Gilmore Convicted of Racketeering; Not Guilty on Extortion
A jury has convicted Arthur Gilmore convicted of racketeering, but found him not guilty of extortion.
Gilmore convicted on racketeering charges
MONROE, La. (KNOE 8 News) – Former Monroe city councilman Arthur Gilmore has been found guilty of racketeering. He was also found not guilty on a charge of extortion.
Gilmore could be facing up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing has been scheduled for September 26th.
Bienville sheriff: Missing money at heart of Gibsland Town Hall raid
Sheriff John Ballance says its investigation was prompted by the findings by state auditors that records were missing. The warrant came after the town allegedly failed to turn over the requested records. “We decided the best way to get all the records we needed was to get a search warrant on city hall this morning,” said Ballance.
Ballance says that thousands of dollars are missing from the town’s coffers, and that the town owes the IRS $80,000.00 in payroll and other taxes. Ballance says money was taken out of employee paychecks but never made it to their destination.
Mayor Pro Tem and Alderman Marketris Jones claims the financial problems began when Odell Key took office again in 2011. “Mayor Key to me doesn’t have any respect for the law, one thing he likes to say it’s his way or no way,” said Jones and adds around 2011, the alderman began noticing unexplainable large cash transfers from the town account.
Jones notified authorities, leading to several investigations. “Yes I do think there is a mis-use of public funds,” said Jones. But with no paper trail, investigators say it’s difficult to find where the missing money went. But Sheriff Ballance is determined to find answers. “We’ve got people on one side saying, and people on the other side saying another thing. somewhere in the middle we hope we are going to get the truth.”
Bienville deputies raid Gibsland Town Hall
GIBSLAND — Mayor Odell Key threatened in a recent letter to state officials to close the doors to Town Hall. Wednesday, he got his wish. But it wasn’t at his direction.
Complaints against the town’s operations are numerous, with alleged violations outlined by the state Legislative Auditor’s office in a report issued in February. Also concerning to Ballance are recent federal tax liens totaling more than $80,000.
“If the money was taken out of the employees’ checks, where did it go?” he asked. “You’ve got to give it to the proper agencies, and they don’t have it.”
The town also has more than $55,000 on the books from unpaid utility bills. Aldermen last year established a policy to stop cash payments of bills. However, it has continued.
According to the cover letter for a financial report for the Town of Jonesboro’s 2011-2012 fiscal year, the town’s financial and accounting personnel “did not possess sufficient knowledge” to handle the town’s books. Other issues were also cited.
Because of inadequacies in the Town’s accounting records, we were unable to form an opinion regarding the amounts recorded as opening balances. The Town’s accounting personnel did not possess sufficient knowledge and skills in financial reporting resulting in numerous misstatements in the Town’s computerized accounting system. We were unable to confirm or verify by alternative means accounts payable and other payables of the Town. As of the date of our audit report, management was still in the process of rectifying issues with its financial reporting and correcting the misstatements. As a result of these matters, we were unable to determine whether any adjustments might have been found necessary in respect of recorded or unrecorded receivables, payables and other liabilities, and the elements making up the statements of revenues, expenditures and changes in fund balances.
See here the document.
Public Hearing on Proposed Ordinances
Last night’s meeting of the Town of Jonesboro’s Board of Aldermen was preceded by an hour-long public hearing on three proposed ordinances:
712 – Mayor’s Pay
713 – Use of Public Vehicles
714 – 2012/2013 Budget Amendment
Perhaps 2/3 of the meeting was taken up by the town’s controversial mayor Leslie Thompson’s speechifying.
Thompson began by declaring (like former President Richard Nixon) that he was not a crook, and that the pay raise he received over two years ago was completely legal. This, despite courts all the way up to the Louisiana State Supreme Court ruling otherwise.
Said Thompson, “I actually had the clerk to reduce my salary. To reduce it – not because we’d done anything wrong – because that matter will still go to court.” He added, “And when it gets to court, what they’ll be discussing – we’ll be discussing at that point is whether or not the town actually followed the rules and regs, and we did everything by law that you have to do to introduce an ordinance. The town – and I’m speaking from my perspective now – feels that we did everything by the law, and there will be no need for that to be overturned.”
