BATON ROUGE - Newly-obtained emails show allegations of mismanagement of funds concerning a 2023 housing project during Mayor Broome's administration.

Messages between Broome's cabinet allege that a federally funded housing project to rehab three homes along Central Road in Baton Rouge was significantly more expensive than it should have been.

In the email exchange, Broome's Community Revitalization Director Marlee Pittman sent former Purchasing Director Kris Goranson and other top parish employees invoices for the homes, which were being rehabbed by Jason Hughes and Hughes Consulting Group. Pittman's total for the project was an estimated $480,000, paid for by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development dollars available after the COVID pandemic.

Goranson said that the nearly half-million-dollar estimate was more than a 300% increase from the approved budget. He said nearby homes could be revived at a much lower cost and the office needed to return the government money used for the project.

"At this time, my intuition says we are at risk of being in violation of the grant terms and potentially having to provide back ~250-280K of money that has already been spent," Gornason said in an email Jan. 27, 2023.

Sources tell the WBRZ Investigative Unit that a federal probe has been launched to determine if the taxpayer dollars were misused.