OPINION: Handling of council clerk raise looked suspicious, ended in embarrassment for Mandeville

Jeopardized entire civil service pay package

Council clerk raise not part of salary committee recommendations: Zuckerman

Raise neither explained nor defended until after move to strike it

-Editorial-

The handling of a proposed raise for Council Clerk Kristine Scherer at the last Mandeville City Council meeting was an embarrassment, and it unnecessarily jeopardized a long-awaited and well-planned pay scale update for the city’s non-police, civil service employees.

Mandeville finally received a much-needed overhaul of police and civil service pay at the February 10th City Council meeting, resulting in significant raises across the board. The move — based largely on a city-sponsored salary survey conducted last year — puts Mandeville in a better position to retain and attract workers.

It was a big deal.

A salary survey committee, formed by Mayor Clay Madden, met four or five times from November to December, hammering out details for historic police and civil service pay changes.

The process was open and fair. It was a fine example of what happens when a city council and an administration work together for the greater good. The recommendations from that committee are what generated two ordinances — one for the police pay scale and the other for the civil service employees.

There was one big problem though. Scherer belongs to neither group. She is not a civil service employee and isn’t governed by either pay scale, yet for some reason the sponsor of the pay scale ordinances, Councilman at Large Rick Danielson, saw fit to tuck a nice 38-percent raise for Scherer into the civil service pay ordinance, which created a “poison pill” for others on the council, and rightfully so.

If you had read Ordinance No. 22-03 — for the civil service pay scale changes — you might not even have noticed that second primary clause wedged in there: “And to amend the salary of the council clerk.”

The Mandeville Home Rule Charter specifically says each ordinance must be limited to a single subject. This prevents a council member from tying a lesser-known and potentially more controversial item to a larger more popular measure with broad support, hoping other members won’t risk the political fight.

Article II, Section 2-11 or the charter reads in part:

Even by an amateur’s reading of the charter, a civil service pay scale change and a raise for one specific non-civil service employee are two separate things.

The title has two subjects, and the body of the ordinance is dealing with two different things. It’s painfully obvious.

To make the argument that because Ordinance No. 22-03 handles “raises” and they were trying to give Scherer a “raise” doesn’t pass the smell test. If that were the case then we could just have one big ordinance each meeting to handle whatever needs to be done under the subject “the people’s business.”

What’s more, city code specifically addresses how and when a raise for the council clerk is to be handled. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of wiggle room here except for maybe the date on which it happens:

Sources told Mandeville Daily that District II Councilman Skelly Kreller was involved in getting the council clerk raise added to 22-03.

So why did Danielson and Kreller do it this way?

What was really strange was the way in which Ordinance No. 22-03 was brought to the floor that night.

When an ordinance is brought to the floor, the council chairman reads the text of the subject and gives time to the sponsor to explain their proposal.

But with Ordinance No. 22-03, Danielson barely made mention of the fact that the council clerk raise was in there. His fumbling remarks gave those in attendance the impression that he himself wasn’t even sure it should be in there:

“It’s for non-police civil service employees, and as Mr. Zuckerman stated, the salary of the council clerk is part of this ordinance as well just because that really is a separate position you know from, uh, non-police civil service employees, so that’s why that’s part of this as well and being treated, you know, in this ordinance.”

And that was it. Those words — as mousy and conflicting as they were — was the first time the public at an open meeting had been informed or pitched the idea of a raise for the council clerk.

This wasn’t a pitch at all. Did he really want her to get the raise? He didn’t sound like it.

But he wrote the ordinance. Even if Kreller was a part of the effort, Danielson put his name on it.

Where was the bit about how great Ms. Scherer is, and that she deserves a 38-percent raise, and how this is good for Mandeville, and so on?

It only took District III Councilwoman Jill McGuire about five seconds after Danielson’s sheepish introduction to call a spade a spade, making a motion to strike the council clerk raise from Ordinance No. 22-03 so that the civil service pay scale changes would move forward.

Even when Madden proposed his “restructuring plan” early last year and was met with fierce resistance, he made a strong push and endured harsh questioning from several on the council, particularly Danielson and Kreller. Madden stood his ground, and arguably he eventually got the job done, even if it was through a different route.

And that right there, ladies and gentlemen, might be what this is really all about.

Was this a case of political retribution? Does that argument hold water?

Part of the mayor’s restructuring proposal in 2021 was to create a new position called “Director of Administration” with a salary of $90,000. He planned to tap mayoral Executive Assistant Trilby Lenfant for the new post.

Madden didn’t get his way, although he later found money in his salaries budget to give Lenfant a roughly $10,000 raise, bringing her to $83,827, about halfway to what would have been the salary for the ill-fated director of administration post.

