As if Grambling Mayor Martha Andrus didn’t have enough troubles; after the Grambling City Council met at a Special Called Meeting and voted unanimously to have City Attorney James Colvin Jr. determine the legality of Andrus’ actions concerning her payment of $7,760 to a website vendor without the Council’s approval, Channel 10, a local television station in Monroe, LA attempted to reach the website producer E-Commerce Canyon today for comment and ended up reaching a sex chat room.
Channel 10 aired their findings during their regular news broadcast as well as their website, and said that the Grambling Mayor was unavailable for comment. The phone number as printed on E-Commerce Canyon’s invoice is (800) 400-0233.
When we called that number, a referral number was given: (800) 313-2300 and we also found this number to be that of a sex chat room. The Fount inquired to Grambling Mayor Martha Andrus for an explanation, and she informed us that E-Commerce Canyon’s phone number on their own documentation is incorrect.
Apparently there was a mix-up in toll free number prefixes on E-Commerce Canyon’s invoice. The proper toll-free phone number to E-Commerce Canyon begins with a ‘triple 8’ number, and not an 800 number.
To verify Andrus’ explanation, we called (888) 400-0233 during after-business hours (due to the timing of our discoveries) and reached an answering service that answered the phone as “E-Commerce Canyon.”
Shortly afterward an option to press “1” was offered to reach business owner Sheree Rabon, and after a brief pause the answering service referred us to her voice mail where we left a message requesting a return phone call.
The mix-up in toll free prefixes caused a very embarrassing situation for the Grambling Mayor, the City of Grambling and her citizens as well as E-Commerce Canyon.
As far as the legality of her writing a city check without the Council’s approval, Mayor Andrus informed The Fount that the website vendor issue is a matter of legal interpretation according to the Lawrason Act which authorizes mayors of municipalities to be sole signors on municipal drafts.
Andrus contends that according to the law, if the Council approves a budget for certain items, that no mayor of a municipality operating under the Lawrason Act is required to continually ask for the Council’s approval to sign checks.
Arcadia Mayor Eugene Smith agrees, as well as other mayors of municipalities whom we’ve interviewed that operate under the Lawrason Act. “The buck stops with the Mayor” said Smith.
Grambling Mayor Martha Andrus said, “It’s quite evident that an extensive forensic audit will reveal misappropriation of funds, so why would I do that? No mayor needs a Council to look over their shoulder every day. I’m conducting business on behalf of the City according to my duties as outlined by the Lawrason Act, and the law doesn’t require the Council to hold my hand on everything!
If these (Grambling) Council Members would’ve attended the Louisiana Municipal Association meetings that I and other local mayors set up around here that educates them on their role as Council Members and my role as Mayor, we wouldn’t be going through this mess.
But just like they said in the meeting last night, they don’t think the law is right, and they refuse to let Grambling be a part of the LMA. All this junk about me writing checks illegally and this sex chat room stuff is just ridiculous!” said Mayor Andrus.
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