JEFFERSON, La. -- Jon Gegenheimer has presided over the Jefferson Parish clerk of court’s office, as the custodian of court records for the parish, since 1988. But Gegenheimer says he is also involved in economic development, which he says includes trips out of state and the country with his wife, Jefferson Parish’s film commissioner.
As the head of Jefferson Parish’s film commission, Cherreen Gegenheimer made 14 out-of-state trips during 2008 and 2009. Included in that number were two three-week trips to the south of France and the Cannes Film Festival and two trips to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Over that two-year period, Cherreen Gegenheimer spent more than $56,000 in public money on travel, while the film commission in neighboring Orleans Parish spent less than $14,000 and made no trips to France or Utah.
Newly-elected Jefferson Parish president John Young said international travel will not be authorized under his watch.
“I just don't see us getting our best bang for our buck by doing any international travel in that regard,” he said.
But Eyewitness News has learned that Cherreen Gegenheimer was not alone on seven of these trips, including those she made to France, Utah and California. Her husband, Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court Jon Gegenheimer, was there as well, serving as the clerk of court but, in his words, promoting economic development.
That’s despite the fact that economic development is not listed anywhere in the clerk’s job description, according to the Louisiana Clerk of Court Association.
While in France, Jon Gegenheimer kept meticulous records, documenting what he did each day. That mostly consisted of working a booth and handing out brochures and flyers.
"Is that what the people of Jefferson Parish elected him to do?” said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission.
Goyeneche said there don't appear to be any criminal violations with the trips, but he questions whether it is a prudent use of taxpayer money.
“This is something that I don't think is going to be well received by the public, to see that their public funds were used to send someone to a film festival,” Goyeneche said.
Jon Gegenheimer declined repeated requests from Eyewitness News for an on-camera interview, but he did provide internal auditing records written on his behalf, where he indicates that the public purpose for the 2008 three-week trip to France was that “neither the parish administration nor the council sent an elected official to represent parish government. Therefore, I went to help with the booth setup and operation during the festival's two and a half week period.”
In his explanation of the 2009 trip to France, where he again accompanied his wife, Jon Gegenheimer says, "The clerk of court has a direct interest in promoting the film industry... Economic development is essential to the welfare of the clerk of court's office, which receives no tax revenue and must depend on filing and recordation fees to exist.”
Gegenheimer’s position is essentially that the stronger the parish is, the better his office is.
"I think his hand was caught in the cookie jar and he's trying to explain it,” Goyeneche said. “Right now I'm not buying it, but maybe someone else will.”
According to the state constitution, the clerk of court’s office has no express authorization to use public funds for economic development purposes.
But Gegenheimer points to a 2008 attorney general's decision for the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office that allows the office to use public funds for economic development. Gegenheimer said that the opinion applies to his office as well, but Dane Ciolino, a law professor at Loyola University School of Law, questions that.
"The clerk shouldn't take much comfort in that attorney general’s opinion, because it's not directly on point,” Ciolino said.
Ciolino said there has to be a direct link between the expenditure of public funds and the benefit to the clerk of court's office.
"Moreover, the constitution is very clear, that the constitution is violated if taken as a whole. The public funds seem to be expended on something that really is gratuitous and that does not appear on the whole to further the public benefit,” Ciolino said.
Goyeneche also raises questions about the consistency of Jon Gegenheimer’s travel expenses.
On one 2008 trip to the Sundance Film Festival, records show the clerk's office did not pay for the hotel room. But on a similar trip to Utah the following year, the office did.
Records show the clerk of court’s office pays for airfare on several of the film commission trips with his wife, but Gegenheimer pays out of his pocket for the airfare for both years to France.
Goyeneche asks why, if they are all legitimate business trips for Jefferson Parish economic development, why the clerk’s office is not paying for it all.
“If he didn't feel justified in charging his office for the airfare to France, then at some point, he had to believe there was some personal gain or benefit in that,” Goyeneche said.
Through e-mail to Eyewitness News and a telephone interview, the Gegenheimers vigorously disputed the trips were anything other than parish work.
"Oh my,” Cherreen Gegenehimer said. “I can only... I would only wish that whoever would be tempted to say that could have been there with me. I mean, we have photographs. There's absolutely nothing vacationesque about these things. This is work. There's no down time.”
But there have been significant changes this year. When Aaron Broussard resigned as parish president in January and Steve Theriot took over as interim president, essentially all out of state travel stopped and Cherreen Gegenheimer's busy travel schedule fell to just one trip in 2010.
Goyeneche asks why, if the trips to France and Utah were so important for the financial health of the clerk of court's office, why the clerk did not continue to go this year. Jon Gegenheimer’s travel log indicates he didn't go to either the Sundance Film Festival in Utah or the Cannes Film Festival in France this year.
"That all lends itself to the perception that this was less about business and more about personal recreation,” Goyeneche said.
Also, in an email to WWL-TV Thursday morning, Jon Gegenheimer said he disputes Goyeneche's statement that the clerk of court should have taken vacation for his trips to France and the Cannes Film festival.
Gegenheimer wrote, “I do not receive or take vacation; nor do I accrue vacation time. I am the clerk of court 24/7/365. Regardless of my physical location, the time of day or night, the day of the week, I am always [Gegenheimer bold] overseeing the functions of the clerk's office."
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