A FOX 8 investigation uncovered questionable spending of public money by New Orleans Public Belt General Manager Jim Bridger.
A 2009 budget estimate from the publicly owned NOPB shows how the public group expected to take in $37 million, but budget documents for the next year show the NOPB was on track to take in about $13 million. That’s $24 million off of its budgeted amount of revenue.
At the same time, Bridger was being paid $350,000 a year, making him the highest paid public employee in the Metro Area. While earning this expensive salary, he has been charging thousands of dollars to his public credit card. The three year total for Jim Bridger was $108,000. Most of his charges are for food, liquor and gifts.
Beyond Bridger’s bills… It’s not just Bridger who has questionable charges. FOX 8 reviewed credit card receipts for as many as 20 different Public Belt employees who have been issued a Public Belt credit card.
Bridger’s top staff charged meals and liquor to the public as well. For example, a capital plan meeting was held on a Wednesday morning in February 2009. The NOPB’s Chief Engineering Officer Robert Kollmar, the NOPB’s Chief Financial Officer Tim Morrow, and the Chief Operating Officer Tom Lobello met for an early lunch at Drago’s and charged $144 for the meal. During the meeting concerning ongoing project strategies and budget issues, the group ordered three Miller Lite beers.
“It makes absolutely no sense the way they are spending money on what I consider to be a boondoggle of eating out on the public nickel on a daily basis,” said Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche. The MCC is a government watchdog also investigating spending by the NOPB.
In July of 2009, Chief Operating Officer Tom Lobello spent $72 at Elizabeth’s. Lobello listed the meal under ‘expenses’ for a field trip to the Public Belt’s France Road Yard to investigate a worker’s injury.
Bridger’s senior management team accumulated many receipts, often with little explanation as to why the team ate out. Every time, they paid for their meals with public money.
“If the senior staff needs to talk about decisions to talk about the public belt there is ample meeting space where they don't need to go to Ruth's Chris and spend money on cocktails to talk about public belt business,” Goyeneche said.
Members of the NOPB beyond the senior staff also charged meals to public funds. Assistant Bridge Supervisor Eric Stoulig charged $35 for a meal and included neither an explanation of who was there nor why the public needed to pay for the bill.
In a report from January 2007, a bridge supervisor, Michael Dumas, charged two lunch meetings amounting to over $100. He did not include an explanation of who was there, or why the citizens of New Orleans needed to foot the bill.
Bridger’s 2008 calender shows he had a 9 a.m. NOPB event on January 15. Later that day, Trainmaster Alvie Mixon charged a $66 lunch at Smilie’s Restaurant in Harahan. The public paid for the lunch because he had the meal after the morning event with another Public Belt employee, Michael McMillan, a car shop supervisor.
Alvie Mixon charged a $70 meal at Zea’s. Without documentation of what he ate or who he ate with, he charged the meal to the public because he took lunch after the first quarter staff meeting.
The list continues with many credit card purchases for others at the Public Belt. Most charges do not have itemized receipts so there is no record of what they ate or drank. Many more charges are too vague to determine why the public was paying the bill.
“What about brown bagging it to work,” Goyenche asked.