When the council found out about this, Kreller demanded and got an opinion from the state Attorney General as to the legality of the raise. But the AG sided with Madden and even gently admonished the City Council for “ambiguity” in its budget ordinance, which allowed Madden to draw from a pool of salary money for Lenfant’s raise.

And there’s more evidence that this might have had everything to do with Lenfant and little to do with Scherer.

In Ordinance No. 22-03, Danielson included a side-by-side comparison for the proposed raise for Scherer with Lenfant’s pay:

Why on Earth would he bring Lenfant into this fight? It made no sense… unless there is more to this story than has been revealed to the public.

Based on on-the-record remarks by District III Councilwoman Jill McGuire and information from sources close to the situation, Scherer has made her case for a raise to council members privately and via email. Scherer reportedly expressed that she feels her current job duties are more akin to an executive assistant and not a clerk.

“There’s been new information that’s been brought to me, and I would like your assessment and I would like all the council members to see the JAQ (job assessment questionnaires administered as part of the 2021 salary survey). And there’s been lots of statements that Ms. Scherer’s emailed all of us and I’d like all of that addressed and I’d just would like it separate from the other employees,” McGuire said during debate at the meeting.

Fair enough. In the private sector, such lobbying is not only acceptable but often rewarded. So what that Scherer made a case to her “bosses” during a time when she saw that a number of other people were set to get big raises. Can’t really fault her for that.

It is worth mentioning, however, that group email chains present a huge problem for city councils everywhere, especially in Louisiana, which has one of the toughest open meetings laws in the country.

The instant there’s any kind of back-and-forth in a group email among a quorum of council members, there’s a serious problem as illustrated in this 2012 opinion by the Louisiana State Attorney General:

We’re not alleging this happened in Mandeville, but the City Council didn’t do themselves any favors with the way this was brought to the public. Perception matters in politics.

Mandeville Daily only found out about Scherer supposedly making her case to the council from off-the-record sources, which were indirectly corroborated by McGuire’s remarks at the meeting.

If Scherer’s alleged self-made comparison to the mayoral executive assistant was the real reason this side-by-side with Lenfant was included in the ordinance, why was that information not made public? Why didn’t Danielson just say that when he had the chance?

If this raise was so above-board, then why was it added to an unrelated civil service pay scale overhaul, an item that could have been sunk because of this poison pill?

This was McGuire’s finest moment as a council member. She quoted Section 2-7 of the City’s Code of Ordinances defining how raises and reviews for the council clerk are supposed to be handled. Section 2-7 spells out four conditions.

Maybe Danielson believed that sub-section (d) of Section 2-7 makes sub-sections (a), (b) and (c) null and void. Ordinance No. 22-03 only referenced sub-section (d). But City Attorney Elizabeth Sconzert didn’t seem to think so in her comments on the matter that night:

“I think the intent of the Section 2.7 is just to make sure there is a yearly evaluation for the council clerk and any changes are accounted for at that time.”

With that and a few other remarks she made at the meeting, Sconzert seemed to be saying that according to city code, you can give a raise to the council clerk before an evaluation takes place, and you can adjust the council clerk pay to meet market conditions.

So perhaps Danielson (and Kreller) is arguing that this particular raise is just a market adjustment, like with the police and civil service pay changes. That is indeed a valid point which can be debated.

But that’s the problem. There was no debate. There was no explanation… not until after McGuire moved to strike it.

McGuire was correct. Just like the charter seems to say, a raise for Scherer is a different subject than civil service pay scale changes.

Point, set and match, McGuire.

It was only when McGuire’s motion was about to be voted on did Danielson and Kreller speak up and mount any semblance of a defense for Scherer.

At one point, Danielson seemed to try to goad McGuire into altering her amendment in a manner that could only be described as unconventional.

“If this were to be amended, and pulled, that we would come back, and part of that, maybe Mrs. McGuire would consider, part of that motion would be that we would introduce an ordinance that addresses the salary of the council clerk and introduce an ordinance the first meeting in March,” Danielson said.

Sources close to the situation told Mandeville Daily they were surprised that Danielson even made such a suggestion — to put in one ordinance a “promise” to introduce another ordinance by a specific date — especially considering that as a council member, Danielson has the right to introduce ordinances or amendments himself. Why would he want McGuire to change her amendment?

But McGuire didn’t waiver. “They are two separate things and it needs to be separate,” she insisted.

If Danielson didn’t like her amendment, he could have voted against it and then offered his own. But he didn’t. In fact, he voted for McGuire’s amendment. And so did Kreller. Very telling.

