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Vendor Report-Liberty Fence

The vendor report on Liberty Fence & Supply, LLC reveals significant concerns regarding exorbitant payments made by the City of Gonzales, particularly in 2024, where invoices totaled $1,338,795, marking a drastic increase from previous years. Investigations indicated that Liberty Fence lacks proper licensing and has an inactive status with the Louisiana Secretary of State, raising questions about the legitimacy of their services and pricing. Mayor Riley has suspended dealings with Liberty Fence pending further inquiry due to the alarming patterns and discrepancies found in their invoicing practices.

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31K views4 pages

Vendor Report-Liberty Fence

The vendor report on Liberty Fence & Supply, LLC reveals significant concerns regarding exorbitant payments made by the City of Gonzales, particularly in 2024, where invoices totaled $1,338,795, marking a drastic increase from previous years. Investigations indicated that Liberty Fence lacks proper licensing and has an inactive status with the Louisiana Secretary of State, raising questions about the legitimacy of their services and pricing. Mayor Riley has suspended dealings with Liberty Fence pending further inquiry due to the alarming patterns and discrepancies found in their invoicing practices.

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VENDOR REPORT – LIBERTY FENCE & SUPPLY, LLC

This report was prepared by the Office of Mayor Tim Riley who expressed
grave concern that the City of Gonzales paid a single vendor, Liberty Fence &
Supply, LLC (Liberty Fence) an amount deemed exorbitant for the calendar
year, 2024.

In preparation for engagement of a third-party firm to analyze city


expenditures, Mayor Riley directed Chief Financial Officer Brandon Boylan to
produce a list of vendors doing business with the city since the beginning of
2023 along with invoices and documentation evidencing payment to such
vendors; bids, cancelled checks, RFQs, RFPs, contracts, etc.

In early January Boylan produced a spreadsheet that itemized the city’s


relationship with one vendor: Liberty Fence. One category of job (tree-
cutting) stood out given that related invoices submitted by Liberty Fence for
the calendar year 2024 totaled $276,659.

With the Boylan-generated spreadsheet in hand, along with all “tree-related”


invoices paid to Liberty Fence and others paid to Cypress Tree Service in
2022-23 for comparison purposes, a meeting was scheduled with local
contractor, Brandon Golson. Incidentally, Golson serves on the Louisiana
State Licensing Board for Contractors (the Contractor Board) but the
meeting’s purpose was purely to obtain advice and guidance, i.e. Mayor Riley
wanted to know if the Liberty Fence invoices were legitimate and in keeping
with local industry standards.

Golson’s first action was to search the Contractor Board’s database for filings
in the names of Liberty Fence and/or its two principles, James and Jolynn
Saizan. Golson informed that neither principle, nor Liberty Fence, has ever
been issued a license by the State of Louisiana. Additionally, at the time,
Liberty Fence’s status on the Secretary of State’s business filings database
was “Inactive” due to “Action By Secretary of State” and the last report filed
was 8/15/21.

More importantly, for our purposes, Golson opined that the costs incurred by
the City of Gonzales to have trees felled/cut/hauled and stumps ground was
“out of line” with reasonable pricing in the area. He requested every invoice
paid by the City of Gonzales to Liberty Fence along with any supporting
documentation. Two copies of the requested documents were provided by
CFO Boylan, one for the Contractor Board and one for Mayor Riley’s
administration to conduct an in-house review.
The Contractor Board is, we have been informed, conducting its own
investigation independent of the administration though Mayor Riley promised
full cooperation.

NOTE: Mayor Riley met with the Contractor Board this morning (March 24) at
City Hall.

