Mariner’s Island property owners submit disavowal notice to City Council, ask for investigation

MICA residents say they weren’t polled and there were no annual meetings

MVMA president says there weren’t quorums at previously scheduled meetings

Says many in MVMA support Sucette, afraid to speak up

MANDEVILLE — A group of property owners from the Mariner’s Village Master Association is disavowing any connection to a so-called unanimous endorsement of the Sucette Harbor project referenced at the last Mandeville City Council meeting by Woodward Interests President William Hoffman when making his case in favor of the project.

Woodward Interests is the developer behind the controversial Sucette Harbor project, in partnership with the LSU Health Foundation.

At the May 25th City Council meeting, Hoffman said he had a unanimous endorsement from the Mariner’s Village Master Association’s (MVMA) board of directors, which is a five-member body. Eric McVicker serves as president.

However, Larry Grundmann, claiming to represent Mariner’s Island Condominium Association (MICA) property owners, which is part of the MVMA, sent a letter on June 6th to the Mandeville City Council (see letter at end of story) disavowing the aforementioned endorsement, claiming his members were never polled on the issue. Grundmann is opposed to the Sucette Harbor project and is asking the Mandeville City Council to investigate the circumstances surrounding the MVMA endorsement and its presentation to the council and public May 25th.

Grundmann’s letter contains the signatures of 23 individuals claiming to be a “super majority” of property owners of MICA, each having endorsed a statement of disavowal which reads:

“To the Mandeville City Council: The undersigned is a property owner at and a member of the Mariners Island Condominium Association. No one from the so-called Mariners Village Master Association has contacted me about the Sucette Harbor development. Any representation that the development has unanimous approval or property owners in the area is false. I do not agree with the development as proposed for the many reasons given at the recent council meeting. Please vote against the zoning change required for this development to proceed. Best.”

His letter further states that it is unclear who the MVMA board members are, and the endorsement letter referenced at the last meeting could not be found among the Sucette Project materials.

Mandeville Daily received a copy of the endorsement letter from other sources (see letter at end of story). The letter does not name the members of the board of directors.

While the bold title of the letter reads, “Mariner’s Village Master Association Votes to Endorse Sucette Harbor Project,” the actual body of the endorsement letter only makes the claim that “the board of directors voted” and that “the vote was unanimous, 5-0.” The letter does not state that it represents a polling of the membership or residents of MVMA, but one could argue that the title implies it.

However, when contacted by Mandeville Daily, McVicker said “numerous conversations were had with many residents across Mariner’s Village before the vote. A lot of residents are in favor of the project but haven’t publicly spoken out of fear of retribution…”

He described the five board members as being: Jason Dahlberg, Alex Edliamati, Gene Norton, Alejandra Guzman, and himself. They were last elected in 2021, he said.

Guzman is the Executive Director of Business Ventures for the LSU Health Foundation, which is in partnership with Woodward Interests and Hoffman for the Sucette Harbor project. But when asked by Councilman At Large Jason Zuckerman at the May 25th council meeting who the MVMA board members were, Hoffman responded, “That, I don’t know.”

Grundmann’s letter to the council makes a number of other assertions, mostly involving Hoffman and District II Councilman Dr. Skelly Kreller’s display of unfamiliarity with McVicker’s relationship with the MVMA and its board of directors.

“And the Councilman in whose district the project is located (Kreller) certainly knows his campaign consultant’s association, but he did not say so either,” Grundmann wrote. McVicker serves as or has served as a consultant for Kreller’s campaign.

Grundmann also sent links to previous articles by the LSU Health Foundation and the Times-Picayune/Nola.com that quote McVicker, Kreller and even Councilman At Large Rick Danielson as being supportive of LSU Health Foundation’s proposed developments for the land.

As for Grundmann’s complaint concerning MVMA’s annual membership meetings not being held, McVicker said that meetings had been scheduled the last two years but quorums were not present.

Article II, Section 2 of the MVMA bylaws call for annual meetings of the membership and at those meetings “they shall elect by a plurality vote a board of directors, and officers and transact such other business as may properly be brought before the meeting.”

But according to McVicker, Guzman is empowered to proxy vote for the LSU Health Association’s 89-vote interest. That means that combined with the other four board members — if they are indeed property owners too — there would have been a quorum present for the May 23rd vote.