The first citizen to speak was Bob Rubens, who asked Thompson why he was qualified such a raise in pay.
Thompson replied by citing former President Bill Clinton. Thompson said that Clinton had remarked recently that in order to be a good speaker, first you must be a good listener. Thompson went on, “A lot of the problems that we’ve had in this town, I think, has a lot to do with folks not being willing to listen.”
Rubens retorted that what he recalled about Clinton was that he “did not have sex with that woman.”
Said Rubens, “That’s the only thing I know him for, he lies through his teeth. If you want to associate with him, that’s up to you.”
On #713, the discussion mostly was about paying for personal use, mileage logs, and whether or not the mayor is “on call” 24 hours a day. Again, Thompson monopolized most of the time.
During the regular council meeting, #713 was tabled.
Discussion on ordinance #714, the budget amendment, held a surprise to the citizens and council.
Thompson presented an amendment to the amendment that had not been seen by the council, nor had it been published for public review. The new amendment had funding for one police officer and also matching money for a federal grant to seal-coat the airport.
Also to be funded was reinstatement of the City Court.
Last-minute budget amendments that had not been properly vetted was a losing issue for the mayor in the protracted court battle of Essmeier v Jonesboro.
More reporting later.
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Bienville deputies raid Gibsland Town Hall
GIBSLAND — Business has resumed at Gibsland Town Hall following an early morning raid by the Bienville Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Doors were locked shortly after 8 a.m. and remained so through 1 p.m. to allow deputies to carry out a search of the premises in connection with an ongoing investigation into possible misuse of public funds.
Sheriff John Ballance said his office obtained a search warrant based on the absence of records previously sought through court subpoenas. Deputies brought boxes to cart away documents listed in the warrant, including the official town ordinances, bank records, meeting minutes, tax information and a laundry list of other paperwork.
They also were authorized to download information from the hard drives of the office computers.
“We did not receive all of the information we asked for through subpoenas,” Ballance said. “It took us six weeks before when we subpoenaed records from the town and the bank. But we were at a point we needed all of this information before we could move into interviewing people in Town Hall.”
The town has been in financial disarray for more than two years, coinciding with Mayor Odell Key’s return to office in January 2011. Auditors during that time have been unable to issue complete reports because of the absence of records. The state Legislative Auditor’s office several months ago also indicated a lack of record-keeping when it came in to do an investigative audit.
“The fact of the matter is, that I felt that that ordinance that you are referring to was not lawful.“
With that one remark, the Town of Jonesboro’s controversial mayor Leslie Thompson last night distilled to a few words how he has run the town since he took office in January, 2007.
Thompson went on to say that he always tried to differentiate between what he felt were legitimate and illegitimate procedures.
Said Thompson, “I said that I would never yield to a policy and procedure that I don’t feel is lawful. I didn’t feel that it was lawful then, I didn’t abide by it, and if they wanted to come take me jail for standing my principles, I was ready to go then, and I’m ready to go now.”
In other words, the law is what HE says it is, not some antiquated set of rules promulgated by a court system, or a quaint concept known as The Rule of Law.
The remarks are chillingly reminiscent to that of former President Richard Nixon who famously said about his actions during Watergate: “Well, when the President does it, that means it is not illegal.”
The remarks were part of a discussion at last night’s Board of Aldermen meeting about proposed Ordinance #713, related to the use of public vehicles. The proposed ordinance would have amended an existing ordinance and designated the Chief of Police, the Fire Chief, the Public Works Director, the Animal Control Officer, and the mayor as “on call” 24 hours a day.
When discussion shifted to talk about mileage logs for drivers of town vehicles, District B’s Renee Stringer noted that the existing ordinance requires that all town employees – including the mayor – shall maintain such a log. The proposed amendment would do nothing to change that requirement.
At that point, several comments were made to the effect that the mayor shouldn’t have to maintain a mileage log. The mayor then made his comments about not following rules he doesn’t want to.
Action on 713 was tabled.
More reporting later.
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Gibsland aldermen boycott meetings
GIBSLAND — Mayor Odell Key has threatened to shut the doors to Town Hall because of the town’s worsening financial status and the lack of participation of aldermen at meetings over the past few months.
