SORRENTO – An audit of the police department ordered by the Town Council in late February revealed numerous violations and lapses in accounting of expenditures and collections by the police.

At a special meeting Monday, auditor Tommy Lejeune of Faulk & Winkler cited shortcomings in accounting ranging from traffic ticket record keeping to sales of surplus property to co-mingling of funds for the department’s annual fishing tournament with city funds to repairing vehicles outside the parish.

Lejeune said the final audit report would be distributed next week.

Councilwoman Troy Braud said Wednesday that a group of “roughly 90” traffic tickets issued between July 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009 were unaccounted for in the audit.

The missing tickets in that time frame were taken from books containing ten tickets that are issued to police officers.

Braud said other tickets were also missing according to the audit.

At Braud’s insistence, the special meeting was called so council members involved with the audit would see the results, rather than having the audit presented to a new council to be sworn at the next regular meeting.

Michael Liker, the unpaid auxiliary officer who acted as number two in command under Chief Earl Theriot in the police department until the council learned that he falsified his employment application, resigned from the department in late February, just before council members voted to audit the police department.

Prior to his resignation Liker was accused by Braud of threatening to arrest her if she obtained a copy of his employment application from Theriot.

Liker resigned after being confronted in a town council executive session by Orleans Parish Metropolitan Crime Commission Vice President Anthony Radosti, who documented law enforcement jobs Liker had held that were falsified or omitted from his application to the town.

Radosti produced records revealing that while working as a deputy sheriff with the St. Charles Police Department, Liker was arrested on two counts of extortion and two counts of malfeasance in office. Liker was indicted for one count of criminal conspiracy and six counts of extortion, and later pleaded guilty on a reduced charge of one count of malfeasance in office. His five-year prison sentence was suspended with two years probation.

At the Monday night special meeting, auditor Lejeune said the town needs to know what is happening to the missing tickets, whether they have been voided, or money collected, or if they are sitting in a car waiting to be issued, because traffic ticket revenue is a major source of income for the town.

“There are gaps in the numbers and nothing to tell us what is going on,” he said. An auditor expects to see one person that is a custodian of the ticket books and responsible for the accounting of the tickets, he said.

The ticket books were not distributed in any numerical sequence or noted as being distributed to any particular officer, and were stored in desk drawers and other areas that were not secure, Lejeune said.

Lejeune also strongly advised the police department to upgrade its computer accounting software to improve its internal record keeping of payment receipts. A similar recommendation was made by the regular town auditor after the 2008 audit.

Regarding the co-mingling of funds for the fishing tournament fundraiser, Lejeune said the town should hire another entity to administer the event other than the town.

He said using public funds by running the tournament through town finances was really out of order, as the town was writing checks drawn on public money for tournament activity.

The department should also service and maintain its police vehicles in Sorrento or the parish if possible, Lejeune said.

When Liker was number in two in command in the department, he sent vehicles to repair shops in Reserve and Garyville, including one business which did not have an occupational license with St. John the Baptist Parish at the time.

Lejuene said there were a “couple of instances” where the department was not in compliance with state law during the purchase of state vehicles under the public bid law.

When buying items under the state contract, the department has to purchase items from the state approved bid list.

Regarding sealed bids for the sale of surplus property, Lejuene said sealed bids were not presented to the council and opened in public, a violation of state law.

In business related to the audit presentation, the council passed a motion by Councilman Milton “Needlenose” Vicknair requiring to read police department bids for confiscated vehicles and awards to be read before the council.