Updated August 12, 2023, at 9:30 a.m. — Adds information from concerning other two applications in 4th paragraph.
MANDEVILLE — The City of Mandeville released the resume of recent Planning and Zoning Commission appointee Nicholas V. Cressy late today (August 11th) after a public records request by Mandeville Daily early this morning.
City Attorney Elizabeth Sconzert initially responded to the request late-morning, stating, “It is the legal opinion that the best practice is to request consent of the applicants before posting the resumes to the City website; notwithstanding, consent is not required prior to release of said records pursuant to La. R.S. 44:12.1, which is why it was suggested at last night’s meeting that a public records request be submitted for the applicant’s resume.”
It is still unclear why the City of Mandeville made the other two applicants’ information — Ann Haveman and Pat Rosenow — available for download in June if in fact the City’s policy is as Sconzert stated above in her response to the public records request.
Mandeville Daily confirmed with each of the other two applicants that they were not contacted and asked their permission to post their resumes, despite Sconzert saying it is the “best practice” for the City of Mandeville to do so.
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Mandeville Daily 
Mr. Kropog your article of the P&Z applicants and posted resumes is misleading. It reads as if 2 of the 3 applicants’ resumes were posted and 1 deliberately not posted. The two resumes that were posted weeks ago were related to a vacancy on the Board due to the resignation of a P&Z member prior to his term expiration. The two applicants whose resumes your article refers to applied to fill that vacancy by resignation. Neither was selected for that vacancy. These two chose to apply again for the UPCOMING vacancy of a member whose term is expiring at the end of August. The unposted Mr. Cressy only recently submitted his application. This to me is a simple timing issue, nothing more. (Mole hills, when steadily heaped, do into mountains grow!)
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I get your point, and sure, on the surface it may seem like this is much ado about nothing. But the problem remains, why did the City post the other two resumes on the website? They didn’t seek individual permission from those two applicants. I confirmed this with both individuals. There was no public records request for them, and even if there had been, the city is obligated to turn over the information/documents to the person who made the actual request. It is irrelevant whether the vacancy is upcoming or in the past. The City Attorney explicitly spelled out the only condition (quoted in my story) where they will post it on the website, and as I just stated, that condition was not met, not according to those two applicants. According to the City Attorney’s own words, the other two resumes should not have been posted. So the question remains, and is still valid, why did they post the other two but not Cressy’s? Why not his, as a matter of fairness? With all that said, it is the position of Mandeville Daily that the City SHOULD post the information for each applicant consistant with the Public Records Law as quoted in the story long before a selection is made. The public has a right to be aware. My problem here is the inconsistency. It creates the appearance of impropriety. I appreciate your comment and taking the time read and post. Thank you!
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Thanks for responding. You have apprised me of an interesting fact re the other two applicants not having been asked about posting their resumes. You did proper research. I believe you have appropriately identified the situation with the words “inconsistency” and “appearance of impropriety”. It is that! My opinion of these mis-steps by the city is that they simply screwed up. This opinion is based on my having spent a lot of time interfacing with the employees who were likely responsible, and years of observations, particularly of the last 3 administrations. Our civil servants are often not experienced enough nor appreciative enough of the political fallout, or even the legal ramifications of their actions (or lack of same). Occasionally there is improper pressure on an employee from the Mayor, and often there is lack of guidance or leadership from a Mayor. The employees have a tough job some days. But I really cannot read much into this unpublished resume business. The resume is published now. There are much bigger fish to fry about what is happening at City Hall these days. I look forward to reading your reports, refreshingly written in a professional manner, about events and meetings. That is why I responded. I do not waste my valuable time replying to the gross ignorance, hype, and outright propaganda that passes on ’social media’.
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Yes, I would agree with your comments and thank you. This Planning and Zoning Commission is a really big deal to a lot of people, and surely the City knows that by now. They could avoid all this grief if they were to set up a form on their website that would accept the “name, related qualifications, relevant employment history or experience of each applicant” to be made public as required by law, plus contact information which would remain private. People could apply for P&Z openings online. The applicant would see a warning informing them of the applicable law relating to their applicaiton being in public domain. When the application window closes, they would display the public information (keeping the contact information private) for each applicant on the website automatically. Boom. Done. We would have the “transparency” they opine about. They’ve set up forms and means for gathering information from the public for other issues, even for the Sucette Harbor debate, so why not this? This stuff with Cressy was an unforced error.
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Thanks so much for your views and responses to readers. Please keep it up. 🙂
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