In a small meeting room packed with several dozen senior citizens who receive services from the East Baton Rouge Council on Aging, an attorney for the beleaguered agency responded today to a Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office report that finds the COA used public dollars and resources in 2016 to campaign for a dedicated tax.
The report, released earlier today, suggests the agency’s campaign activities could violate state and federal law and that the COA’s tax-exempt status as a nonprofit agency could be at risk.
District Attorney Hillar Moore III told Daily Report earlier he is reviewing the findings and is in communication with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, state Inspector General’s Office and Attorney General’s Office and will discuss the matter with each of those offices as well.
In prepared comments, attorney Murphy J. Foster III acknowledged COA administrators and employees may have engaged in wrongdoing but says it was unintentional.
“To the extent that some stuff got done or administrative matters got done during working time, that was wrong and mistakes were made,” he says. “But this is the first time the Council on Aging has ever stepped into the political arena.”
More importantly, Foster says, since a draft copy of the audit findings was made available to the COA last month, the board has adopted recommendations to increase transparency, revise its financial policies and procedures, and changed its bylaws to address concerns in the report.
The board also appointed four new board members at a special meeting May 1.
Foster did not take questions following the press conference—though he said he would be available later by phone—nor did the COA’s executive director, Tasha Clark-Amar, who has been at the center of much of the controversy surrounding the agency.
But COA board member and state Rep. C. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, spoke to the group and defended the organization, garnering nods of support from many in the audience, as she questioned the amount of scrutiny the COA has come under since voters last fall narrowly approved the dedicated tax, which will generate nearly $80 million for the agency over the next decade.
“This (audit) was raised to another level in my opinion,” she said. “We did an audit on the (East Baton Rouge Parish) Clerk of Court based on information that someone filed a complaint and it was never in the headlines day in and day out,” she added. “This has been an incident where they have repeatedly suggested there is wrongdoing at the COA.”
When asked to respond to the DA’s review of the audit and the possibility of criminal charges, Marcelle asked why Moore hasn’t reviewed other problematic audits of local entities.
“I would ask the DA why he didn’t review the auditor’s report about the Clerk of Court or the Bienville Parish Council on Aging or the Department of Health, which paid out over $1.4 million erroneously,” she said. “I would ask the DA to review that $1.4 million rather than errors the Council on Aging made.”
Moore, as East Baton Rouge Parish’s district attorney, does not have jurisdiction over a state agency like the Department of Health or another parish Council on Aging.
The Legislative Auditor’s Office report comes as the COA is the subject of proposed state legislation that would give outside entities greater oversight of the agency, and as some Metro Council members are attempting to exercise more control over the organization before levying the new tax. Both measures are controversial.
Marcelle said at the press conference today the agency would fight for its money.
“We want you all to be able to get the dollars that we voted for,” she told the seniors in attendance. “The dollars, every dime of it, we want it to come to the Council on Aging.”
—Stephanie Riegel
