Parks Department Finds Extra Cash After Laying Off Employees

Less than three months after 20 , an audit of the parks department spent hundreds of thousands on new vehicles.

The St. Louis County Council ordered the audit in January and also located an extra $129,000 in bank accounts, Paul Hampel with the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported.

The audit, released on Tuesday, said the department spent $500,000 on new vehicles such as pick-up trucks and sedans. More than half of that was spent after  last summer, Hampel reports.

Two accounts, containing $129,000, were also found untouched from bonds sold in the 1970s and 1980s.

In his , County Executive Charlie Dooley proposed closing 23 county parks and laying off approximately 170 employees.

The council opposed the budget, saying . The plan was also met with public outcry that  outside the county building and within a council meeting.

The two sides reached a that spared the parks, but to 26 employees, 20 from the parks department in January.

“Charlie (Dooley) acted completely on his own in making those layoffs," council member Steve Stenger (D-Affton) said in January. "He did not consult with the council. In fact, we were all told that layoffs were not going to be necessary.”

Stenger said he and the other council members were shocked the executive would lay off employees only three weeks into the budgetary year.

“The county does not even have available what last year’s numbers were, so Charlie (Dooley) basically laid off 26 employees without even knowing what the financial landscape looked like for last year,” Stenger said.

Read more about the 2012 budget and the St. Louis County Parks discussion.