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Parish attorney refuses to answer questions about whether $120,000 in raises were legitimate

4 years 6 months 1 day ago Thursday, September 26 2019 Sep 26, 2019 September 26, 2019 6:29 PM September 26, 2019 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE- Questions are being raised after Parish Attorney Andy Dotson flat-out refused to answer questions about why he doled out $121,000 in raises to 14 employees while he was acting as the interim parish attorney. 

In August, the WBRZ Investigative Unit obtained documents from the Parish Attorney's Office showing 14 employees received raises before the Metro Council appointed him as the parish attorney. A few weeks later, after requesting more documents we found some totaled $10,000 or more.

Brandi Littles is one of those employees. Her salary increased from $84,000 last year to $94,000 this year when Dotson was the interim. Littles actually was the one responding to our public records requests and producing documents. Those documents show none of the 14 employees who received the raises had changes in their job titles.

So, on Monday, the WBRZ Investigative Unit asked Andy Dotson for an interview about the raises. We never heard back. Tuesday of this week, we followed up with an email asking for another interview. We never heard back. Wednesday, we were able to ask Dotson face-to-face about the raises at the Metro Council Meeting. 

"I'm not doing an interview," Dotson said. 

Thursday, we offered Dotson another opportunity to discuss the raises. His office replied, "no comment."

Councilman Matt Watson and others are concerned.

"This should be something that anyone should be able to have a discussion about and have a frank conversation."

But, not Andy Dotson. He refused to stop and answer questions and entered a back room that required special key access to avoid our questions.  

"How many times have you heard transparency, transparency, transparency," Councilman Matt Watson said. "Whether it's law enforcement in spending tax dollars, and this is spending tax dollars and the working inside city hall."

The WBRZ Investigative Unit has learned that all of the raises were done within the city-parish's budget. 

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