Councilman at Large and Council Chairman Jason Zuckerman backed McGuire by pointing out that he served on the salary survey committee and a council clerk raise was never part of the discussions.

“I was on the salary survey committee… And we really didn’t discuss this. This proposal … is not really coming to the council with a recommendation that came out of the salary survey committee,” Zuckerman said.

The question here is not if Scherer deserves a raise. She does. Most on the City Council went on the record that night saying so. How big of a raise and when it should happen, that’s up to the council and should be debated in front of the people.

The recommendations concerning the police and civil service pay scales were handled in public meetings of the salary survey committee. It was no surprise when those items showed up on the agenda for a vote.

What was a surprise was that a council clerk raise was wedged into one of them when it was unrelated and had not been vetted in an open meeting.

Whether or not this was one-upmanship with the mayor for the way he handled Lenfant’s raise, the public is left to speculate because there is no official on-the-record evidence to the contrary — there was the side-by-side comparison to Lenfant in the ordinance and the dollar amounts were roughly the same.

But if the reality was that Danielson and Kreller were persuaded privately by Scherer that she really is more like an executive assistant and deserves the same pay as Lenfant, then they should have followed the appropriate path and made their case to the public.

There was plenty of time from November through January to have given a council clerk raise the attention it deserved which would have met the conditions spelled out in Section 2-7 of city code.

But they didn’t.

This was an unforced error, and sadly, it may have done irreparable harm to the city’s relationship with Scherer.

The citizens deserved better. Scherer deserved better.

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UPDATE: Mandeville police, workers get raises in historic pay scale overhaul; City Council pumps brakes on 38% raise for council clerk

Provision that would have made council clerk more like executive assistant, equal in pay stripped from ordinance

Measure adds $744,172 to operating budget — 5.5% increase

Vast majority receive 10-40% bumps in pay

Officials cite recent salary survey, retention, recruitment concerns for system overhaul

City streamlines 30 pay steps down to 25

Mayor says last extensive pay increase was 2015

Raises to hit paychecks in late March

Police salary budget increases 10.26%

Sewer Dept. sees biggest percent change at 15.18% to address recruitment issues

Updated 2/13/2022 at 1:09 PM: Adds references to Kreller and Scherer in eighth and 10th paragraphs.

MANDEVILLE — The City Council adopted measures Thursday that will give police and civil service employees significant across-the-board raises as part of a broader effort to bring Mandeville in line with the surrounding market in attracting and keeping workers.

The changes stem from a comprehensive market salary survey contracted last year by Mayor Clay Madden and the City Council, which revealed that Mandeville was lagging behind nearby municipalities and area employers in its basic pay scales, which hadn’t been significantly updated since 2015.

One of the main takeaways from the report, conducted by SSA Consultants of Baton Rouge, is that by position, Mandeville’s entry-level pay — especially for police — is consistently below that of other municipalities and entities in the market region, including Covington, Slidell, Hammond, Tangipahoa Parish and the Louisiana State Police.

The raises will add $744,127, including benefits, to the city operating budget — a 5.5-percent increase — and streamlines Mandeville’s pay scales from 30 to 25.

Eighty-three of the roughly 100 employees — both police and civil service — will receive raises ranging from 10 to 40 percent, with only a handful above or below that range.

The overhaul was enacted via three ordinances — one to address the Mandeville Police Department, a second to address civil service employees, and a third to adjust the operating budget in order to pay for the raises.

The civil service pay change ordinance caused a minor dust-up during the meeting and the council had to scramble to amend the ordinance so that the civil service raises wouldn’t be held up.

Some on the council felt Ordinance 22-03 contained a so-called “poison pill” because it proposed a 38 percent pay raise for Council Clerk Kristine Scherer, who is not a civil service employee. The ordinance was introduced by Councilman at Large Rick Danielson, but sources say District II Councilman Skelly Kreller was involved in getting Scherer’s proposed raise included in the measure.

District III Councilwoman Jill McGuire offered an amendment to strip out the raise for Scherer, which would have put her at almost equal pay to Mayor Clay Madden’s Executive Assistant Trilby Lenfant, taking Scherer from $60,139 to $83,139. Lenfant is paid $83,827 after she received about a $10,000 raise last year.

Sources told Mandeville Daily that Scherer is unhappy with her pay and believes that her current role is more akin to the executive assistant than a clerk.

Scherer handles all City Council day-to-day operations, including intra-council communications, scheduling, publishing agendas, ordinances, and resolutions, researching city code and the home rule charter, among other duties. She also acts as the recorder and parliamentarian at council meetings.

Council members expressed strong support for Scherer during Thursday’s meeting, but stopped short of voting against McGuire’s amendment to remove the council clerk’s raise. The amendment passed unanimously despite Danielson and Kreller expressing support for the raise remaining part of the ordinance.

