More Calvin Grigsby

Audits agree on possibility of overpayments

Shreveport’s contract with financial adviser Grigsby and Associates may not have been in the city’s best interest, according to dialogue Monday between Councilman Joe Shyne and Chief Administrative Officer Dale Sibley.

The discussion occurred during a City Council committee meeting regarding the release of a council-requested external investigation into a San Francisco-based firm that shows possible overpayments of nearly $700,000.

That amount includes more than $84,000 for out-of-pocket travel expenses for which there was a lack of receipts. Mayor Cedric Glover, speaking via teleconference, said that was part of a “carryover of the same style of contractual agreements” the city had with other financial advisers that “served as a template.”

In an email he sent to reporters Monday, Grigsby says work performed is accounted for and his firm would like to meet with Frank Neuner Jr., the Lafayette-based attorney whose firm conducted the investigation, to counter what Grigsby alleges are false statements.

Grigsby has received no payments from the city since results of the internal audit were released late last year.

The council plans to invite Neuner to fully explain his findings in person or via teleconference Nov. 13.

Reconciling the external audit’s findings will require a cooperative effort by the City Council and city administration, Sibley said. “From our point of view, just like the internal audit, we take it, we start working on it.

“The only question out there is ‘are these questionable dealings?’ And that’s a process that we hope collectively we can resolve because it’s going to take legal, it’s going to take internal audit and it’s going to take finance people to really help us sort that out.”

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