Youngsville Police Chief Rickey Boudreaux will be audited after collecting at least $18,000 in taxpayer dollars for unauthorized personal vehicle expenses since September 2016 on top of an approved $1,000 monthly allowance he receives for such expenses.
Boudreaux has been receiving extra payments for gas and other vehicle expenses for more than six years, even though he agreed during a September 2016 council meeting to forgo itemizing vehicle expenses in exchange for a new $1,000-per-month vehicle allowance, which the council approved, in part, because of the August 2016 flood. The chief asked the council for the allowance after he used his personal Jeep to navigate through the high waters because his police unit could not drive through flooded streets.
Details about the unauthorized payments came out during Thursday’s regular city council meeting, during which an agenda item was added to address the situation.
The council unanimously approved a motion during Thursday’s meeting to conduct an audit of the chief’s vehicle expenses from 2016 to present and to suspend the $1,000 monthly vehicle allowance until the investigation is complete.
Boudreaux said he agreed to forgo the itemization of vehicle expenses during the September 2016 meeting before he joined statewide taskforces and took on extra patrols on weekends and holidays. The police chief said he discussed with the city's administration about itemizing expenses because of the additional duties.
Boudreaux said his expenses have been documented properly and approved each month. He said he also expected the council members, finance department or auditors to address the itemization before now if it were an issue.
"Had I known it would have been a problem, I figured it would have popped up earlier," Boudreaux said. "I would have addressed it then. But to come back after all these years of it being approved and run through everywhere — maybe we all learn from this and then come up with a better procedure."
Council member and mayor pro tempore Matt Romero said the $18,000 in question is just "a snippet of what has been pulled by the mayor's office." Romero said the expenses weren't caught by the council because the council approves fuel and vehicle expenses for entire departments, not specific individuals. Since Boudreaux is the head of the police department, nobody else had to authorize the itemized expenses, which he had previously agreed not to submit in exchange for the monthly allowance.
Romero and Ken Stansbury were on the city council at the time of the 2016 monthly allowance approval. Council member Simone Champagne served as the city's chief administrative officer at the time. Council members Lindy Bolgiano and Logan Lannoo, who was recently appointed to fill Kayla Reaux's seat, were not on the city council in 2016.
"I'm new here, obviously, but I'm just as furious as you are that the city has missed it, the accounting firm has missed it. There has been a misstep on our end too. I'm not going to deny that," Lannoo told Boudreaux. "But ultimately, this was 79 months ago, and you've been paid $79,000 for your vehicle to maintain it. And yet, what we've found so far, is you've gotten another $18,000."
The council's decision to audit Boudreaux comes a week after the police chief filed a lawsuit against the City Council over its decision to investigate him.
The council also unanimously approved during Thursday's meeting a resolution to amend the budget by $10,000 to hire Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson law firm to investigate Boudreaux. The Baton Rouge-based firm is the same one hired by the Broussard City Council in 2021 to conduct a similar investigation into former police chief Brannon Decou amid sexual harassment allegations.
Boudreaux is facing an investigation from the time he first took office in 2015 through the present day because of public outcry over the handling of a November crash involving Reaux. The former councilwoman, who resigned after details about the wreck were made public in a March 26 story in The Acadiana Advocate, called Boudreaux after she crashed into a parked vehicle in Sugar Mill Pond; she left in the chief's vehicle without receiving a citation or sobriety test.
The actual investigation into Boudreaux, approved by the council in March, will not begin until after 15th Judicial District Court Judge Kristian Earles issues a ruling in the pending lawsuit. Boudreaux alleges in a petition for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief that two of the city council's resolutions, including the one approved Thursday, violate the Lawrason Municipal Corporations Act, which limits the authority of the mayor and council over an elected police chief.
The council and mayor met privately in an executive session for more than an hour during Thursday's council meeting to discuss the pending lawsuit with city attorney Wade Trahan and representatives from Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson. Trahan said the council was briefed on the lawsuit and also discussed the pending investigation into the chief.
"You certainly have our commitment that we'll get what we're going through, and we'll keep our heads up," Mayor Ken Ritter said just before adjourning the meeting.