Kreller argued that even though 38 percent is a large raise, a handful a civil service and police employees will receive raises greater than 40 percent, and it wouldn’t be fair to single Scherer out by not including her in this pay scale overhaul.

Danielson said of Scherer, “I don’t know the perfect way to do this because of the process that we’ve gone through. I can justify all day a raise to our clerk based off of experience, based off of years, based off of scale, based off of all those things.”

But McGuire said that she is not opposed to considering a raise for Scherer but that such a raise is a separate and different issue than the civil service pay raises and should not have been tied to them.

“There’s a lot of things that have come up… a lot of comparisons… There’s questions of should the council clerk be considered as an executive assistant. I feel that is a discussion that should be held at a different time,” McGuire said.

Councilman at Large Jason Zuckerman agreed with McGuire, saying that a raise for Scherer was not a recommendation that came from the salary survey committee.

Madden formed a salary survey committee which met four times in December to hammer out details for the pay scale changes before making recommendations back to the mayor and the council as a whole. Zuckerman and Danielson both served on that committee along with others, including police and civil service representatives.

“I was on the salary survey committee… And we really didn’t discuss this (Scherer’s raise). This proposal … is not really coming to the council with a recommendation that came out of the salary survey committee,” Zuckerman said.

“I can support a raise all day long… Ms. Scherer has tremendous worth to the city and the City Council,” he added.

Former City Councilman Ernest Burguières made a brief presentation to the council during the public comment session that covered what he believed where a number of potential issues with the raises.

Burguières said he felt the salary survey was “a good starting point” but that it did contain some “flaws.” His main objection was that he believes the process largely bypassed public feedback and questioning of the survey’s author, SSA Consultants.

He also said that the pay raises were weighted heavily toward existing employees versus entry-level workers.

Burguières also cautioned that this increase to the budget could eventually burn through city surpluses.

After Scherer’s proposed raise was stripped from the measure, the civil service pay ordinance along with the police pay ordinance and the budget adjustment ordinance were adopted unanimously.

Finance Director Kathleen Sides told the council the raises should hit paychecks in the second half of March.

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City Council meets in Chamber for first time since 2020

Meetings held in Spitzfaden Center for over a year due to COVID-19 Pandemic and renovations

MANDEVILLE — The City Council met in the Council Chamber at Mandeville City Hall tonight for the first time in over a year, marking the occasion with an uneventfully short meeting.

Council Chairman and Councilman at Large Jason Zuckerman has pushed for the return to the Chamber since he was installed as council chairman last July.

The old bulky courtroom-style desk has been been replaced with tables, creating more room, and the carpeting has been upgraded.

“I was disappointed when the Council meetings were relocated out of City Hall in the first place and have been pushing to move back into Council Chamber for some time. It took some doing but we got it done and I’m really glad to have the Council meetings back in an appropriate setting,” Zuckerman said.

The City Council started meeting regularly in the Paul R. Spitzfaden Community Center across the street from City Hall in March 2021, once in-person meetings were deemed safe again after a number of video-conference meetings during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Prior to tonight, the last time the City Council met in Chamber was November 19, 2020.

Zuckerman said a new, larger and more modern Council Chamber is being designed to replace the existing one.

(Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)
(Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)
(Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)
(Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)
(Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)
(Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)

In other business at tonight’s meeting:

OLD BUSINESS:
  1. Adoption of Ordinance No. 22-01; AN ORDINANCE FOR THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF MANDEVILLE TO AMEND ORDINANCE NUMBER 21-20, THE OPERATING BUDGET OF THE CITY OF MANDEVILLE AND FOR OTHER MATTERS IN CONNECTION THEREWITH (Councilman Zuckerman, At-Large) This is for additional expenses from Hurricane Ida

    Adopted, 5-0.
NEW BUSINESS
  1. Approval of the special event application for the Mande-Gras Parade Tailgate party on Friday, February 18, 2022, starting at 6:30 pm located at The Shops at 1200 West Causeway. Tailgate will feature a musical performance by Jenna Hunt, free face painting, games to play & 2 food truck vendors. (Councilman Kreller, District II)

    Approved, 5-0.


  2. Introduction of Ordinance 22-02; AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF MANDEVILLE TO AMEND THE PAY SCALE RELATIVE TO COMPENSATION PLAN OF THE MUNICIPAL POLICE CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY OF MANDEVILLE AND PROVIDING FOR OTHER MATTERS IN CONNECTION THEREWITH (Councilman Danielson, At-Large)

    Introduced for Feb. 10, 2022 meeting.


