<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by DRTYFN:
Link to source? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
The story was posted on freerepublic.com and linked back to azconservative.org. It also appears in a number of blogs. No mainstream outlets found on a Google news search.
http://www.azconservative.org/Semmens14.htm
This is an interesting story (or at least it is to me) and if true, the city is in a world of crap. Best case scenario the city has to give the money back (lots of luck collecting; we’ll probably write it off like a third world debt). Middle case scenario, the city has to give the money back and is then debarred and suspended for a period of time from receiving federal aid (that ain’t gonna happen). Worse case, someone is going to jail and the city will still have to give the money back.
If the city received fed money for the stated purpose of hiring sworn officers and if in fact they diverted that money for other purposes, the Mayor's quoted statement is a confession, not an explanation. All that remains to be determined is intent and the scope of the fraud and any potential misappropriation.
That all now said, the whole thing doesn't sound plausible. N.O. would most likely not have received that much money for that purpose in the most recent fiscal year. They've no doubt been through at least a few OMB-required audits and those audits should have uncovered the violations.
Now, if they have been through audits and no violations were noted, well, that's a deception of a different color…
Or at least that’s my opinion.