This raises two interesting points. If you have a quorum on May 23rd, why not have the annual meeting, and the vote by the five board members more accurately represents about 50 percent of the ownership. This seems to be Grundmann’s primary issue: The letter was painted as a ringing endorsement when it more accurately represents a 50-percent endorsement of the ownership in MVMA.

According to the vote allocations found in the Master Association articles of incorporation, the LSU Health Foundation controls 89 of the 186 votes, or 47.85 percent.

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Related:

Mariner’s Village Master Association Articles of Incorporation

Mariner’s Village Master Association Bylaws

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Would adopt rules for acceptable social media ‘discourse,’ asking citizens of Mandeville to abide

Seen as direct response to local activist comparing ‘campaign contributions’ to ‘bribes’ on social media

Backs Sucette lawyer who warned he’ll sue those making ‘insinuations’ about his integrity

Rule calls on citizens to ‘Apologize if Needed’

MANDEVILLE — The Mandeville City Council will consider a resolution that would ask citizens to limit their free speech in accordance with a set of rules laid out in the document, which was authored by Councilman at Large and current Council Chairman Rick Danielson.

This is an obvious pushback to a local activist who repeatedly compared campaign contributions to bribes during a firestorm of back and forth on the social media platform Nextdoor over the proposed Sucette Harbor project. Again and again, they used the phrasing “campaign contributions (bribes)” or “campaign donations (bribes)” and even sent an email to the entire City Council advocating a change to city code concerning contributions and complaining about Sucette Harbor attorney Paul Harrison appearing at a campaign event for District II Councilman Dr. Skelly Kreller.

Resolution 23-22 has been added to the June 8th City Council meeting agenda, published yesterday (June 1, 2023) on the City of Mandeville official website.

It would adopt a set of rules referred to as “Basic Simple Rules of Speak Your Peace Principles” for behavior by citizens of the “Greater Mandeville Area” to follow at “public meetings, small group discussions and through all social media outlets” in conjunction with debate on issues before the City Council.

These proposed rules are:

1. Show Respect to others
2. Be open minded but agreeable even when you don’t personally agree with someone else’s viewpoint or opinion
3. Listen to Understand
4. Do Not Gossip or Spread False Information either verbally, in writing or through social media outlets
5. Apologize if Needed
6. Pay Attention
7. Be Inclusive
8. Give constructive criticism if or when needed
9. Take responsibility

While resolutions do not carry the weight of law, they can be used to set procedural rules and acceptable behavior inside Council Chambers during meetings.

The current body of rules that governs how the City Council conducts its meetings was adopted via Resolution 20-14, shortly after this council took office in July 2020.

This new resolution could be interpreted as an extension of those rules, attempting to hold citizens accountable not just for what they say during meetings but also outside the Council Chambers as well, specifically on social media.

Opponents fear that if this rules resolution is adopted, their posts on social media platforms, such as Nextdoor, Facebook and Twitter, could place them under council scrutiny and even invite their neighbors to report them, potentially leading to them being asked to apologize before being allowed to speak out.

What’s more, because proposed Ordinance 23-16 (Sucette Harbor) is only listed as being up for “discussion” and not “adoption” on the June 8th agenda, the council technically could pick and choose who it allows to speak. Louisiana state law only requires that public comment be allowed before actual votes occur.

At the May 25th City Council meeting, the same activist’s posts were shown as part of a slide deck presentation made by the Sucette Harbor developers team.

In an earlier email sent to the City Council, that activist advocated for an ordinance that would make campaign contributions to a council member within a certain timeframe of a vote on a major issue illegal.

This email and the previous social media posts caused harsh reactions from Danielson and Kreller at the meeting, with Kreller saying he was taking legal action. The criticism directed at the activist was that they used the word “bribe” or “bribes” in their social media posts.

“I have retained counsel to fully investigate her claims and everyone connected to these, and that legal action against her and then if necessary against them,” Kreller said.

However, each reference that Mandeville Daily was able to find (the posts have been removed from Nextdoor) seemed to use the phrasing “campaign contributions (bribes)” consistently.

Mandeville Daily did find one reference, however, of the word “bribe” without the preceding “campaign contributions” qualifier, but that was a reply in a larger thread on the discussion where there was a lengthy and testy exchange between the activist and others on the platform.

Harrison appeared to become agitated at the meeting after the activist attempted to defend themself and justify their position.