The administration’s efforts having concluded, Mayor Riley offers the


following observations and conclusions.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

1. The vendor identified itself as Liberty Fence, Liberty Enterprise, and


Liberty Fence Enterprise on various invoices. Louisiana Secretary of
State maintains no record of the latter two, no individual filing nor
d/b/a listing.
2. Liberty Fence’s corporate filing with Louisiana Secretary of State was
updated on February 21, 2025 by filing an annual report (two days
after APSO detectives visited City Hall to inquire about Liberty Fence’s
dealings with the city).
3. According to the Contractor Board, and in keeping with our own
findings, there is no physical address for Liberty Fence’s business
operation (9618 Jefferson Hwy, Suite D312, Baton Rouge LA 70809 [A
UPS store} appears on all invoices).
4. From 2010-2023 the City of Gonzales paid 106 Liberty Fence invoices
totaling $495,846.
5. The overwhelming majority of Liberty Fence invoices during this 14-
year period were submitted for payment of fence
removal/repair/installation.
6. Between 2010-2022 the number of invoices submitted by Liberty Fence
ranged from 4 to 12 annually, total payment per annum fluctuated
from $5,255 (in 2012) to $81,866 (in 2015). Averaging 6 invoices per
year, Liberty Fence was paid an average of $27,350.69 annually over
that 13-year period.
7. Invoices and payment spiked significantly in the calendar year of 2023.
26 invoices grossed $140,287 for Liberty Fence.
8. 2024 witnessed an explosion of invoices (189) with Liberty Fencing
receiving $1,338,795 from the City of Gonzales. For perspective, that
is a 727% increase in invoices submitted with a 954% increase in
remuneration compared to Liberty Fence’s best year prior to 2024.
9. In 2024 Liberty Fence took over (a) tree services, (b) general
maintenance including the city’s pool beginning in July, (c) concrete
work, virtually monopolizing sidewalk repair and construction
emanating from the Building and Grounds Department, (d)
miscellaneous, including electrical and plumbing.
10. As noted in CFO Boylan’s Liberty Fence spreadsheet, the vendor
was paid significant amounts in the following categories: (a) Fence
Repair - $124,241; (b) Sidewalk and Concrete work - $522,014; (c) Tree
Cutting - $276,659. NOTE: From July 8 until the end of 2024, Liberty
Fence received approximately $167,000 in return for invoiced pool
maintenance.
11. The costs incurred for tree cutting and pool maintenance
drastically exceed the costs incurred in preceding years.
12. With rare exceptions, the vendor’s invoices were approved
through the Building & Grounds Department.
13. 64% of total concrete monies expended ($369,000) went toward
sidewalk jobs in Municipal and Tee Joe parks. 14 invoices in all, every
dollar in payment came from the Road Improvement fund according to
those invoices.
14. Monthly invoices, in number and amount, fluctuated from
January through May of 2024. June saw a spike that would continue for
months.
 June – 14 invoices totaling $73,700
 July – 18 invoices totaling $134,755
 August – 19 invoices totaling $179,067
 September – 26 invoices totaling $252,179
 October – 25 invoices totaling $286,380
 November – 25 invoices totaling $110,596
 December - 29 invoices totaling $146,678
15. The spike in invoices and total amount coincided with former
mayor, Barney Arceneaux’s resignation at the end of April.

CFO Boylan claimed to have reported concerns over skyrocketing costs to the
former DPW Director and City Engineer/acting CAO in late October.

As CFO, Mr. Boylan was required to approve any invoice larger than $5,000.
Curiously, November and December saw seven sets of sequential invoices
seeming to describe single jobs totaling over $66,000. More oddly, every
one of the 19 individual invoices came in under the $5,000 total that would
have necessitated CFO Boylan’s approval for payment.

Given cause for grave concern, Mayor Riley suspended the City of Gonzales’
dealings with Liberty Fence until further inquiry could be made.
Adopting a task-oriented review, that inquiry gathered information and
attempted to compartmentalize findings for easier processing. An in-depth
review of Liberty Fence’s voluminous 2024 invoices discerned some clear
patterns (see list above) and unearthed innumerable concerns.

Certain invoices are egregious on their face.

Others required much deliberation to discern their import.

This report is in no way exhaustive.

NOTE: Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Corey Warnke was questioned on


Monday, March 17. He asserted a belief that Liberty Fence & Supply, LLC
was fully licensed and insured, having been informed so by a former city
employee, Sandra Alleman.

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