Financial troubles better but still deep at Parish CAA

The St. Landry Parish Community Action ended it most recent fiscal year with a $51,034 deficit, according to an audit report released Monday on the Legislative Auditor’s website. 
But the 2013-14 fiscal year began with a deficit of $147,472 in its net position, according to the audit by Darnall, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick. 
The program’s budget is about $3.5 million a year, Fontenot said. 
Bill Fontenot, parish president, said fiscal belt-tightening at the agency arrived in 2013 after an investigation found mismanagement. 
“I think it probably was done first-class when there was plenty of money,” Fontenot said of the agency. “You know when there is plenty of money, everything seems to go better.”
Fontenot said the the past 15 years have seen cuts in programs “which would dictate you cut staff. That’s where the trouble began because no staff was cut. In fact, there may have been some added, which was the wrong thing to do.”
There were 25 to 30 staff members before the cuts began in 2013, Fontenot said. Now there are 15 to 17 employees, he said. 
“We are going to trim it as much as we can by keeping a minimal staff to process the programs,” he said. “It may take years to totally zero the deficit working it that way.”
Among the debts owed by the agency is about $20,000 to the Internal Revenue Service, he said. 
Money that should have been paid as withholding taxes was instead recycled into salaries, he said. 
The IRS is working with the parish on a plan to repay the taxes, he said. 
Fontenot said the Community Action Agency is doing “God’s work.” 
The agency helps the poor, the elderly and the needy primarily through federal funding, he said. 
The agency includes Low-income Home Energy Assistance, State Weatherization, Senior Companion, transportation programs, Family Independence Work, Emergency Food and Shelter, Housing Preservation and Food for Seniors.
The audit found many of the funds in the red as of July 31, 2014 -- the end of the fiscal year:  $45,216, Community Services Block Grants; $28,048, Energy Assistance; $142,427, State Weatherization; $1,088, Senior Companion; $149,146, Family Independence; $56,373, Medicaid; $110,646; $31, United Way Medical Assistance; and $52643, Special Fund. 
Fontenot said one of the auditor’s findings occurred during his watch and that was for a bus shed costing about $170,000. Four thousand to six thousand dollars in grant money was used to complete the shed without first obtaining state approval, he said. 
Fontenot said an investigtion continues into how money was lost in the program. 
“Until you recover it you can’t pay it back unless you take it out of the program year by year,” he said. 
The parish government is cutting expenses such as staff and cooperating with state and federal agencies to overcome the deficit, he said. 
The money problems stem from a period when the Community Action Agency “kind of ran on its own,” he said. 
Even when a home rule charter government began 13 years ago, the agency was left alone. 
Fontenot took office in 2012 and soon asserted his authority over the agency, he said. 
“I quickly found out that every operation in the parish government is under the president including Community Action,” he said. 
Bills were not being paid and in August 2013, he released Donald Robinson from his job as director. 
Kirsten Thomas is the agency’s director now, he said. 
“The success in the Community Action is to use every dollar that is provided because every dollar that is provided is basically for God’s work to help the poor, the needy and the elderly,” Fontenot said. “It is a wonderful agency that can do really good things for those who can’t do as much for themselves as we would like to see.”