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AUDITOR'S REPORT. New Orleans, July 3, 1912. Hon. Albert Bienvenn, Mayor, St. Martinville, La. l)ear Sir: In ccordance with our contract we, have made an examination of the Ioks of the Corporation of the ('ity of St. tai Martinville for tith period of M ,,ne year and eleven months, from lh .July 1. 1910 to May 28, 1912, and tli now sulbmit our relprt thereon to- l gether with the supporting exhi- l Jits and schedules detailed in the th index prefixed hereto. In ORG ANIZATION. The town of St. Martinville was tia incorpl)orated by a charter issued th under the laws of the State of Lou- k isian1a on March 4, 1908, and at the of close of the period under review. ti< viz: May 28, 1912, the outgoing lu ofticials were: til M. L. Broussard, Mayor m .I. A. Resweelr, Sec. and Trea. . I,. .. Duchamp, Councilmen e , .1. A. Guerin. "' E. A. Davis, fr H..1. (;uirard, "tr Jules Resweber. Jr. " SOURCES OF REvEN'E al TAXES. All citizens within the I corporate limits of the town of St. se Martinville are assessed on the plo a perty held by them on the follow- A ing basis in accordance with the b Assessment Roll made each and F cettitied by the official Assessor: w Corporation Tax 10 mills " Special Tax ( Water p and Light 5 mills Drainage Tax 2 mills i but of the 10 mills tax levied for the Corporation an appropria tion of 3 mills is set aside for school tax payable to the School Board of the Parish of St. Martin, a less a commission of 5 per cent in reimulrsement for the expense of collection of said taxes. ('ndr the terms of an ordinance issued by the Town Council on March it;. 1903 the "Special Tax" of 5 mills was set aside as a "Sink- c ing Fund" for the redemption of bonlds issued by the Water and b Electric Light System of the Town and the yearl lpayment of the c COUpo,IlS thereon. 1 The Drainage Tax of 2 mills was r levied for the purlpose of reimbur sing tie Cypress-Island Lafayette Drainage District Board for pay ments made by them and the suns raised by levy of this tax is paya ble to them as collected, less a coinmissien of .) per cent on the amount collectible. The o,ther sources of revenue of the ('crplrot ion consist of: Lmi'.:ss.s. Levied as per ordi nance of the (City Council on the 1 husimness interests of the town. FiNIs. Imlm edl, by the Mayor fotr petty offenses against thle regu tiins of the City Ordinances. MARKET RE\VEN I'Es. For rental ,,f market spaces o(cupied hy Mer c'lants in the Market Building hbs I,,nging tg thte Tohwn. INTEREST AND ('OSTS. Another source of reve\'t'ue ('cIISists of costs aall interest charged to delinlquaent tax lpayers. \WATER ANI, LIGHT I'PLANT. The City also oIwna anld operates a wa tar and light plant for the sjupply (,f water andl light to the inlihabi tants of the City. a RISULT8 OF THE EXAMINATION. TxEs. W maded a careful exa. mrination of the tax irecards and c,,mlamre( the amount leviahale as stated in the assessment rolls with the actual receipts as recordled in the several cash ioks maintained by the Secretary and Treasurer. Although generally the tax records were found by us to be well main tailnedl, as a result of this exasmina tio, we ascertained that the re ceipt of taxes of the following va lue were not recorded, viz: Corporation tax (1910 Roll) .................... $63.10 Special Tax (1910 Roll) ................. 8.25 Special Tax (1011 Roll) .................. 8.85 17.50 Drainage Tax (1910 Roll) ............. 25.00 Drainage Tax (1911 Roll) .............. 3.10 - 28.40 LIC'ENSES. The records apper- f. taining to the licenses leviable since fn March 1906 were found by us to ,, have been destroyed, the leaves of iii the License Register, which is a it bound book, having been apparent- w ly cut out with a knife and al- in though repeated demands were Il umade by us for these leaves they of were not produced for our inspec- de tion. As a result of the absence of ai this information we were compell- IN ed to accept the records contained a] on the stubs of the license certi- cl ticate book as evidence of the vi- (' lue of the licenses collectible. Of st these the greater proportion were it actually received in cash, but li- ti ceases to the value of t655 were tl not recorded as having been re- li ceived up to May 28, 1912, and to from information given to us are tl treated in the accounts now pre- c, sented as outstanding, one item alone being for a sum of $625. In p addition to the value of the liceu b ses thus remaining unpaid it was ii ascertained that a license issued to o A. G. Goulas amounting to $3 had f been received and unaccounted for. ii Further reference to this matter I will be found later in this