Sucette proponents focused on controlling social media narrative
Negative posts drew attention
Asked friends to remain silent
First impressions from meetings piqued interest
Lashed out against ‘misinformation’
Advised to feign neutrality with constituents
‘Bribe’ post triggers rebuttal, reprisal discussion
Created, pushed ‘recusal’ narrative
Claimed Sucette Harbor process ‘tainted’
Updated 1/19/2024: Expands coverage of text message excerpts concerning meetings with developer. Updates other references for clarity.
Updated 1/17/2024: Expands coverage of former P&Z member comments about project.
MANDEVILLE — Proponents of the controversial Sucette Harbor project were heavily involved in public relations and social media efforts behind the scenes, including rapid response tactics and strategies against those perceived as critics of the proposal, according to information contained in a public records release.
Editor’s Note: This is the third part in a series that will explore the recent Sucette Harbor public records release. At the end of this multi-part series, Mandeville Daily will publish a complete timeline of events from start to finish, including all text messages from all council members and other officials in PDF format for the reader to review independently.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Negative posts drew attention
In the early stages of the Sucette Harbor push — well before the initial Planning & Zoning hearing in September 2022 — former City Councilwoman at Large and project proponent Trilby Lenfant suggested to District II Councilman Dr. Skelly Kreller that he ask Planning & Zoning member Nixon Adams to check the voting records of people who had made negative comments on a Facebook post from Mayor Clay Madden which had drawn a barrage of negative responses concerning the project.
That same day, August 30, 2022, Kreller and campaign consultant and Mariner’s Village Master Association (MVMA) President Eric McVicker speculated that Madden was setting the stage for the project to be rejected, according to text messages released as part of a public records request made by Woodward Interests Vice President Bear Cheezem on September 11th.
Asked friends to remain silent
District II Councilman Dr. Skelly Kreller appeared to be concerned about the early negative perception of the project on social media, asking former P&Z member and eventual project critic Ren Clark not to post anything negative on social media until after Woodward Interests presented the project to the public: “I am asking you as a friend to hold comments you post about the LSU Project until the public meeting.”
Clark agreed not to make negative comments on social media but expressed his negative feelings with jokes about the name “Sucette” being a double entendre for “sucker” in French.
First impressions from meetings piqued interest
District II Councilman Dr. Skelly Kreller was interested in first impressions from residents and other council members who met with the developer before the first Sucette Harbor Planning & Zoning hearing September 21, 2022.
Former City Councilwoman at Large Trilby Lenfant passed along information from meetings that she apparently had sat in on or received information about from the developer. After one such meeting that District I Councilwoman Rebecca Bush had attended, Kreller asked Lenfant, “Great, any feel from her(?).”
After another meeting which apparently included project proponent Rhonda Alleman among others, Lenfant commented, “[W]e all want to reserve corner units!”
Lashed out against ‘misinformation’
District II Councilman Dr. Skelly Kreller complained to city officials, fellow council members, and members of the Woodward Interests team about what he saw as “misinformation” or attacks on the project, according to emails released as part of a public records request made by Woodward Interests Vice President Bear Cheezem on September 11th.
One such case was over a newsletter written by former District III Council Member Ernest Burguières which Burguières distributes to a private email list. Burguières attends most council meetings and reports on what he sees in his emails.
What Burguières wrote on April 18th, the day after the P&Z voted to recommend the Sucette Harbor project, drew Kreller’s ire. After forwarding it to Woodward Interests Vice President Bear Cheezem, he emailed former Planning and Development Director Louisette Scott, asking her to respond to Burguières’ argument publicly. Scott, who has emerged as a proponent of the project based on messages contained in the Cheezem public records release, essentially told Kreller to ignore Burguières.
Editor’s Note: Mandeville Daily reposted Burguières’ column with his permission starting in June 2023. We mutually ended this arrangement in December 2023 when Burguières qualified for the 2024 council-at-large race.
After the June 20th City Council meeting where a letter from local architect Vaughan Sollberger, who sits on the city’s design review committee, was read aloud by Councilman at Large Jason Zuckerman, Kreller emailed Danielson and Scherer to complain.
