Proposed additions could erase $200,000 cushion, push praised budget well into the red
MANDEVILLE — After weeks of debate over whether Mandeville is spending too much, City Council members emerged from their fourth budget hearing Wednesday without identifying a specific spending cut — but with several proposals to add expenses to Mayor Clay Madden’s proposed FY2027 budget.
Councilman-at-Large Scott Discon, who earlier this month said the city was overspending and told Madden he would identify areas to cut as the hearings continued, instead announced Wednesday that he plans to seek $15,000 for equipment to water city trees, despite Public Works Director Keith LaGrange telling him the city already has equipment for the job.
District III Councilwoman Jill Lane said she will propose increasing the city’s employee cost-of-living adjustment from the 1% included in Madden’s budget to 2.8%, an increase she and Finance Director Jessica Farno discussed as adding roughly $200,000 in General Fund expenses. Without corresponding cuts, the increase would consume essentially all of the roughly $200,000 operating cushion in the proposed budget.
And District II Councilman Kevin Vogeltanz said he plans to propose increasing the mayor’s salary and vehicle allowance, arguing Mandeville risks discouraging qualified candidates from seeking the city’s top elected position in future elections if its compensation continues to lag behind senior city employees. Madden did not include a pay raise for himself in the FY2027 budget he presented to the council.
Neither Councilmen-at-Large Jason Zuckerman nor District I Councilwoman Cynthia Strong-Thompson proposed additional spending Wednesday, instead praising the administration’s work on the proposed budget.
The proposals are expected to be formally considered Thursday during the council’s fifth and final budget hearing at 4 p.m., immediately before its regular 6 p.m. meeting.
The proposed additions came after Madden opened Wednesday’s hearing with a detailed accounting of reductions he and Farno said were already incorporated into the budget before it was presented to the council June 30.
Madden said the administration identified approximately $233,000 in personnel reductions and $297,000 in selected operating reductions, for about $530,000 in recurring personnel and discretionary General Fund reductions.
The personnel savings came from leaving a finance data entry clerk and one police officer position unfunded. Madden said the police reduction is effectively offset by the addition of a sergeant to supervise school resource officers, with the St. Tammany Parish School Board paying 10 months of the position’s annual cost and the city responsible for the remaining two months. Operating reductions included nearly $80,000 in legal fees, $75,000 in planning and development, $50,000 in audit and accounting fees and reductions in spending for the Trailhead, Community Center, advertising, banquets, travel and memberships.
Madden said he and Farno began working on the reductions in January as they sought to produce a structurally balanced operating budget.
“We don’t have the luxury of just sitting here in a council meeting and figuring out what we’re going to cut,” Madden said. “We’ve been working on this since January.”
The proposed budget currently projects recurring General Fund revenue exceeding recurring expenditures by approximately $200,000.
That margin could largely disappear under Lane’s proposed COLA amendment.
“I would like to propose an amendment to add 1.8%,” Lane said, bringing the proposed employee COLA from 1% to 2.8%.
Farno confirmed the proposal would increase General Fund expenses and said it would also affect the city’s Enterprise Fund.
Madden immediately asked Lane where she planned to find the money.
“We can talk about that tomorrow,” Lane responded.
Lane later identified several areas she was considering for possible reductions, including landscaping and planning expenditures.
Without offsetting reductions, however, the roughly $200,000 COLA increase would consume essentially all of the operating margin contained in Madden’s proposed budget. Discon’s additional $15,000 expenditure would then push recurring expenditures beyond recurring revenues, absent other changes.
Discon proposes spending after calling for cuts
Discon’s proposed addition came after several budget hearings in which he has questioned city spending.
During the council’s Aug. 13 hearing, Discon said, “I still think — we’re overspending,” prompting Madden to repeatedly ask him to identify what should be cut. Discon did not identify specific reductions at that meeting, saying the council had additional hearings remaining.
Wednesday, as council members began identifying amendments they planned to bring forward at the final hearing, Discon proposed adding $15,000 for equipment he said could be used to water city trees.
“I’m going to propose $15,000 in the budget for a water truck to water the trees that we’re spending thousands and thousands of dollars on,” Discon said.
LaGrange told Discon the city already has equipment capable of watering trees and said personnel, rather than equipment, is the limiting factor.
