Ben Myers
Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine and the city’s aldermen enjoyed tens of thousands of dollars of possibly illegal excess compensation over a one-year period ending in June 2018, according to a Louisiana Legislative Auditor investigative report released on Monday.
Vidrine, for example, received a vehicle allowance at the same time the city provided her with a take-home vehicle, potentially violating the state constitution’s ban on duplication of benefits, according to the report. Vidrine and the aldermen also received per-diem payments for attending board meetings, which are required to be held under state law.
Despite the audit, it does not appear Vidrine and the aldermen have given up the extra forms of compensation, which the auditor said are problematic because they are not included in the ordinance setting salaries for the city’s elected officials. State law requires that city legislators fix the salaries of municipal officers, including themselves.
The $300 per-diem payments for meetings, as well as vehicle and phone allowances to Vidrine and the aldermen, were reported as taxable income, leading the auditor to conclude they were forms of compensation, as opposed to reimbursements. In her response to the audit, Vidrine said the allowances had been included as line items in the annual budget.
“The City Council will timely adopt an appropriate ordinance to properly define all of these items as compensation,” Vidrine stated in her response.
The phone allowances, however, would be limited to the mayor and police chief, and at a reduced rate, Vidrine wrote.
The auditor did not immediately respond to a query as to whether the city’s actions brought into compliance with state law.
Vidrine noted that the per-diem payments and allowances had been in place since 2003 or earlier.
Vidrine’s response did not address the possible constitutional violation implicated by her receiving a vehicle allowance on top of her use of a take-home vehicle. That could be considered an illicit donation of public funds to an individual, according to the auditor.
Vidrine did not return a call Monday.