Retirement System's trustees benefited from extravagant spending, former director says

Board of Trustees and their family members attended expensive dinners that are part of $144,000 in spending by the Municipal Employees' Retirement System that is being investigated by the state Legislative Auditor.

That's according to Robert Rust, the former executive director of the Retirement System who resigned amid allegations of freewheeling spending on the system's credit card at the expense of 8,000 municipal employees across Louisiana. Rust submitted a resignation letter with a detailed accounting of who attended the dinners ranging from $700 at Juban's to nearly $3,000 at Ruth's Chris Steak House, both in Baton Rouge.

The dinners are just part of what the Legislative Auditor is investigating, but the presence of board members during those dinners had not previously been disclosed. The total amount of money spent on conferences, dinners and other items in question was $144,295, according to the system's general counsel and acting executive director, Warren Ponder.

Rust's letter was made public during a Board of Trustees meeting called at the State Capitol on Thursday (June 18) after a list of 20 questionable spending items were uncovered in an investigation aired by WVUE-TV. During two meetings since that report aired, board members had not acknowledged they attended the dinners with family members.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/06/mers_spending_board_members_pr.html