  3. Introduction of Ordinance 22-03; AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF MANDEVILLE TO AMEND THE PERSONNEL POLICIES RELATIVE TO THE PAY SCALE OF THE NON-POLICE MUNICIPAL CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY OF MANDEVILLE AND TO AMEND THE SALARY OF THE COUNCIL CLERK AND TO PROVIDE FOR OTHER RELATED MATTERS IN CONNECTION THEREWITH (Councilman Danielson, At-Large)

    See related story: City Council to consider $23K raise for council clerk

    Introduced for Feb. 10, 2022 meeting.


  4. Introduction of Ordinance 22-04; AN ORDINANCE FOR THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF MANDEVILLE TO AMEND ORDINANCE NUMBER 21-20 THE OPERATING BUDGET OF THE CITY OF MANDEVILLE AND FOR OTHER MATTERS IN CONNECTION THEREWITH (Councilman Zuckerman, At-Large)

    Introduced for Feb. 10, 2022 meeting.

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City Council to consider $23K raise for council clerk

Matches pay of mayor’s executive assistant Lenfant

Would give council clerk 38% raise

Lenfant received $10K raise last year amid kerfuffle with council

Proposal to be introduced by council member who opposed Lenfant raise last year

Council meetings return to City Hall Thursday

UPDATED 1/26/2022 at 11:20AM: Corrects use of title for Trilby Lenfant to ‘executive assistant.’

MANDEVILLE — The City Council will consider an ordinance that would give Clerk of Council Kristine Scherer a $23,000 pay raise, putting her almost equal in pay to Mayor Clay Madden’s executive assistant Trilby Lenfant.

Lenfant received a controversial raise in June that was met with frustration by some on the council, so much so they requested an opinion from the State Attorney General’s office on the matter.

While the AG ultimately said the raise was legal and did not violate the city’s home rule charter, the office concluded the wording of the City Council’s 2021 budget ordinance was ambiguous and that future budgets should be better written to avoid such confusion.

Ordinance 22-03 is being introduced at the regular City Council meeting Thursday by Councilman at Large Rick Danielson who — along with District II Councilman Skelly Kreller and District III Councilwoman Jill McGuire — was critical of Lenfant’s $10,000 raise at an August meeting last year, leading to the AG opinion request offered by Kreller.

The proposed pay raise for Scherer would be debated and voted on at the February 10, 2022, City Council meeting, provided it isn’t removed or pulled from the agenda Thursday. It is only slated to be introduced at Thursday’s meeting.

Scherer’s current pay of $60,139 is just above the market maximum $59,342 revealed by SSA Consultants’ recent salary survey “An Evaluation of the City of Mandeville’s Compensation and Benefit Plan” conducted for the city in November 2021.

Lenfant’s current pay of $83,827, which includes last year’s $10,000 raise, is well below the SSA Consultants market maximum of $102,440 for that type of position.

Proposed Ordinance 22-03 uses the title “executive secretary” to refer to Lenfant’s position, but according to the City of Mandeville’s official website, her title is “Executive Assistant.”

Thursday’s council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Mandeville City Hall council chamber at 3101 E. Causeway Approach. The meetings have been held at the Paul R. Spitzfaden Community Center for over a year, first due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then because of renovations to the council chambers.

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Sign code review details revealed for vote by P&Z tonight

Approval of scope of work comes before Planning and Zoning Commission

Top-to-bottom review of Article 10 of CLURO could open door to return of ‘electronic message centers,’ critics say

MANDEVILLE — The Planning and Zoning Commission will consider a resolution defining the scope of work for a top-to-bottom review of the city’s sign code, or Article 10 of the Comprehensive Land Use Regulation Ordinance.

Mandeville’s sign code was a hot topic last year and electronic signs were killed by the council, which then later voted to authorize a review of the sign code. Tonight’s measure defines the scope of work for that review and opens the selection process for a contractor to perform the work.

The directive lays out eight areas of concern to be addressed by the would-be contractor:

  • Creating regulations that provide a means of implementing the policies & goals of the City of Mandeville Comprehensive Plan and other related long-range planning policy documents;
  • Creating regulations that address market trends, incorporate best practices and address contextual issues throughout the City;
  • Removing or amending outdated or inappropriate standards;
  • Removing redundancies and conflicts;
  • Creating clear definitions and terminology;
  • Ensuring all regulations and prohibitions are compliant with the Louisiana and United States Constitutions, including but not limited to content neutrality and other 1st Amendment considerations;
  • Providing graphics and illustrations to supplement, replace and/or clarify written regulations; and
  • Crafting regulations that provide for effective administrative enforcement;

The proposed scope of work reads in part:

“Mandeville’s focus is [to] establish clear, responsible sign regulations with appropriate design criteria that will provide opportunities for innovative and creative approaches to sign usage while maintaining its status as an economically viable and sustainable wooded coastal community that exists in harmony with its abundant environmental resources, preserves its rich cultural history and endeavors to enhance of the quality of life for future generations.”

