Investigations into the Mandeville city government are not letting up anytime soon, as indicated Thursday by Mayor Pro Tem Trilby Lenfant after the City Council adopted the first written policy on city-issued credit card usage.

The Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office recently released a 10-month, 30-page audit report accusing Mayor Eddie Price, Finance Director Milton Stiebing, Police Chief Tom Buell and other city officials of, among other things, misusing charitable donations, city credit cards, city-issued vehicles and Fuelman cards. Since then, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, State Attorney General Buddy Caldwell and now the Mandeville City Council are conducting their own investigations into allegations that city officials squandered tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayer’s money on personal items and outings.

The attorney general’s involvement comes after St. Tammany Parish District Attorney Walter Reed recused himself based on his relationship with the Mandeville Police Department, DA’s office spokesperson Rick Wood said.

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At Thursday night’s regular council meeting, Lenfant, along with the four other council members, took advantage of their first opportunity to collaboratively question Stiebing about the credit cards. According to the report, Stiebing racked up nearly $13,000 on the city credit card over a five-year period on meals alone, while Price spent more than $50,000 on meals in the same period.

According to Stiebing, no written policy concerning credit card use has ever been in place. To counter that and accept the audit’s recommendations, Stiebing developed three short paragraphs that were presented to the council as the city’s first written policy on credit card use.

After receiving the credit card policy, Lenfant amended the document into a two-page policy, which was adopted into use with a unanimous vote by the Cty Council.

Before adopting the document, Lenfant spotlighted Stiebing and spent more than 20 minutes in a heated question and answer session with him concerning the lack of credit card policy.

Part of the Lenfant/Stiebing exchange follows:

Lenfant: I would like to commend you for advancing this policy so quickly, however, in light of the information contained in the audit, it appears it is several thousands of dollars late. I’m wondering, how is the policy communicated to city employees and city officials?

Stiebing: Well, you only have two people that had credit cards. The other department heads and city employees had purchasing cards with restrictions. Most of those were used to purchase computer supplies, register for conferences and things of that nature.

The mayor and I have credit cards.

Lenfant: (read from city’s Web site) The finance department is responsible for the development and maintenance of procedures for the financial control of the city; development and maintenance of useful computer applications; safeguarding of city assets; recording of accounting activities; coordination of a short and long range business planning program; preparation and interpretation of regular and special financial and statistical reports; determination of costs; development and maintenance of an effective budget system; promotion of cost control and purchasing of all types of insurance for the city and its employees. The director provides assistance to the mayor, City Council and city administration in controlling city operations and executes and polices city financial policy and accounting practices.

I’m sure you can imagine since the audit has come out that this council has been deluged with emails, phone calls and letters from citizens wanting to know why there were no instructive controls over the city’s credit card usage.

Stiebing: There were controls. The controls weren’t followed through. Two or three years ago we had learned it was required you put a detailed receipt with credit cards…

Lenfant: Mr. Stiebing, I don’t mean to interrupt you. Also on the city’s Web site it says you have been with the city of Mandeville since 1986 as a staff accountant and since 1987 you were promoted to director of finance. Besides a bachelor’s degree in accounting you earned the designation of Certified Government Financial Manager from the Association of Government Accountants and Certified Government Finance Officer from the Government Finance Officers Association. You are also a member of the public Risk Management Association and the Louisiana Association of Tax Administrators.

My question to you is how could you not know about the documentation required to substantiate charges on the city’s credit cards?

Stiebing: The law changes. The mayor for the most part followed that. He listed the names on the receipts, he listed what was purchased.

Lenfant: When, Mr. Stiebing, did the law change to require additional documentation?

Stiebing: I don’t know.

Lenfant: Did you not require reimbursement for personal expenses?

Stiebing: No, it was always reimbursed.

Lenfant: But you did not follow through on that to make sure that personal expenses were reimbursed according to the audit.

Stiebing: Whenever he (Price) had a personal expense, he would come in on his own and pay that.

Lenfant: Well that’s not what the audit states. I’m going to add for the record that I have not seen the documentation and that I’m meeting with Mr. Dan Daigle tomorrow morning in Baton Rouge to see the documentation. So I’m going to strictly look at the information contained in the audit. If there’s something that’s not correct in this audit, please advise me.

Stiebing: The mayor over the years, if he thought it was personal, he would come in with his bill and give me a check and say this was personal. So if he didn’t do that, I figured it was a public purpose.

Lenfant: So what you’re saying is, you did not follow through with verifying whether something was a public purpose. You did not require documentation?

Stiebing: No, I did not ask him about anything on the invoice.

Lenfant: And we have no written policy prior to this one being introduced?

Stiebing: No

Lenfant: We have a city budget of almost $30 million and we did not have a written policy regarding credit card use?

Stiebing: No

Lenfant: People in this room, people who have been emailing this council, calling this council want accountability and they deserve accountability and they’re entitled to it as we are.

Stiebing: Credit card purchases followed the general rules and regulations of the city. If the credit card purchase was more than $200, a purchase order was required.

Lenfant: The problem in this audit is that there were so many charges, so many thousands of dollars in charges where public purchases were not documented. That’s the problem.

Soon after the council finished questioning Stiebing, Lenfant called for an executive session with Howard Daigle of the Daigle Fisse & Kessenich Law Firm, the council’s legal advisor. Lenfant denied City Attorney David Cressy access to the meeting, saying the session was called to discuss “personnel matters and ongoing investigations,” but when the council reconvened nearly an hour later, Lenfant said no action was taken during the session.

Although Price did not attend the meeting, nearly 100 residents turned out calling on the council to get to the bottom of the alleged dealings, with some attendees even sporting “resign Mayor Price” signs.

“The council is very aware of the serious nature of the allegations and issues raised in the audit report,” Lenfant said. “Our commitment here to you tonight is that we as a council will work very deliberately in the coming weeks and months to correct the issues that were brought up in the audit. This is an ongoing process and we’re not going to be driven by the media to cure this overnight. We ask for your patience and what we’re not investigating, other agencies are investigating.”