On Monday, February 12th, the Ville Platte City Council was presented their audit (ending June 30,2017) for the first time by Vic Slaven CPA, who helped clear up some confusion surrounding the audit.

Slaven stated that while the numbers are correct on the audit, they are misleading because the audit does not take into account the transferring of funds. Slaven had this to say about the audit:

"The City does not have a four-million-dollar deficit. It does not. The city has a $160,000 spendable, unassigned, general fund balance going into the next fiscal year. Which means, if you don't monitor your revenue and expenses on a close basis to where you break out even to what you budgeted for, and you start over spending that budget again... You only have 160,000 dollars to play with. And then, once that's gone, you're going to be operating in a deficit spending budget situation, which is against state statutes. And if you don't fix that then they will send an administrator over here to make the decisions for you to make sure you comply with state statutes."

Slaven also noted that there were fewer reports in this year’s audit than last years.

According to Mayor Jennifer Vidrine, the police department has over spent their budget due to their insurance tripling in price from civil liabilities. They overspent their budget by $220,000.

In other business, the City Council:

• Presented a plaque to city retiree, Carroll "Sexy" Fontenot.
• In honor of Black History Month, Mayor Vidrine presented a plaque to the family of John Alfred, Sr., a Ville Platte man, who in the 1800's who was murdered for wanting to be involved with local government.