Harrison warned: “If someone defames me… online, you write it down. You will be sued the next day by my firm. Let’s be very clear about that… But you make an insinuation about my integrity, you will get sued. That’s it.”

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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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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.

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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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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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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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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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…

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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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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

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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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.

-30-

Zuckerman links 2019 mayor pay cut to positioning for then-upcoming mayor’s race

Read transcript from council debate

Other results from tonight’s meeting

Editor’s Note: A correction was made to this story on October 23rd. Mandeville Daily had incorrectly attributed authorship of Ordinance 19-33 to then-Councilman at Large Clay Madden. He supported the ordinance and voted in favor, but did not officially author it. Read the full correction here. Additionally, Councilman Skelly Kreller was factually incorrect when he stated Clay Madden was the Council Chairman when Ordinance 19-33 was introduced and adopted. Madden supported and voted in favor of 19-33. However, Madden was in fact the council chairman when Ordinance 19-11 was introduced and adopted. Ordinance 19-11 was the council’s first attempt to lower future mayors’ salary, which resulted in a lawsuit from sitting mayor Donald Villere, to which the council repealed 19-11 with Ordinance 19-27 after setting a public referendum to amend the charter.

Updated October 17, 2021, at 9:22AM – Adds quotes, context and transcript.

MANDEVILLE — The City Council voted (October 14th) to have the taxpayers fund the mayor’s contribution to the state retirement system as it does all other full-time employees, fixing a technical error in a 2019 ordinance which lowered the mayor’s salary and cut benefits.

Again, debate focused on whether the city should be paying retirement for the mayor and other employees, but this time, questions were raised about the motivation behind the 2019 ordinance which slashed the chief executive’s pay and benefits.

So I don’t think the decision they originally made with regard to that was appropriate. I don’t think the timing of it was appropriate… Look… the mayor voted for it… and as much as I’d like to make somebody live with the decisions and a position they took on something, I’m separating the person from the issue and I just feel strongly it needs to be changed. That’s why I have the position I do.

— Councilman at Large Jason Zuckerman

Ordinance 21-39 had been deferred from the September 23rd meeting after debate dragged out almost an hour and the council seemed deadlocked. While discussion tonight was cantankerous at times, the council disposed of the issue in half the time it spent at the last meeting.

The ordinance corrects wording in city code and puts the mayor in the same category as all other full-time city employees with the taxpayers paying their contributions to the state retirement system.

According to state law, the office of mayor is a full-time employee and hence is required to participate in the Municipal Employee Retirement System (MERS). Some cities pay their employees’ contributions, other cities do not. Mandeville is a city that does.

But on November 21, 2019, the previous council voted to cut the mayor’s salary from $114,475 to $94,500, not including benefits.

This came on the heals of the passage of a November 16, 2019, public referendum to change the City Charter, allowing the city council to cut a mayor’s pay. Before the referendum, the council could only vote to raise the salary of a mayor.

The problem was, Ordinance 19-33 used flawed legal language, saying the “Mayor may participate” in MERS, which needs to be corrected to read the “Mayor shall participate,” putting it inline with state law.

Mayor Clay Madden served as a council member on the 2019 City Council and he went on record at the September 23rd council meeting to say that the 2019 council did not make a mistake because they were unaware at the time that the mayor is legally considered a full-time employee.

Councilman at Large Jason Zuckerman, District I Councilwoman Rebecca Bush, and District III Councilwoman Jill McGuire voted in favor. They generally agreed that one full-time employee shouldn’t be singled out and not have their benefits paid while all other full-time employees are.

“I don’t see the distinction between the mayor and other full-time employees. By the city charter the mayor is defined as a full-time employee. By state law, which the city attorney’s provided, he’s designated as a full-time employee,” Zuckerman said.

Zuckerman made it clear that he felt the 2019 City Council made a mistake with Ordinance 19-33 and it is the duty of the current council to fix it.

“There’s a lot of discussion that’s gone on about the interpretation of the previous council and what they intended. This council’s here now and this council has the ability to go back and look and see if what they did makes sense or not and use our best judgment and not necessarily just rely on the fact that everything that they did was ‘all-wise’ and ‘all-knowing,’” he added.

