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School board member questions payments to unlicensed business following WBRZ report

4 years 6 months 3 weeks ago Friday, September 06 2019 Sep 6, 2019 September 06, 2019 5:36 PM September 06, 2019 in News
Source: WBRZ

LIVINGSTON - A Livingston Parish school board member is questioning payments to the wife of Tax Assessor Jeff Taylor following a WBRZ Investigative Unit report. 

This week, the Investigative Unit uncovered Delia Taylor was not licensed with Livingston Parish to do business, and is also not registered with the Secretary of State. Taylor accepted $124,000 from her husband's campaign fund for reimbursements and work, which is against the law. 

The law states that candidates are prohibited from paying immediate family members out of their campaign funds unless they have a legitimate business that is registered with the state or has a business license. 

Friday, Livingston Parish School Board Member Kellee Dickerson questioned $143,000 in payments to Delia Taylor by the school system. Dickerson wants to know whether those payments were legitimate since Taylor did not have a license. Dickerson sent an email to the Livingston school superintendent asking for clarity and whether the Inspector General should come in to investigate. 

"There's a lot of questions that I have, and I think there's a lot of taxpayers that have the same questions and concerns," Dickerson said. "It was the concerns that brought me to respond and ask to make sure we are doing things on the up and up."

The Livingston Parish school superintendent told WBRZ he doesn't think there are protocols in place prohibiting payments for professional services to unlicensed businesses, however, he said attorneys were looking into it. 

"I'm not saying this is ignorance of the law," Taylor said. "What I'm saying is this was not something that was made available to us or brought to our attention."

Friday afternoon, Delia Taylor said she had applied for and received an occupational license and paid for it dating back to 2016. We asked whether she was going to continue doing work for her husband, but she never responded.

"I have no doubt that there will be retaliation," Dickerson said. "I don't live in fear of anything. Right is right and wrong is wrong. It's not dirty politics when you're doing what's right."

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