Kreller said that it was unprofessional and a “conflict of interest” (sic) for Zuckerman to have “read it into the record” because he and Sollberger “are close friends” and they both serve on the design review committee.
However, the Sollberger letter technically was already part of the record because Sollberger had sent it to the entire council on June 16th, therefore Zuckerman reading it aloud did not make it so. Anytime a member of the public sends an email or letter to the City Council, it becomes part of the public record whether it is read aloud or not. What’s more, Zuckerman hasn’t served on the design review committee since before the Sucette Harbor application came before the council.
Advised to feign neutrality with constituents
Posts made to the New Golden Shores Facebook page by District II Councilman Dr. Skelly Kreller neighbor and project critic Missie Noel caught the attention of the Kreller camp in late April 2023. This was weeks after the Planning & Zoning Commission voted 4-3 to recommend Sucette Harbor, but before the first City Council special meeting on the project.
Noel posted that she’d be willing to host a meeting with Kreller and residents “so that he can hear our opinions on Sucette, before he votes.”
Kreller had responded to the post in part, “I have decided not to have any meetings or make any comments about the project until the process goes forward with the entire City Council present.”
This drew responses from a number of people, including project critic Michele Avery, Councilman at Large Zuckerman and project critic Kevin Vogeltanz, who would eventually enter the 2024 race to unseat Kreller.
Former City Councilwoman at Large Trilby Lenfant, who by now knew that Kreller was a supporter of the project, asked if he had publicly declared his position yet, to which he adamantly insisted he had not, according to text messages in the Cheezem public records release.
However, Kreller had in fact previously given supportive statements to the media when early concepts of the project were first announced, including to Nola.com in September 2021 and New Orleans City Business in November 2021.
“It’s a win-win for everybody,” he told City Business in 2021. “The majority of people in my district want this to happen.”
Lenfant suggested that Kreller should meet with his constituents but to tell them he was still undecided: “I don’t know that you can avoid the opposition…”
She continued, “but I was thinking if you choose to meet with the opposition… you can listen to them, acknowledge their concerns but still be noncommittal…”
‘Bribe’ post triggers rebuttal, reprisal discussion
Project critic Michele Avery created a firestorm behind the scenes in May 2023 with a post on the Nextdoor website using the rhetorical hyperbole “bribe” to criticize the appearance of developer attorney Paul Harrison at a Kreller fundraiser on the night of the 4-3 vote by the Planning & Zoning Commission to recommend the project, according to text messages in the Cheezem public records release.
Campaign consultant Eric McVicker sent screenshots to District II Councilman Dr. Skelly Kreller and the two had an exchange that ended with McVicker saying, “Time to slap that bitch.”
The next day, Kreller, former City Councilwoman at Large Trilby Lenfant and project proponent Rhonda Alleman, who also lobbied other council members to support the project, discussed potential rebuttal tactics, which included researching Avery and her employer’s campaign contribution history, with Lenfant suggesting contacting her employer.
But roughly nine months earlier it was Kreller who told McVicker not to delete any negative comments on social media, hoping critics would defame them, claiming he had spoken to developer attorney Paul Harrison about it.
Lenfant suggested checking to see if there was a correlation between Avery’s employer’s campaign contributions and audit contracts the company was awarded by the city, according to text messages.
Kreller then shared Avery’s campaign contribution history from the Louisiana Ethics Administration campaign finance portal, information that he claimed McVicker had sent to him.
Andrew Ellender, a local social media content provider and outspoken critic of Mandeville city government officials, was one of the initial people on the Nextdoor website to respond to Avery’s “bribe” post. The two had an often contentious back-and-forth over her post and its responses.
Kreller told the group that campaign consultant James Hartman advised they should not respond on social media.
Alleman texted, “Andrew (Ellender) can get into (it) with her!” Lenfant seemed to agree, confirming that “someone else” should post on social media, later telling Kreller not to respond himself: “Do not say anything on social media.”
