By John Summers | April 21, 2026

PORT ALLEN — The city is working on a written policy to govern how it handles past-due water and gas accounts, after its outside auditor flagged the lack of one as a material weakness in the most recent annual audit.

The finding, from Ericksen Krentel LLP's audit of the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, was released December 19, 2025 and filed with the Louisiana Legislative Auditor as a public document. The city agreed with it.

At issue is how Port Allen decides when to shut off service and when to offer a payment arrangement. Section 86-3 of the city code requires that when a customer's combined utility bill goes unpaid past the 26th of the delinquency month, city officials "shall shut off water and gas services" until the balance, late fees, and reconnection charge are paid in full. The word "shall" makes the shutoff mandatory.

The audit found that didn't always happen. Customers were allowed to remain on service while substantially delinquent, and informal payment arrangements were sometimes made without a written policy or standard eligibility rules. The auditors warned that making those decisions case-by-case increased the risk that some customers were effectively favored over others in similar situations. The city's books carry an allowance of $267,604 for utility accounts management expects never to collect.

Finance Director Adrian Daigle told the City Council on April 8 the administration is still working on a written payment-plan policy to resolve the finding. He attributed the delay to a technical hurdle.

"The holdup right now is trying to see how to get it to work with our accounting software that we don't have to do it manually," Daigle said.

Daigle told the council he hoped to bring the policy back for approval at the May or June meeting. The city's formal corrective action plan commits to adopting the policy before the fiscal year ends June 30.

Some steps have already been taken. According to the audit, Mayor Terecita Pattan — who took office in January 2025 — has started the monthly shutoff process for delinquent accounts "weather permitting," and the mayor's secretary began a regular review of aged-accounts-receivable reports at the start of the current fiscal year.

The council also approved a set of fee changes in November that took effect January 1. The reconnect fee for a disconnected meter rose from $10 to $50. Residential water deposits went from $75 to $100, residential gas from $125 to $200. Commercial deposits increased on both sides. Notice of the changes, along with word that payment extensions beyond written policy must stop, was included with customer bills mailed in January.

The utility-billing area was flagged in the city's previous audit as well. The prior year's audit pointed to weaknesses in standardized procedures and internal controls over utility billing and collections. That finding was listed as resolved in the new audit — but a narrower piece of the same problem returned this year as a material weakness.