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

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The 2019 council included two candidates for the 2020 mayor’s race, Lauré Sica and current mayor Madden. Sica and Madden both held at-large seats and were the driving force behind cutting the mayor’s pay and benefits and the public referendum that made it possible. Sica was serving as the council chairperson when 19-33 was adopted, but Madden supported and voted in favor of it.

Zuckerman questioned the motivation behind Ordinance 19-33 and how it related to the approaching 2020 mayor’s race at the time.

“I have a lot of questions about the original ordinance (Ordinance 19-33) itself that was passed and the timeline of its passage, and the fact that it affected people that were running for office (of mayor) at the time, people on the council were running (for mayor). There’s a lot that went around that original ordinance that, you know, I think it’s this council’s duty to look at it and make our best judgment and our best decision.”

Because of the mistake made by Madden and the 2019 City Council, the argument could be made that the mayor ended up making 10% less than he thought he would when he ran for the office.

Councilman at Large Rick Danielson and District II Councilman Skelly Kreller voted against Ordinance 21-39. Kreller said he believed that Madden knew exactly what he was voting for as a council member back in 2019 and intended to limit the total compensation of the mayor moving forward to $94,500. Danielson and Kreller view this ordinance as a 10% pay increase to the mayor.

Kreller — after insisting the mayor is not a full-time employee at previous meetings — acknowledged at the October 14th meeting that the chief executive is actually a full-time employee but that there is nothing wrong with making the mayor pay their retirement contributions.

“The mayor is a full-time employee of Mandeville, but he also is an elected official, so we’re not singling out an employee… We’re not singling him out… and he can be treated differently,” he said.

Kreller cited nearby cities and towns such as New Orleans, Kenner, Covington, Abita Springs and others, comparing their compensation packages and populations against Mandeville in an effort to illustrate that Mandeville is paying is over-compensating its mayor.

At one point, Kreller repeatedly referred to Madden as the council chairman in 2019 during the passage of Ordinance 19-33. However, Madden was not the council chairperson; Sica was.

Danielson said his opposition to 21-39 had nothing to do with the current mayor. He said the previous council was specific that the mayor would be responsible for paying their share if they opted to participate.

“This has nothing to do with the current mayor whatsoever… the job he’s doing or not doing… I think he’s doing a fantastic job… I think the entire city administration, the 98 employees that work for this city, and the five city council members are doing a fantastic job,” Danielson said.

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In their own words

Because Mandeville Daily wishes to accurately relate each council member’s exact position on the issue, we have included most of the transcript from the discussion relating to Ordinance 21-39 during the October 14th meeting below:

33:17

McGuire:

“Well since I was the one that deferred it… I should probably… We discussed this during the budget process and during that time I did my — well I thought I did my homework — and I spoke with the former councilmen and spoke with the … finance director and confirmed that … he does have to participate (MERS)… When they, the former council, was doing this they looked, they compared salaries and benefit packages to other municipalities and there was a lot of information that was brought up at the last meeting. A lot of very good points were made. I believe it sparks, I feel, a need to discuss lots of things regarding the employees’ retirement — should the city pay their share.

“So there’s lots of things I believe we need to discuss and address soon, however, I don’t feel this is the time for it. I feel that there’s lots of things, right? We can discuss intent, we discuss what they were thinking (2019 City Council). We can clean it up, what have you. I think it’s… I went around the world and I came back to where I was in the beginning, and it is, the mayor is a legal — according to the legal definition — a full-time employee as well as it also states that in the charter, and the city pays for — whether we agree with it or not, and we can discuss that later — we pay for every other employee’s share of retirement so therefore I’m in support of the mayor receiving that same benefit as well.”

35:50

Kreller:

“The mayor is a full-time employee of Mandeville… But he also is an elected official, so we’re not singling out an employee… We’re not singling him out… and he can be treated differently…

“The only thing that really needs to be changed is that word in the first sentence. But the second sentence is very specify… it says that he will pay his percentage of the retirement.

“Businesses do not pay 100% of retirement for their employees. I have mentioned that I was in business for 38 years. I paid my portion and the employees paid their portion. Yes there are exceptions, but not many.

“And this has nothing to do with this council trying to change the police or anything like this in civil service. This has only to do with the mayor. And it doesn’t have anything to do with the salary of the mayor.

“I have not changed my position on this. He is a special case… He is not an ‘employee’ that has to be linked and lumped together with all the other employees of the city.