Over the next 24-48 hours, whether by design or by coincidence, Ellender made a barrage of social media posts using the Avery campaign contribution list that Kreller had shared with the group, according to screenshots obtained from social media by Mandeville Daily at the time.
These posts at first included her home address and personal information. Avery eventually filed a complaint letter to the Mandeville Police Department, citing over 60 instances of what she alleged to by cyber-stalking. No formal charges were filed. Ellender’s Nextdoor account was eventually temporarily suspended by site moderators.
Back to TopCreated, pushed ‘recusal’ narrative
Two days after the April 17th Planning & Zoning Commission’s vote to recommend Sucette Harbor to the City Council, campaign consultant Eric McVicker suggested to District II Councilman Dr. Skelly Kreller that Councilman at Large Jason Zuckerman should recuse himself from voting on Sucette Harbor over an alleged conflict of interests, according to text messages in the Cheezem public records release.
Woodward Interests is described as a real estate project developer on their website, whereas Zuckerman’s employer, The McDonnel Group, describes itself as a builder or contractor.
Kreller even asked Council Clerk Kristine Scherer her thoughts on the matter, indicating he had sought an opinion from developer attorney Paul Harrison on the question.
Scherer responded, “Guess that would be a Paul (Harrison) question.” Kreller told Scherer that he also wanted a third party to ask City Attorney Elizabeth Sconzert about it: “[S]omeone other than me should ask Elizabeth (Sconzert).”
There is no mention of why Kreller would refer to an outside attorney for this advice, particularly the developer’s attorney Harrison, instead of Sconzert.
McVicker also mentioned “Not gonna send it to him quite yet.” It is unclear from their text messages who he was referring to here.
But in the weeks that followed — similar to what happened with Avery — Andrew Ellender began making repeated posts about Zuckerman on social media using the same information that McVicker, Kreller and Scherer had discussed in these texts.
Zuckerman would eventually express frustration with a friend on June 10th, sharing what he called a “100% photoshop” image that Ellender was circulating on social media as Zuckerman’s LinkedIn profile. Mandeville Daily was able to verify that what Ellender had posted was not Zuckerman’s real LinkedIn profile.
Claimed Sucette Harbor process ‘tainted’
While the debate and antics inside council chambers were often heated and confrontational, outside the chambers — or the Spitzfaden Center in this case — an all-out war was waged over the controversial project on social media, particularly after the Planning & Zoning Commission voted 4-3 to recommend the project.
This seems to be when the public began to take notice of the project, despite the fact that an early version — described at that time as a $150 million plan with restaurants, retail, hotel and age-restricted apartments — had been announced in local media as far back as mid-to-late 2021.
As the process was winding down in July 2023, project proponent Rhonda Alleman would share links to Mandeville Daily articles with Councilman at Large Rick Danielson, and she once called it “The Zuckerman Daily,” according to text messages in the Cheezem public records release.
After an op-ed was published on July 26th titled “OPINION | Latest Sucette meeting turned into tactic to save punch-drunk developer from knockout,” Alleman remarked that the process had been tainted, to which Danielson agreed.
Sucette Harbor Exposed: Part 4 will be published soon.
Back to TopEditor’s Note:
- Rhonda Alleman appears frequently in text messages or emails from most of the council members, where she is seen as a staunch proponent of the Sucette Harbor project.
- Trilby Lenfant is a former at-large council member as well as former executive assistant to Madden. She appears in many of Kreller’s text messages, where she is seen offering advice and relaying information to and from developer meetings.
- Eric McVicker is a Kreller campaign consultant and Mariner’s Village Master Association (MVMA) president. He appears prominently throughout Kreller’s texts, and in May 2023 he penned a Sucette Harbor endorsement announcement on behalf of the MVMA board of directors.
- Andrew Ellender — a social media content provider on local politics— was seen as a project proponent based on the bulk of his social media posts. He was also a frequent critic of Councilman at Large Jason Zuckerman, Mayor Clay Madden, and even certain officials in the Mandeville Police Department. Ellender has sent a number of emails to the City Council on various topics, some but not all relating to Sucette Harbor.
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