Legislative auditors on Thursday submitted a draft of their findings of their investigation into possible payroll fraud in the city of Monroe’s Engineering Department to city officials and Fourth District Attorney Jerry Jones.
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City spokesman Rod Washington said Mayor Jamie Mayo met with legislative auditors Thursday regarding the case involving the city’s former human resources director Mike Rhymes, city engineer Sinyale Morrison and former Engineering Department employee Ricardo Nance.
Last year, Rhymes raised issue with Morrison regarding overtime payment practices and policies. In investigating whether Nance was eligible for disability leave, Rhymes discovered Nance had received 25 hours of overtime pay each period, including when he was supposedly sick, The News-Star files state.
Nance’s supervisor, Morrison, said she capped overtime pay for each period at 25 hours for workers on call to streamline the budget.
The mayor completed an investigation into the matter and found no wrongdoing on any employee’s part, but Rhymes approached the Legislative Auditor’s Office to conduct an investigation. On Thursday, he said it’s possible others had also requested the same.
Rhymes was fired in September on the basis of “misconduct,” though he said at the time he was given no explanation as to what that misconduct was. He said he believes it was because of the investigation into the payroll issue.
“Today, I was joined by City Council Chairman Jay Marx and city attorney Nanci Summersgill in a meeting with state legislative auditors,” Mayo said in a prepared statement. “During the meeting, auditors shared with us the results of the report from their investigation into alleged payroll fraud in the city Engineering Department. Since this is an ongoing process, we cannot comment further at this time.”
Mayo said the city has until Nov. 29 to provide auditors with a formal response to the report.
Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera said during this meeting, known as an exit conference, auditors gave a draft report to the city officials and asked them to submit a formal written response to the auditor’s office within two weeks on whether they agree with the findings and to fix any problems auditors found in the report. This is the standard procedure for an exit conference, Purpera said.
Jones confirmed Thursday his office reviewed a draft of the audit with representatives from the Legislative Auditor’s Office. When asked whether the submission of the findings to the district attorney’s office indicated any criminal activity on the part of the employees investigated, Jones said it’s common for the Legislative Auditor’s Office to provide a copy of an audit of a local agency to the district attorney’s office for review.
“It’s a regular procedure and nothing out of the ordinary,” Jones said
“We routinely meet with district attorneys to talk with them about all the (reports) within their area,” Purpera added.
He said if his office finds that they agree with the city’s response to the findings, it will be another couple of weeks before the report is available to the public. “These findings will become public record within probably four weeks,” he said.
Rhymes said he believes the truth will come out.
“The mismanagement of the city will be evident,” Rhymes said
