BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Parish 2024 comprehensive audit questioned the parish's spending, bringing up excessive police overtime, possible mismanagement in the Office of Community Development and using money intended for trauma centers on programs like "Summer of Hope."

Investigators say Baton Rouge Police Department supervisors weren't keeping track of how often officers were on the clock, as the department spent $9.7 million on overtime, exceeding its budget by $2.4 million. The city blamed an officer shortage, along with launching a gun violence reduction program.

Additionally, auditors questioned $1 million being spent on police vehicles with no competitive bid. City officials said the city replaced aging units and said it could only find one vendor due to supply chain issues.

The city was awarded a grant of nearly $750,000 to establish five trauma centers; auditors said some of the money was used appropriately in targeting violence and drug abuse. However, a lot of the money was used to host "gathering-type events" like movie nights, fitness camps and activities during former Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome's "Summer of Hope."

Auditors also mentioned a trip to Seattle that used city-parish funds; they said the trip lacked documented pre-approval and had no description of the business purpose for the trip. 

Another audit revealed the Office of Community Development, in 2021 and 2022, administered nearly $250 million worth of projects during the period, with one developer collecting fees totaling four times the amount authorized. The cost of a project to build three small homes more than doubled in price.

The office of current Mayor-President Sid Edwards said it was aware of the audit reports and was cooperating with agencies investigating the Office of Community Development.