By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
PEARL RIVER – The Town of Pearl River could face a monumental bill for back retirement money not paid to a host of city workers if a Louisiana legislative audit confirms inequities in the way the town has been paying out those funds for past years.
The Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office has confirmed they are in the midst of investigating financial questions in Pearl River, a probe that began over two months ago.
Mayor James Lavigne has been in his current position for over 20 years and has been paid thousands of dollars for a retirement fund over the past five years alone.
Lavigne has a proposed expense of $15,500 to his retirement fund for the 2014 budget and if that amount is paid, would have received over $53,000 in the past five years. There would be no problem for Lavigne to receive a town approved retirement contribution, as long as all other city employees receive the same percentage of their salary.
The law requires the same percentage of an employee’s salary be paid to all workers if there is to be retirement money paid out.
But that equitable treatment hardly has been the case in Pearl River, where only the mayor and longtime Chief of Police Benny Raynor have received substantial amounts of money.
Raynor is scheduled to get $15,500 this year, and if that amount is deposited into his retirement plan, would have received over $39,000 in the past three years.
Several other areas of concern have been raised in the investigation, including Lavigne’s position as town judge, and his position for many years past as the only building inspector in the town.
Lavigne was finally ordered several years ago to hire a certified building inspector, since he was not state certified, and he finally did hire one to take over the job.
“The concerns for the legislative auditor are that Mayor Lavigne is making many decisions about how the money in the town is being spent, and there are a lot of things they aren’t doing right,” the Slidell Independent source said. “You can’t give the mayor all this retirement money and no one else gets a similar percentage of their pay.
“This could open up a huge problem for the town if they have to pay a huge amount of past retirement money to city workers,” the source added.
Several other questions include the mayor driving a town-owned vehicle, but also receiving a monthly vehicle expense. There is also an investigation into a boat the town purchased that is of questionable ownership now.
Lavigne served as the town’s building inspector for many years after being voted into office and reportedly used a spiral bound notebook to keep records of whether he approved buildings or not. Lavigne was not a state-approved inspector at the time, but finally hired Joe LaFrance to become the town’s building inspector in 2010.
“We are very concerned about many buildings in the town not being built to code, especially our fire department,” one unnamed source in the town said.
The legislative auditor is still conducting the investigation and would not comment on anything, only noting the investigation had to do with the town’s finances.
Lavigne did not return phone calls to comment.