By DAVID FOLSE II
Slidell news bureau
MANDEVILLE—After nearly six months of discussions and public meetings, the St. Tammany Parish Inspector General Task Force finally voted Monday night on their recommendation to give is to the state Legislature on the issue of the feasibility for St. Tammany Parish to have an Office of Inspector General.
Voting between three different options, it was decided that the mandating of a “forensic type” audit process for all governmental organizations and agencies in the parish was the recommendation.
The forensic audit system will ask the Louisiana legislative auditor to seek additional randomly-selected audits on different areas of a governmental agency operation.
The state legislative auditor is already tasked with investigating public agencies on a random basis, but the new requirement will enhance that process.
Winning with a majority of 12 votes, the forensic audit process was voted in favor of amending the Louisiana State Constitution to establish an Office of Inspector General for all of St. Tammany Parish governmental organizations and agencies or creating an Office of Inspector General for St. Tammany Parish through a Home Rule Charter change.
In addition to passing the forensic audit process, the Task Force also passed a pair of ancillary items that include reconvening in March, 2019 to review any of the recommendations that have been implemented by the state Legislature and mandating that all governmental organizations and agencies required to submit an annual financial audit, rotate the auditors they use at least every five years.
“With the passing of the Legislative Auditor option by the Task Force tonight, we will move to the next step, which is legislation to provide for additional oversight of the spending of taxpayers’ monies,” St. Tammany Parish President Pat Brister said. “This option provides the most logical and most expedient route to more transparency of agencies that spend those tax dollars.”
Task Force Chairman Rick Danielson of Mandeville said he was happy to see the board come to a decision.
“Not only did the Task Force get their say but so did the public,” Danielson said. “I think it was a very positive experience. My biggest goal was simple and that was what do the people want and how do you get there? Right now we don’t have additional oversight that has been proven effective. Hopefully if the recommendations that we are now going to send the state Legislature are reasonable and put into effect, we have improved the oversight process. If we have done that then that is a good thing for everybody.”
While the primary recommendation of the Task Force does not answer the question of whether an Office of Inspector General for the parish is feasible, Danielson said he does believe the forensic-type audit option is the best option for the future of the parish.
“Our job was never to tell them (State Legislature) how and/or,” he said. “It was to tell them what. We feel this was a reasonable option to implement for the people of this parish. It is going to be the job of the Legislature to determine how they are going to move forward with this thing.”
Many citizens speaking in favor of recommending an actual Office of Inspector General throughout the meeting Tuesday night pointed back to problems surrounding former St. Tammany Parish Corner Peter Galvan, who plead guilty to federal corruption charges, as the biggest reason needed for more government accountability. Danielson said that he believes the option the Task Force voted on will actually help prevent these types of problems in the future for public officers.
“I think it was kind of a last straw for the people for more accountability,” he said. “The people said that we don’t want to see this again.”
Danielson will be joined by Task Force members Troy Dugas, Carl Ernst, Bryan Haggerty, Neil Hall and Terry Hand to prepare the report for the Legislature by March 1. The final report will be voted on during the next meeting on Monday, February 24 at 6 p.m. in the Parish Council Chambers.