JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — The Jefferson Parish Inspector General identified $28 million in questionable costs and funds at risk for fraud, waste, or abuse by Volunteer Fire Companies in unincorporated areas of the parish. This came after a look into a decade's worth of records from Volunteer Fire Companies in West Jefferson, Lafitte, and Grand Isle.
The report complied data from 2003-2023, which looked into cash, operating and fuel expenditures, payroll, and vehicles. According to the report, $8.5 million in funds were "misspent," which included bonuses, parties, and personal spending, with $5.6 million given to a non-existent entity. It also listed other issues like timecards that were not approved/outdated and inaccurate inventory records to name a few. The report made no mention of criminal charges.
Volunteer Fire Companies are private nonprofits that contract and operate independently within the parish to provide fire services. JP has been working with volunteer fire companies for 70-plus years according to Parish Councilman Deano Bonano. In mileages approved by voters, these fire companies get about $21.6 million in public funds to operate, according to the report.
As a former firefighter, Bonano said, "I don't agree totally with the IG's assessment that money was misused. Perhaps they aren't following current rules. When you have volunteers, you don't pay them a salary. So, you have to do things to be able to keep and maintain volunteers."
That's where things get muddy.
"The ones that make the most fires or help, you know, do training and things like that they buy them jackets with the fire department emblem on and they do things like that. Just like the parish, we provide longevity raises. As you saw, they also gave some of their paid firefighters raises as well. So, I don't think it was actually illegal, but it may not have fallen within their, I guess you would call it, their bylaws."
Bridge City Volunteer Fire Co., Chief Gary Girard said the inspector general audited his office too, and flagged some things that he does not feel were a misuse of funding.
Girard said, "We did have some issues that were fixed but a lot of the things that they were saying as far as misuse of funds wasn't misuse. It is stuff to run day-to-day operations, that they apparently disagreed on how the procedures are being done."
For example, Chief Girard said money spent on fuel in preparation for Hurricane Ida, and paying the Entergy bill are just a few things the IG flagged.
The report says this misuse of funding is persistent, pervasive, and likely tied to the lack of oversight from the parish and policies in place for these companies to operate, among other things. The report also said, the parishes Office of Fire Services, is tasked with monitoring the fire companies' performance but does not have the power to enforce the contracts if they aren't performing to standard. Regardless of his personal beliefs, Bonano said the council is moving forward with a solution to address this issue.
"It's become very clear to us that we need to move towards consolidation. Most people don't realize that there are five fire districts on the Westbank. So, it's five districts, but there are also probably in the neighborhood of nine departments in those districts and they all operate independently of each other," he said.
The parish has already launched a 30-day-long study to identify issues and give the parish council recommendations on how to move forward.
"Hopefully in the next year, we will have to call an election on the Westbank of Jefferson," Bonano said. " A, to fully consolidate the department, and B, to actually call for the property taxes that will fund that department as well. It's a number of steps that have to take place before consolidation can occur."
Bonano believes consolidation could be the best option to resolve this issue.
"Consolidation will let us look at all five districts and fire stations, where do we need to be located, what pieces of equipment do we need and what piece of equipment can we eliminate, while at the same time increasing manpower, which increases the level of protection to our citizens," said Bonano.
Chief Girard said, "I think the solution is to give the Director of Fire Service the authority to go in when he has a problem and fix it and handle it without having to go back to the council every time."
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