Doris Maricle

OAKDALE — A former Oakdale city clerk is accused of embezzling nearly $360,000 in funds that belongs to the city, according to a routine audit.

Melissa “Lisa” Schaefer was the clerk for 19 years. She died in March.

Mayor Gene Paul said the misappropriation was discovered during a routine internal audit of the city’s finances. Findings from the audit were released to the council during a June 3 meeting which was live-streamed on the city’s Facebook page.

“There were just a lot of red flags popping up and work that wasn’t completed during that audit,” Paul said.

The theft is believed to have occurred over an 18-month period.

“This was a surprise to me,” Paul said. “My heart is broken. You never think this is going to happen to you, but we will get through this and we will survive. I’m sorry out taxpayers have to go through this.”

Paul said the clerk allegedly put money in payroll and paid herself more money by creating fraudulent accounts and invoices. Schaefer may have overpaid paid herself $10,000 to $30,000 a month.

“She had three accounts and was re-routing numbers and putting money in those accounts,” Paul said.

Questions have also been raised concerning large unexplained amounts of money in the city’s credit card accounts with no documentation and bank statements that were not reconciled timely.

No formal charges have been filed and no adjudication is in progress because Schaefer is deceased.

Paul said the city is trying to do everything it can by law to recover the money.

“We want to do everything we can by law to recover our losses and put this behind us and move forward,” he said.  “Since I have been mayor we have had two hurricanes, COVID and an ice storm but nothing this big, but we will survive this.”

“The city clerk used ACH (automated clearing house) transactions to transfer cash to three different personal bank accounts,” certified public accountant Royce Scimemi said in releasing the audit to the council.

The amounts of misappropriation were $248,563 from July 19-June 30, 2020. An additional $109,461 was taken from July 1, 2020, to March 11, 2021.

Additional funds could be missing that the city is not aware of, Scimemi said. Fiscal periods prior to July 2019 were not analyzed as part of the recent audit.

Scimemi said Schaefer had access to two electronic devices which allowed her to initiate and approve transactions. The devices were designed to be in separate hands, he said.

In the future, the devices will be held by two different people. The mayor will also receive reports directly from the bank detailing the amounts and recipients of all ACH transfers.

 The Legislative Auditor’s and Allen Parish District Attorney’s Office have been asked to review the audit.

Oakdale Mayor Gene Paul said the misappropriation was discovered during a routine internal audit of the city’s finances. Findings from the audit were released to the council during a June 3 meeting which was live-streamed on the city’s Facebook page.