The proposal also calls for participation from the community:

“The Sign Code review process should engage and encourage the involvement of community leaders, key stakeholders, business owners, economic development partners and interested citizens. Public engagement is expected from the consultant, though substantial base vision data already exists in the various adopted long-range plans.”

The city will accept sealed responses from consultants interested in performing the review, after which the city will make and negotiate its final selection.

Read the proposed resolution for the scope of work for the review of the sign code here.

Read the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting agenda here.

The Planning and Zoning Commission meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. tonight at the Spitzfaden Community Center.

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Joint meeting of City Council and P&Z tonight

Event kicks off the City of Mandeville’s resiliency plan

P&Z regular meeting to follow with proposal to start review of sign code, including so-called ‘electronic message centers’

MANDEVILLE — There will be a joint meeting of the Mandeville City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission tonight at 5 p.m. to kick off the city’s “Resiliency Plan.” The regularly scheduled Planning and Zoning Commission meeting will follow at 6 p.m.

The purpose of the joint meeting is for the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) to make a presentation to the City Council and the public. Both meetings are open to the public.

The P&Z will consider a resolution defining the scope of work to begin an official review of the city’s sign code.

Mandeville’s sign code was a hot topic last year and electronic signs were killed by the council, which then later voted to authorize a review of the sign code. Tonight’s measure defines the scope of work for that review.

Read the special joint meeting agenda here.

Read the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting agenda here.

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UPDATE: Mandeville’s lowest paid get less than market minimums

Mandeville often exceeds market maximums in pay scales

Consultant recommends bringing ‘incumbents’ to market range

Report does not address average pay by position compared to market averages; focuses on pay ranges

City pays 9.5% employee share into retirement system while other municipalities do not

City health benefits exceed those in region

Mandeville Police entry-level pay lags well behind others

Updated November 19, 2021, at 8:25AM: Add critics’ and proponents’ positions on Mandeville’s arrangement for paying employee’s retirement system portion against the findings of the report.

MANDEVILLE — The long-awaited salary survey report, commissioned by the City of Mandeville in early 2021 was presented to the City Council tonight (November 18th) by representatives from SSA Consultants of Baton Rouge, the firm that conducted the survey.

One of the main takeaways from the report is that by position, Mandeville’s entry-level pay — especially for police — is consistently below that of other municipalities and entities in the market region, including Covington, Slidell, Hammond, Tangipahoa Parish and the Louisiana State Police, according to SSA Consultants representative Cody Saucier, who made the presentation to the council tonight.

However, the report also reveals that Mandeville has higher maximums in most of those same positions than the market maximums. The report does not compare average or current salaries by position in Mandeville to equivalent market averages by position.

Fifty-five of the 66 positions analyzed have hourly minimums below the market hourly minimums, but 33 of those have maximums that exceed the market maximums.

The report notes that the City of Mandeville does not necessary have current employees at either the minimum or maximum for each position, but 41 of the current 100 employees are paid below the market-based minimums for their positions.

While Mandeville has lower entry-level wages, the city’s pay ranges for a majority of these positions are broader or greater than the market values being compared.

Health benefits for Mandeville’s workers are significantly better than most in our market, with no premiums for individuals and only $60 per month for families. The city’s employees also enjoy a $0 annual in-network deductible while all other municipalities in the comparison — Covington, Slidell, Hammond and Tangipahoa Parish — have in-network deductibles ranging from $1,500 to $3,000.

The report also touched on retirement system contributions. Mandeville participates in the Municipal Employee Retirement System of Louisiana (MERS), Plan A, which is the more expensive of the two plans offered. The employee contribution is 9.5% tax deferred income. The city pays 27.75% based on employee earnings.

However, Mandeville pays the employee’s share in addition to the city’s share. The other municipalities in this report do not. Critics of such an arrangement argue that Mandeville’s employees in effect receive 9.5% more than their listed salaries. Proponents of the arrangement argue that this helps offset the low-end pay gap compared to the other municipalities.

Download the complete report here…

The report makes four recommendations:

  1. Establish salary ranges with current market-based minimums and maximums for all job positions: These ranges should be market-based.
  2. Conduct market-based compensation review every three to five years: The salary ranges should be updated regularly, every three-to-five years.
  3. Institute a limit to total sick leave accumulation: Currently, Mandeville doesn’t cap how much sick time can be accrued.
  4. Bring incumbents into the market range: The city should bring the 41 current employees who fall below these market minimums up to par.

