By JIM BUTLER

Legislative auditors noted several procedural shortcomings in the annual audit of the Alexandria City Marshal’s office in their annual report issued in late April.

Marshal Jerome Hopewell is taking or has taken steps to reverse all but one – separation of duties to create checks and balances in accounting are a recurring shortcoming in agencies with relatively small staffs.

Otherwise, auditors noted relatively minor flaws relative to state law governing the budgeting process, all of which Hopewell subsequently told auditors have been or in process of being corrected.

In the April-issued report auditors listed the office’s net position at $94,380.

Liabilities in determining that figure include $50,000 payable in the wake of the settlement of a suit by a former employee.

The marshal’s office is an arm of City Court and serves as a flow-through point for funds to a number of agencies and programs. It is funded by state, parish and City Court appropriations.

Auditors are required to include an agency’s primary employee’s salary costs as part of their report.

Hopewell’s total compensation for the year audited was $216,303.

Sources of that were: police jury, $64,652; City Court costs commissions, $62,213; state supplement, $6,000. The police jury also paid $8,281 in retirement contributions.

Hopewell was elected in 2018 to fill the unexpired term of Terence Grimes, who resigned. He was elected to a full four-year term in 2020.