It’s old news that the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's Office has commenced an investigation at Shreveport City Hall after the request in January of this year by Councilman John Nickelson.
Nickelson's request concerned possible irregularities in the city's finances and accounting.
Nickelson was promptly removed from his chairmanship of the council's Audit and Finance Committee by council president James Green when he made his 2022 committee assignments. Green appointed newly minted councilman Alan Jackson, who took office on Dec. 28 of last year, as chair of the Audit and Finance Committee.
Within days of Nickelson‘s request, former city controller Ben Hebert held a news conference concerning his firing in December. Hebert had raised many questions concerning the city's accounting practices, including questions on travel expense reports filed by Mayor Adrian Perkins.
Hebert also said that he, not Kasey Brown, should have been hired as Shreveport's permanent chief financial officer (CF0). Hebert alleged age and race discrimination in the selection of Brown for that position.
After Hebert's press conference, Perkins pulled his nomination of Kasey as the permanent CFO. Brown remains as the city's interim CFO.
In response to Nickelson's request, Mayor Perkins stated that the city undergoes an internal and external audit each year and that he welcomed an additional audit by the state.
The Legislative Auditor's Office has acknowledged that an investigation is ongoing of the city's finance department. However, no timeline has been set for completion of the audit, and it is unknown how long the process will take.
The qualifying dates for this year's local elections, which include Shreveport mayor, city council and Caddo School Board are July 20-22. The primary election is Saturday, Nov. 8, and the general (runoff) election is Dec. 10.
Mayor Perkins has announced he will seek re-election. No doubt his platform will include fiscal responsibility, which would include the actions/inactions of the city's finance department.
The results of the audit by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor could have a major impact on those persons who are considering a mayoral bid as well as the mayoral campaigns.
Additionally, the fact that an audit is underway could negatively affect the city's bond ratings, thus increasing the interest rate charged for the moneys borrowed by the city.
The audit will also greatly affect the decision on who should be the city's permanent CFO.
For these reasons, it is important for good government that the audit be timely completed and released. Hopefully, this will be many weeks before the July qualifying dates.