report. a FINES. No record of tines im- e posed in the Mayor's Court was t available for our inspection and u therefore no check could be ob- e tained by us on the fines imposed and thus collectible. t MARKET REVENUES. No record appears to have been kept for the (ý revenue obtainable from tenants of t stalls in the blarket Building, and the receipt book was the only evi dence offered to us in support of I the income from this source. On t examining the book certain re- f ceipts which had been made out I but were unissued were produced t to us with the explanation that the I amounts recorded thereon were collectible, a list of these is ap pended to this report and further I reference will be found later here in when commenting on the ac counts receivable. INTEREST. A check was institu ted by us ,on the delinquent taxes and we found that all the interest due th ereon was pro lwerly recorded With tlte excp'ltill of a sunl of $1.36. DIsII RiSEI ENTS. We carefully vouched tllhe whole of the dislurse ment.s reco(rd(el h- the Secretary and Treasurer and found them to, Ie ,. rrect. The imethod of recor ding these paymients were unsatis factory, and we hla considerable difftticulty in verifying the accura cy of the entries. In many in stances vouchers did not agree with the entries made in the cash look and the explanation given to, us in respect of these entries gen erally was to the effect that partial payments had previously been t made on account and the Ibalance paidl by check for which was ol tained. As these paymenets were - nmainly for salaries of oflicials we Y satisfied ourselves that no sums - were paid in excess of the salaries due. In several instances where payments were made for suppllies. .statements were produced to us 1 giving credit to the Corporation sfor the amounts alleged to have 'been paid. We noticed that very Sfew of the vouchers had been certi 1 fied for payment by the responsi ble officials. We jaid careful at s tention to thie vouching of pay Sments to thie difftrerent Boards for .taxes payable to them, and foundl Sthese to be in order. WATER AND LIGHT PLANT. In examining the sources of revenue for the Water and Light Plant we I found the records most unsatisfac- rev, tIory. (wing to the incomplete der nature of the Consumers Register fert it was in)possible to ascertain out what sums were receivable for any ha% month from each consumer and as act, no stub receipt Ibaok or duplicates per of bills delivered were kept no evi- clu, deuce was available whereby the an] amnounts recorded as receipts couli per Iw checked. We also noticed an 1tw aplparent discrimination in the ria1 charges to certain consumers as hat compared withl others and we would the strongly advise an investigation dle into this with a view to the insti- of lion of a thorough inspection of wil the premises whereon water and sel light is consuimedl and the nmain- ""B tenance of a complete record of ha, the amount due monthly from the Et colnsulmers. l STATEMENTS PRESENTED. VWe present with this report as Exhi- me bits "'A" to "'", statements show- (lit ing the revenue and expenditure o of each of the three principalv funds of the Corporation consist- i" ing of the Corporation General Fund, the Water and Light Fund and the Special Tax Fund, togeth- ar er with a balance sheet setting out the financial position of the Cor poration and of the various funds as at May 2S. 1912, and statements showing the surplus or deficit on these funds at that date; these ex hibits being supported by Sche- g dules "'" to -'9"', containing fur- dl ther deta,ls. C REVENUE AN) EXm'ENDITuRE. CORPOKAT'ION GENEAL FUND. In Exhibit "A" will be found at state I ent (f the revenue of this fund c for the period of July 1, 1910 to se May 2N. 1912. inclusive, showing s I that Ihe excess of l revelle reetiva- E Idle for this Iteriiat over exlmendi- th Sture actually incurred thereon at was $4,443.·i6. This exhibit may lo I he summarized as follows: th REV ENUE: ( rurat ion Tax ... ............ .. ...... $8,250.40 Letss Taxe's payable to Schlul Board ........... 1,358.97 Net Revenue from, Taxes .................... $6,891.43 Sunldries InI',ume from otlhr s~,urces.......... 10,915.80 C(,mmissi,'n ,on Draimge and School Board Tax 147.18 l'otal R wen ue ............................. $17,951.11 Exl wndit ure' ................................13,510.85 Excess of Re venu,'e over Exl,e'liture........ :$1,143.56 fin iIspectiibin of Exhitit "A'" it will IH. fonnil that r'fertnI'tI is ;i ve'n to, S"chlules "I". "2." "ý'" "S." "**)" for details of the receipts, dislhnmrse nt.s, outstIandinvt taxes Iand acI'(ounts Imyaile )'brought into ( nac'ount in order to arrive at the I actual revenue and expenditur"e dutin g the lari,,d under review. The taxes payable to the School Board shown inl Schedule "'" re present three mills on thel taxes, collected for which no settlement has Ibeen made. The total incometI taxes for the wprijtel under review was $8.250.40, but. the appropria tion of three mills is only appllica ble to the taxes for the year 1911; ,revious to this year settlemeun was made on another basis and the payments in settlement ,of this pre vious tax are included in the 'dis bursements shown in Schedule "2". WATER AND LIu;HT FUND. We present as Ezhibit "B" a statement showing the revenue and expendi ture of the Water and Light Fund for the period under review, front which it will be seen that the net hlos on operations for this period has been $3,186.67. This exhibit may be reviewed in the following condensed form: Revenue .................................. $10,533.77 EXPENDITURE: Materials and Supplies used ........ $7,516.69 (General Expenses ................ 6,203.75 Total Expenditure .................. 13,720.44 Net Lis on ()jwrations ......................$3,186.67 In order to arrive at thle ectual revenue earned for the pIwriod un der review it will be nIted on re ference to Exhibit "B" that the out-tanding a.counts receivable have Ineen taken into account. The actual extpenditure incurred for the plwrio( is also, arrived at after in cluding the liabilities for materials and supplies received during the eriod and after allowance has Ieni mnade for the stocks of mate rials and supplies remainining on hand at May 28, 1912. Details of the outstanding accounts receiva Ile, unpaid blills for supplies and of the inventory of s'ock on hand will Ib found in the respective schedules indicated on Exhibit "B". The inventory of stocks on hand was furnished to us by the Engineer, and we accepetd his val uatiWq as correct and proper. SPECIAL TAX FUND. A state ment of the Revenue and Expen diture of this fund for the period of twenty-three months under re view is appended to this report as Exhibit "C". This excess of re venue over expenditure for the pMeriod is shown to be $1,732.97, n rrivalI at a follows Revenue ................................... $3,982.97 ExpeCndii ur ............................... 2,254).00 Excess of Revenue over Expenditure .......... S1,732.97 The expenditure chargeable 1 iagainst the revenue of this fund dluring the period under review consisted solely of interest, as no Imnds were redeemed. FINANCIAL POSITION. The financial position of the Corporation as at May 28, 1912 is set out in the form of a balance sheet appended to this report as Exhibit "'D," wherein is also shown the financial position of each fund at the date mentioned. The fol lowing is.a condensed statement of this exhibit: (orporation Water and Special Asets General fund Light Fund Tax Fund Total Fixed Assets : Iluilings. Plant alnd Equipment $3,388.25 12,271.00 15,659.25 ('urretnt Assets : ('ash ,, hand and in Banks 140 65 2,038.72 2.170.37 T'naxes. LIein.-es. Water and Lights ,ills and Accounts I,,ceiviable 1,851.10 1,375.04 473.45 3,699 89 .J. A. Re.sweler. ('ash short or orerplidI 4,179.72 4,22.5,6i 431.04 385.11 I nvent,' ries of Materials and Suppli's 513.43 513.43 Invest ment 500.00 500.00 BalInces dnue by one Fund t, anyother S95,75 1,oo9.4N 1,989.23 !9161.27 8,813.34 4,932.44 22,937.05 Fixed Liabilities : BoRnded Indebtedness 22,500.00 22,500 00 Cypress-Island Lafayette Drainage Board 469.00 469.00 St. Martin Parish School Hard 429.94 429.94 undlry Accounts Payable 631.46 965.43 1,596.89 Interest accrued due on honds 25.00 25.00 Bills Payable 500.00 500.00 Total Liabilities 2,030.40 24,465.43 25.00 25,520.83 Surplus or Df:ticit 7,130.97 14,422.09 4,907.43 2,583.78 $9,161.27 8,843.34 4,932.44 22,937.0. 0 We submit the following com ments on the constituent items of the balance sheet: FIXED ASgTrs, $15,65.0.25. The assets included under this head are those which, in their nature, are permanent and are included at the value at which they were estimated for inclusion in this statement by the former Mayor of the City, Mr. Mr. H. P. Fournet, with tle ex ception of the furniture and fix tures, which were appraised by M r. Resweber. Mr. Fournet from his intimate knowledge of the cost of these assets was able to appraise them at their present value. Al though it is apparent from an in spection of the list drawn up by Mr. Fournet that the whole of the assets of the Corporation are not included, particularly in respect to the Water and Light Plant, we have adopted these values in order to present a clearer statement of the financial position, than wouldl otherwise be obtainable