The council didn’t allow public comment after the presentation despite a few attendees in the audience wanting to do so. Council Chairman Councilman at Large Jason Zuckerman told those in attendance that the contents of the report will be addressed at future meetings where public comment will be allowed. The Louisiana Open Meetings Law requires public bodies to allow public comment before votes are taken on agenda items.

Developing…

Mandeville salary range comparison: Yellow indicates positions where Mandeville's minimum is lower than the market minimum. Mandeville Daily has highlighted in red where Mandeville's maximum is higher than market maximums. ("An Evaluation of the City of Mandeville Compensation and benefit Plan - November 2021"/SSA Consultants)
Mandeville salary range comparison: Yellow indicates positions where Mandeville's minimum is lower than the market minimum. Mandeville Daily has highlighted in red where Mandeville's maximum is higher than market maximums. ("An Evaluation of the City of Mandeville Compensation and benefit Plan – November 2021"/SSA Consultants)
Mandeville salary range comparison: Yellow indicates positions where Mandeville's minimum is lower than the market minimum. Mandeville Daily has highlighted in red where Mandeville's maximum is higher than market maximums. ("An Evaluation of the City of Mandeville Compensation and benefit Plan - November 2021"/SSA Consultants)
Mandeville salary range comparison: Yellow indicates positions where Mandeville's minimum is lower than the market minimum. Mandeville Daily has highlighted in red where Mandeville's maximum is higher than market maximums. ("An Evaluation of the City of Mandeville Compensation and benefit Plan – November 2021"/SSA Consultants)
Mandeville salary range comparison: Yellow indicates positions where Mandeville's minimum is lower than the market minimum. Mandeville Daily has highlighted in red where Mandeville's maximum is higher than market maximums. ("An Evaluation of the City of Mandeville Compensation and benefit Plan - November 2021"/SSA Consultants)
Mandeville salary range comparison: Yellow indicates positions where Mandeville's minimum is lower than the market minimum. Mandeville Daily has highlighted in red where Mandeville's maximum is higher than market maximums. ("An Evaluation of the City of Mandeville Compensation and benefit Plan – November 2021"/SSA Consultants)
Mandeville salary range comparison: Yellow indicates positions where Mandeville's minimum is lower than the market minimum. Mandeville Daily has highlighted in red where Mandeville's maximum is higher than market maximums. ("An Evaluation of the City of Mandeville Compensation and benefit Plan - November 2021"/SSA Consultants)
Mandeville salary range comparison: Yellow indicates positions where Mandeville's minimum is lower than the market minimum. Mandeville Daily has highlighted in red where Mandeville's maximum is higher than market maximums. ("An Evaluation of the City of Mandeville Compensation and benefit Plan – November 2021"/SSA Consultants)
Mandeville salary range comparison: Yellow indicates positions where Mandeville's minimum is lower than the market minimum. Mandeville Daily has highlighted in red where Mandeville's maximum is higher than market maximums. ("An Evaluation of the City of Mandeville Compensation and benefit Plan - November 2021"/SSA Consultants)
Mandeville salary range comparison: Yellow indicates positions where Mandeville's minimum is lower than the market minimum. Mandeville Daily has highlighted in red where Mandeville's maximum is higher than market maximums. ("An Evaluation of the City of Mandeville Compensation and benefit Plan – November 2021"/SSA Consultants)

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Flood Summit Tuesday, November 2nd

Four firms to be on hand

Open-house format

MANDEVILLE — The long-awaited, much-talked-about Mandeville Flood Summit has been announced for November 2nd at the Spitzfaden Community Center from 5:30-7:00 p.m., Mayor Clay Madden announced.

Madden urges everyone interested in Mandeville’s long-term flood protection planning to attend.

See Related Story: Mayor moves on flood protection before ‘Flood Summit’

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UPDATE: Madden supported, didn’t ‘author’ Ordinance 19-33

Mayor supported, moved to introduce, voted for 19-33 and 19-11

Former council members Sica, Pulaski co-sponsored ordinances

Updated October 25, 2021: Adds background on Ordinance 19-11 and Madden being council chairman.

MANDEVILLE — Mandeville Daily recently published a story where it incorrectly identified Mayor Clay Madden as the ‘author’ of a 2019 ordinance that reduced the pay of future mayors. According to available records, then-Councilwoman at Large Lauré Sica and then-District II Councilman Michael Pulaski co-sponsored, or co-introduced, Ordinance 19-33 for consideration by the full council in November 2019.

