Louisiana Voice

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—Did the Legislative Auditor’s office allow itself to be used to build a case against an employee of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) as part of a political vendetta?

If not, investigators certainly went to great lengths to build a case against Wayne Sweeney, manager of the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area.

An investigation by the auditor’s office indicates that Sweeney was paid $505, excluding benefits, for hours he did not work and that he used a state vehicle to run personal errands.

The audit report, however, has all the overtones of a personal dispute between Sweeney and his supervisor, LDWF Biologist Director Osborne Baker.

And the case could also be made that the state spent considerably more on its investigation of Sweeney than the amount for which he is accused of being overpaid.

In his cover letter, Legislative Auditor Daryl Pupera said the audit was conducted “to determine the credibility of certain allegations regarding the management of White Lake Wetlands Conservation area.

“Our audit consisted primarily of inquiries and the examination of selected financial records and other documentation. The scope of our audit was significantly less than that required by Governmental Auditing Standards,” he added.

The audit noted that on Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, Sweeney submitted his time sheet for the two weeks ended Aug. 21. State work weeks run Monday through Sunday. Sweeney’s time sheet reflected that he worked 83.5 hours for the two week period. That included 80 regular hours and 3.5 hours of compensatory time.

However, from Aug. 15 to Aug. 18, the audit said, “we monitored Mr. Sweeney’s daily activities and found he worked 22.5 of the 32.5 hours he recorded on his time sheet for these days.” Accordingly, Sweeney should not have claimed nor been paid for the additional 10 hours and was not entitled to 3.5 hours of compensatory time. Sweeney is an unclassified employee earning a salary of $105,040 per year. That computes to an hourly rate of $50.50 per hour.

“By claiming hours for which he did not work, Mr. Sweeney may have violated state law,” the audit said.

LDWF provides Sweeney with a 2005 Toyota Sequoia and a Fueltrac card with which to purchase fuel. He was allowed to keep the vehicle at his home when it is not in use for state business. The audit report says that Sweeney used the vehicle to run personal errands for the four days he was observed by auditors.

Sweeney, who lives in Lake Charles, was allowed to maintain an office in Lake Charles in order that he would not have to make the 138-mile round trip to and from the White Lake property in Vermilion Parish.

Because of this, Baker said that even though he suspected that Sweeney was not working 40-hour weeks, he still approved his time sheets because he did not have the resources to verify his hours.

Around Aug. 15, when surveillance was first begun, Sweeney commented to a neighbor that he believed he was being followed. The neighbor, Scott Baily, an investigator for the attorney general’s office confirmed that he observed a vehicle in a nearby parking lot that appeared to be surveilling someone.

By assigning an auditor to follow Sweeney around for four eight-hour days and then compiling the written audit report, it would appear that the amount spent on the investigation more than doubled the $505 for which the report said he was not entitled.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, by contrast, took numerous out-of-state trips during 2011 to promote his book and to attend fund-raisers for himself and others, all while continuing to draw his salary.

Legislators do not generally convene on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during legislative sessions even though they are paid per diem for those days.

All of which begs the question of whether the audit report was requested as a means of building a case against Sweeney.

White Lake was owned and managed by British Petroleum America Production (BP) until July 8, 2002, when the property was donated to the State of Louisiana. On that same date, the state entered into a cooperative endeavor agreement with White Lake Preservation, Inc., a 501(c) 3 corporation, for management of the property.

Sweeney, as an employee of BP since 1980, was manager of White Lake and his employment was transferred to White Lake Preservation, Inc., once the cooperative endeavor agreement was executed.

On Jan. 1, 2005, Act 613 of the 2004 regular legislative session became effective whereby management of White Lake was transferred from White Lake Preservation, Inc., to LDWF, effective July 1, 2005.

At that time, Sweeney became an employee of LDWF.

Baker told auditors he attempted to move Sweeney’s office from Lake Charles, take away Sweeney’s vehicle and to restructure the management of White Lake. He said his efforts, if successful, would have resulted in better management of White Lake by Sweeney and would allowed Baker to better supervise Sweeney.

Baker and LDWF Assistant Secretary Jimmy Anthony each said that LDWF management initially support Baker’s plan but subsequently denied the plan after Sweeney spoke to LDWF Secretary Robert Barham who allowed him to keep his Lake Charles office and his vehicle.

Barham confirmed the conversation with Sweeney, according to the audit report. He said he made his decision after being told moving Sweeney to White Lake could result in the loss of some of the White Lake corporate hunters.

Sweeney subsequently reimbursed the state the $505 but his attorney, Thomas Lorenzi of Lake Charles, said he did so while not admitting to not performing work for the pay received. Moreover, Sweeney has been reassigned to the White Lake office and is no longer allowed home storage of his state vehicle.

In a five-page response, Lorenzi noted that Sweeney emailed documents to his home in July of last year so that he could review them that night at his home. Lorenzi provided copies of emails to substantiate his claim.

On Aug. 15, one of the days auditors observed Sweeney, Lorenzi said that Sweeney had two telephone conversations with whooping crane biologist Tandy Perkins. These conversations occurred at 8:34 p.m. and 8:40 p.m. but were not recorded on Sweeney’s time sheet. Lorenzi also cited several occasions in which Sweeney performed work for his office outside normal work hours.

One of William Shakespeare’s plays was entitled Much Ado About Nothing.

That somehow seems an appropriate way to describe Mr. Sweeney’s case.