Road crew sold scrap for parties, probe finds
NEW ROADS — Pointe Coupee Parish maintenance workers have been selling scrap metal owned by the parish to pay for employee parties in a practice that may have been going on for as long as 40 years, authorities said Wednesday.
Assistant District Attorney John Wayne Jewell said Public Works employees banked more than $11,000 last year and used some or all of it to throw Christmas and retirement parties.
Jewell said the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office is investigating whether any of the employees’ superiors knew about the practice and whether the workers pocketed any of the money that wasn’t used for partying.
The investigation is ongoing, and investigators have been able to account for only $500 of those funds, which Jewell said were spent on a Christmas party late last year.
Police Jury President Melanie Bueche said Wednesday she was not aware of what had been going on, but the parish has since put a stop to it.
“We won’t really know much until the investigation is complete, but what I’ve heard is that it was some junk culverts and some old meters,” she said. “I’ve learned that this has been going on maybe 40 years. It was sort of a custom that was passed down. The people who started it are probably not living anymore.”
Jewell said Public Works employees would take old culverts, scrap iron and other materials and store the material in the parish maintenance facility.
On rainy days, when much of the employees’ work couldn’t be done, they would collect the material, drive to West Baton Rouge Parish and sell it to a Port Allen scrapyard, Jewell said.
Investigators haven’t yet determined how many of the unnamed employees were involved in the sales, he said.
A lot of the scrap metal was given to the employees by residents who didn’t have an easy way to dispose of it, he added.
“Once it’s in the parish’s possession, it’s public property in my view,” Jewell said. “Even if this was a custom going on for 25-plus years, that doesn’t make it right. The money should have gone back to the parish. I’ve advised the parish to make sure it stops now.”
Louisiana law says surplus property owned by a government entity must be sold at a public auction.
Jewell said it’s too early to tell whether any criminal charges would be filed. One aspect working in the employees’ favor, he said, is that they told the scrap yard they were Pointe Coupee Parish employees. The scrap yard, in turn, set aside the money in an account specifically designated for the parish.
“I’m assuming the money all went into funding these get-togethers,” Jewell said. “If the money trail can be identified as going to that purpose, criminal intent would be hard to prove. If $5,000 went toward a party and the rest is not there, we might have to assume there was some intent. There’s no way of telling right now, but this shouldn’t have happened.”
At least two of the parish government’s highest-ranking officials, Parish Administrator Jim Bello and Police Jury President Bueche, did not know about the practice, nor has evidence been uncovered linking the Public Works employees’ direct supervisors to the sales, Jewell said.
“Employees may have thought it was OK to do this; it would be different if their superiors knew about it, but there’s no evidence to show that,” Jewell said.
Investigators are in the process of itemizing how last year’s $11,000, and funds collected during the prior three years, were spent, he said.
The investigation could take as many as four weeks to conclude, Jewell said, at which time, the District Attorney’s Office would turn over their findings to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor.
Bello said the parish’s Personnel Committee discussed the alleged illegal selling of scrap metal at a meeting Tuesday night.
The committee will recommend that Police Jury members, during their regular meeting on Tuesday, put in place a policy to handle future sales of excess scrap metal, he said.