However, Ordinance 19-33 was “moved for introduction” by then Councilman at Large Madden at the November 21, 2019, council meeting where it was adopted 5-0, including Madden’s ‘yes’ vote, according to council records.

Madden supported and voted in favor of 19-33. But prior to that in April 2019, while serving as council chairman, Madden supported Ordinance 19-11 which was the council’s first attempt to lower a future mayor’s salary. But that ordinance resulted in a lawsuit from sitting mayor Donald Villere, which led the council to repeal 19-11 with Ordinance 19-27 after setting a public referendum to amend the charter.

Madden — who was often a political foe of then Mayor Donald Villere — was a supporter of Ordinance 19-33 as well as Ordinance 19-11, making various statements to that effect, as reported in the media at the time:

Times-Picayune: Mandeville City Council cuts future mayor’s pay

Times-Picayune: Mandeville voters won’t choose mayor until 2020, but they’ll decide next month on new mayor’s paycheck

Excerpt from Times-Picayune article dated October 25, 2019, screen-captured October 23, 2021, from Nola.com.(Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)
Excerpt from Times-Picayune article dated October 25, 2019, screen-captured October 23, 2021, from Nola.com.(Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)

This inaccuracy affected two other previously published stories by Mandeville Daily, which have been corrected and noted:

UPDATE: Council restores mayor retirement pay, 3-2

OPINION: Previous City Council created ‘nuclear option’ to use against sitting mayor

Finding a record of the Mandeville City Council meeting minutes or passed ordinances and resolutions is hampered by the fact that these documents are no longer accessible online via the city’s website as they have been in the past.

On the webpage for the minutes from recent meetings, the minutes from the meeting in question — November 21, 2019 — are missing, while links to previous meetings are still available. Furthermore, some of the previous minutes have links, but they are crossed out and not working. See below:

Additionally, the document archive website the city uses is no longer available. Its link has been crossed out and not working:

The only resource still available is the CLURO and Home Rule Charter, furnished by “municode.com,” but unfortunately it does not contain all adopted ordinances, meeting agendas, resolutions or minutes from past meetings.

Mandeville Daily strives for accuracy and values the record being correct. We regret any confusion this error may have caused.

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AG says mayor’s raise to assistant was OK

Says City Council’s wording created ‘ambiguity’ of intent

Mayor did not violate Home Rule Charter or state law

MANDEVILLE — Mayor Clay Madden did not violate the Home Rule Charter when he gave his executive secretary Trilby Lenfant a $10,000 raise earlier this year, according to an opinion by the State Attorney General’s office.

At the August 12th City Council meeting, it was revealed that Madden had awarded his executive assistant Lenfant the raise, which brought Lenfant to almost $82,000 a year. District II Councilman Skelly Kreller offered a resolution to seek an opinion on the legality of the raise from the AG’s office. The resolution was adopted 4-1, with only District 1 Councilwoman Rebecca Bush voting against.

In the opinion obtained today but dated October 14th, the AG said in a three-plus-page document that the City Council’s wording in its September 2020 budget ordinance created an “ambiguity” with two of its exhibits, or attachments.

Exhibit B, the “Job Class Detail,” contained a list of specific salaries for various employees. Exhibit D on the other hand, “Next Year/Current Year Budget Analysis,” has a line item for $1,318,049 in “Salaries.”

Exhibit B appears to be a detail record for the Exhibit D salaries line item. The 2021 budget ordinance reads, “There shall be no transfer of funds in an amount of $10,000 or more made between line items as shown on Exhibit D, the budget analyses of this budget. No transfers may be made that would increase a line item appropriation by $10,000 or more than the amount originally appropriated.”

The $10,000 raise for Lenfant came from money within the salaries line item in Exhibit D, but by including Exhibit B with a salary breakdown, the AG says the council made it unclear which exhibit — B or D — it intended to be the actual “appropriation.”

“The answer to which exhibit, ‘B’ or ‘D’ is considered the appropriation is ultimately a question as to what the Council believed it was doing when it adopted the budget ordinance,” the opinion read in part.

The AG said they could not answer that question based on the wording of the ordinance. The AG also seemed to advise the City Council to do a better job of wording its budget ordinances moving forward.

“Whether the Council meant to ‘appropriate’ each line item in Exhibit ‘B’ for each job classification or whether it meant to ‘appropriate’ one lump sum for salaries in Exhibit ‘D’ (subject to the transfer between line items of up to $10,000), is a question that the Council should consider when adopting its fiscal year 2022 budget ordinance,” the opinion continued.

The AG concluded, “In light of the ambiguity, it is the opinion of this office that the Council should clarify the actual appropriation of funds and the specific budgetary authority of the Mayor in future budgets.”

Read the full AG opinion here.

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