Alderman takes issue on city debt

Alderman-at-large Paul Molbert was critical of a statement contained in Mayor Roland Boudreaux’s recent campaign announcement regarding delinquent accounts during Monday night’s City Council meeting.
“I don’t want to mislead the public,” said Molbert, referring to the mayor’s statement the city was owed approximately one million dollars in delinquent accounts when he assumed office.
“We do everything to collect the debts,” said Molbert.
Mayor Boudreaux answered the debt was incurred over the span of 18 to 20 years. City Clerk Colin Burnum added old unpaid utility bills can’t be currently deleted from the city’s software application. He added the annually accrued  debts are now taken off “as an expense.”
Molbert said he considered the mayor’s statement as offensive and a public indictment of the Council. “We take our fiduciary responsibilities very seriously,” he remarked.
Molbert expanded on his comments following the Council meeting. In a statement issued to The Tribune, he said, “If this were a significant problem (and it is not), why wasn’t this disclosed in previous annual audits?  At certain times, did the auditors encourage city leaders to write it off as “bad debt?”  They did – a city or business never carries bad debt forever….at some point the entity writes it off as uncollectible bad debt.”
He added the monies owed factor in the 10% penalty tagged on to the past due amount as well as the City’s approximate 3 cent per KWH fee.  “In actuality, the cost to the city regarding utility is significantly less than the stated bad debt expense.  Molbert also said that in 2013, there was an increase of nearly $5,863 in bad debt or an 11.3 % increase from the previous year.
Molbert concluded, “I have a tremendous amount of respect for the office of Mayor.  As a public servant, I have a duty to inform the public when figures are misrepresented as they need to have faith in their local government and trust that the right things are being done.”  
Asked if he wished to comment further on Molbert’s remarks, Mayor Boudreaux noted during his term of office, “we haven’t cut city services, but are spending wisely.”
Boudreaux also noted that Molbert was a member of the previous city administration and “there was never a concerted effort to collect those debts.”
He also cited an attorney general’s opinion that states a municipality should “make a reasonable effort to collect debts.”