But two of four aldermen say their boycott of the regular and special meeting will continue until Key agrees to the cost-savings measures they voted on months ago are put in place.
The stalemate is the result of more than two years of unrest within the small Bienville Parish governing body. A criminal investigation into possible misuse of public funds is underway, but Sheriff John Ballance has been unable to say when it will draw to a conclusion.
Meanwhile, the town’s money woes are growing. On March 25, the town was hit with an Internal Revenue Service tax lien of $61,000 for failure to pay employee payroll taxes. Another lien followed May 6 for $21,204.
Despite five consecutive years of financial reports that say the Town of Jonesboro’s finances cannot be audited, the town’s Board of Aldermen saw fit to double controversial mayor Leslie Thompson’s pay – from $35 thousand/year to $70 thousand/year.
The board was presented tonight with a financial report from J. Walker & Company of Lake Charles, that said no opinion as to the town’s financial statements could be expressed.
Voting yes on ordinance #712 were:
LaStevic Cottonham – Alderman-at-Large
Charla Mason-Melton – District C
Devin Flowers – District D
Voting no were:
Sam Lamkin – District A
Renee Stringer – District B
We will have additional reporting later on the near 3 1/2 hour meeting.
The public hearing on three proposed Town of Jonesboro ordinances at W. Richard Zuber City Hall is at 5:00 PM today, Lincoln Parish News Online has been told. The agenda listed both 5:00 PM and 5:30 PM.
Last January, The (Monroe, LA) News Star penned a vituperative screed attacking Monroe City Council Chairman Eddie Clark for suing the Monroe City Schools (MCS). Clark is an attorney, one of many in the Monroe area.
Wrote the News Star in their 1/5/13 lead editorial:
Clark, long an ambulance chaser whose motto was “Turn your wreck into a check,” is now working with another attorney to obtain clients who may have been underpaid by the school district in its distribution of sales tax fund proceeds. The intent is to sue the School Board and have the court decide what people may or may not be owed.
The issue is money collected under a sales tax proposition that directed almost all the money be dedicated to classroom teachers instead of the deadheads at the central office.
Several months after the lawsuit was filed, the folks at the News Star got busy and investigated the allegations contained in the lawsuit.
Here’s what they found:
Apr 19, 2013 – by Barbara Leader
More than 64 percent of Monroe City Schools central office “administrators and supervisors” received money from the 1968 sales tax fund during the 2011-12 fiscal year, and it appears to go back further. Three public records requests filed recently by The News-Star show which central office administrators and supervisors received money from the 1968 sales tax fund or an equivalent from another fund as far back as the 2003-04 fiscal year.
In other words, the News Star’s own reporting confirmed what Clark alleged in his lawsuit. Had the News Star done their job and kept a watch over the MCS’ finances, a lawsuit might not have been necessary.
So what does the News Star do next, apologize to Clark? No, they double down and continue to denigrate Clark and two other council members who dare to stand up to Monroe’s controversial Mayor Jamie Mayo. Their 5/4/13 editorial compares the council meetings to that of the MCS.
The action was counterproductive, and we fear reminiscent of the fractious, dysfunctional Monroe City School Board.
While we haven’t been able to cover all the meetings of the Monroe City Council due to conflicts with other meetings, we have been to our share of the meetings in the past four years.
We have yet to see News Star Executive Editor Kathy Spurlock at a council meeting.
If she were to deign to attend the meetings, what she would find is this:
Clark calmly chairing the meeting, never raising his voice, despite buffoonish attempts by the mayor and his staff to provoke him.
Clark extending complete professional courtesy to his colleagues on the council, including those with opposing views.
Clark addressing taxpayers and citizens with a sincere smile and courtesy when they approach to the podium for public comment.
Clark allowing ALL who comment ample time to make their point, even if their allotted time runs over.
We contrast Clark’s behavior to that of former Council Chair Jay Marx whose barely-concealed contempt for taxpayers and citizens who dared ask a question was legendary.
However, Marx was a rubber stamp for Mayo, so we never heard squat from Spurlock about him.
Because maybe the only thing concerning Monroe government that the News Star gives a damn about is the $25 thousand/year in fees for “legal ads” that they “earn.”
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