Audit targets St. Helena roads

• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: Oct 19, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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GREENSBURG — Mearn Tanner, 84, isn’t afraid to tell like it is.

Tanner’s private gate south of Greensburg blocks Tanner Lane, and he said he has good reason to do that, even though the lane’s paving by the St. Helena Parish Police Jury has drawn scrutiny from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor in Baton Rouge.

Tanner said he left the gate open after the formerly gravel road was paved, but cars sped down the narrow, newly paved road that cuts right behind his house.

Thieves went into his back field, where several cars are stored, and stole tires and parts. People knocked on his window at night and a man entered his house once asking his ailing wife for money, Tanner said. So the gate was closed.

“I don’t intend to open that gate as long as I live,” said Tanner, father-in-law of former Juror Willie Morgan, whose former district includes Tanner Lane.

The road is one of 10 that an Oct. 1 audit identified as being improperly paved with public money and that auditors claim are private, mostly dead-end drives serving no public purpose.

Auditors have recommended that jurors seek restitution from landowners and others who benefited from $1.14 million in work that paved 66 roads under contracts from 2006 and 2007. Auditors did not name most of the roads.

Jurors in office at the time may have broken state malfeasance-in-office laws, auditors said. District Attorney Scott Perrilloux has the auditors’ findings.

Jury President Major Coleman, who was not in office until January 2008, had no comment last week about seeking restitution, which auditors also recommend should come from those responsible, such as jurors.

But residents contacted during the past week and a half in a door-to-door canvass along the 10 roads auditors did name said it would not be fair for them to pay back paving costs. Some of the roads cost more than $29,000 to blacktop.

“I don’t feel responsible. They can chip up the blacktop and take it out of here,” said Glenda Plunkett, 60, of Odom Lane, one of the 10 roads.

Although some residents could not be reached or would not give their names, those who did respond shed light on a road selection process auditors said relied on individual jurors and, in the process, broke state law and parish ordinance.

Many residents said their road was paved without their asking for it or after jurors approached them.