“We have equipment,” LaGrange said. “We need the person to do it. It has nothing to do with the equipment.”
“I think once we get it, we can figure that out,” Discon responded.
Discon also renewed an objection to what he believed was a $2 million FEMA reimbursement being counted in the FY2027 budget, saying he would “have an issue with the budget” if the money remained included.
Farno told him it was not.
“There is no FEMA revenue in the fiscal year ’27 budget,” Farno said.
Farno said the disputed $2 million reimbursement was never included as revenue in the FY2027 budget. The unresolved reimbursement remained among anticipated FY2026 revenue and is being removed through year-end adjustments because it was not received during the fiscal year.
Farno said the adjustment still leaves FY2026 with a projected $13.65 million ending General Fund balance — higher than the $13.18 million beginning balance she assumed when preparing the FY2027 budget.
“I still have not over-projected beginning fund balance for fiscal year ’27,” Farno said.
Lane seeks 2.8% COLA
Lane’s proposal would restore the employee COLA to 2.8%, matching the Social Security Administration’s 2026 cost-of-living adjustment.
The administration’s proposed FY2027 budget includes a 1% COLA.
Lane said her amendment would add the remaining 1.8 percentage points, which she and Farno discussed as costing approximately $200,000 in the General Fund.
Lane said she was considering possible reductions elsewhere in the budget to offset the increase, including landscaping and planning expenditures, but did not identify specific cuts Wednesday.
The COLA has been a recurring issue throughout the budget hearings, with Madden defending the administration’s broader compensation package and council members debating whether employees should receive the full 2.8% increase.
Zuckerman previously said he supports the 2.8% COLA but only if the council finds offsetting cuts. “I will absolutely support a 2.8% COLA if we can find budget cuts through the line items to pay for that,” he said during the Aug. 19 hearing.
Lane also questioned what had resulted from the Income Strategies Committee formed following last year’s budget discussions, asking whether the group had examined issues including employee benefits, investing restricted funds and the city’s five-year financial forecast.
Madden pointed to several issues considered by the committee, including a possible tax reallocation, and cited Zuckerman’s proposal establishing a 20% minimum General Fund reserve as one of its significant results. Strong-Thompson noted the committee also worked on improved quarterly financial reporting. Madden said some of the committee’s work was put on hold around April so the short-staffed Finance Department could focus on completing the audit and preparing the FY2027 budget, but said the committee is expected to resume meeting.
Vogeltanz proposes increasing mayoral compensation
Vogeltanz introduced a different spending discussion when he said the council should reconsider how much Mandeville pays its mayor.
He first proposed doubling the mayor’s monthly vehicle allowance from $500 to $1,000, increasing the annual allowance from $6,000 to $12,000.
Vogeltanz said Madden uses his personal vehicle extensively for city business without receiving mileage reimbursement and argued that increasing the allowance could remain less expensive than providing the mayor a city-owned vehicle.
He then said he intends to propose increasing the mayor’s salary, although he had not settled on an amount Wednesday.
The proposed budget would put the mayor’s salary at approximately $122,000 with the 1% COLA, according to Vogeltanz. He floated increasing it to approximately $130,000 while saying his longer-term goal is for the position to pay $150,000 when the next mayoral term begins in 2028.
“This has nothing to do with the mayor [Madden] because he holds the office at the moment,” Vogeltanz said.
Madden proposed no such increase in the mayor’s salary in the FY2027 budget which sits before the council now. In Madden’s budget, as proposed, he would only receive the same 1% COLA that all employees would receive.
Vogeltanz said his concern was the future of the office and ensuring Mandeville could attract qualified candidates in future elections.
“I would really like when we qualify a mayor in 2027 to start the new term in 2028, no matter who it is, I would like to see us at 150 for that position,” Vogeltanz said.
Police Chief Todd Schliem then came forward to support increasing compensation for the office, saying the mayor is approximately the ninth-highest-paid city employee despite bearing responsibility for the entire municipal government.
“This is not about Clay Madden,” Schliem said. “This is about the position of mayor.”
Schliem said he had not discussed the issue with Madden beforehand and argued that compensation should reflect the responsibilities of the position.
The council’s fifth and final FY2027 budget hearing is scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday, immediately before its regular 6 p.m. meeting where the FY2027 is expected to be voted on.
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