasts, and several government accounts were not
reconciled during the year, providing an inaccurate picture of the parish's
financial health.