“I have not changed my position.”

Zuckerman:

“I don’t see the distinction between the mayor and other full time employees. By the city charter the mayor is defined as a full-time employee. By state law, which the city attorney’s provided, he’s designated as a full-time employee.

“There’s a lot of discussion that’s gone on about the interpretation of the previous council and what they intended. This council’s here now and this council has the ability to go back and look and see if what they did makes sense or not and use our best judgment and not necessarily just rely on the fact that everything that they did was ‘all-wise’ and ‘all-knowing.’

“I have a lot of questions about the original ordinance (Ordinance 19-33) itself that was passed and the timeline of its passage, and the fact that it affected people that were running for office (of mayor) at the time, people on the council were running (for mayor). There’s a lot that went around that original ordinance that, you know, I think it’s this council’s duty to look at it and make our best judgment and our best decision.

“I think that all of those things. That Mrs. McGuire brought up and even Dr. Kreller brought up… whether the city ought to be paying 100% of employees’ portions of retirement… all valid questions, and I know he’s got strong opinions about that…

“I look forward to any proposals, Dr. Kreller, that you bring to change that for the city. I think there are some practical issues in implementing it that we’d have to address. I don’t think it has anything to do with this ordinance and I haven’t changed my position on it, so that’s where I stand.”

40:50

Bush:

“I’ve been pretty consistent… I think I’ve been very consistent on this issue. … I like the idea of the city providing a benefit like that to all employees as I want to attract top talent. To work for the city. I think that’s incredibly important for any business and I think it’s incredibly important for the City of Mandeville.”

Zuckerman: “That’s an excellent point. I agree with Mrs. Bush.”

Kreller:

“To follow that up, how many cities, municipalities, around here pay 100% for retirement for the mayor?”

(Asks council clerk, who said she hadn’t researched it except back in 2019 when no other municipalities paid 100%.)

“And I don’t think anything has really changed since then.”

41:57

Danielson:

“This has nothing to do with the current mayor whatsoever… the job he’s doing or not doing… I think he’s doing a fantastic job… i think the entire city administration, the 98 employees that work for this city, and the five city council members are doing a fantastic job. What this has to do with (for) me is Ordinance No. 19-33, which stated two things:

“The mayor’s salary will be set for the full term at $94,500, and the mayor will make the employees’ portion of the contribution. That’s what it is.

“So what I’ve offered in the past, which failed, so I’m not going to offer an amendment tonight, but I want to make it clear for everybody is that that council said the mayor will make that contribution.”

42:44

“What I looked at I said okay, I get it. Year number one, the mayor made the full contribution, 10%. Year two, the city would pay a third, the mayor would pay two thirds. Year three, mayor one third, city two thirds. And at the end, at the fourth year, it’s back to 100%.

“Because what that really goes to is a 10% pay raise, by going from what the mayor was contributing this past year to paying in full is a 10% pay raise. And he is a full-time employee. Totally agree. The rest of our employees that are eligible are getting a 2.5% pay raise. That’s what I looked at.

“That’s why I had offered a third, a third, a third as what I felt to be a fair and equitable correction to an ordinance the previous council made. So I stand by that. I’m not going to make the amendment for it because I know where it’s going to go. But I want to make it very clear on all those points of why I brought up why I did and where I still stand tonight.”

Zuckerman:

“My position on this really has nothing to do … with the current mayor either.

“For me, I’m looking at the original ordinance. I don’t think it’s inappropriate at all for a current council to go in and look at what a previous council did and pass judgment on whether that needs to be changed or not. I think that’s why we’re elected.

“So I don’t think the decision they originally made with regard to that was appropriate. I don’t think the timing of it was appropriate… Look… the mayor voted for it… and as much as I’d like to make somebody live with the decisions and a position they took on something, I’m separating the person from the issue and I just feel strongly it needs to be changed. That’s why I have the position I do.”

44:48

Kreller:

“Also the mayor was the chair of that council and he has mentioned in the past that there might have been a little misunderstanding that maybe he didn’t understand completely and things like this… As the chair and who put up this ordinance 19-33, he should have went (sic) to the city attorneys and talked to them and … got perfectly clear what he was presenting to the council and what the vote was. And remember, the vote was 5-0. But he was the chair, and there’s no excuse.

“I can’t see any excuse that anybody could make… That’s shame on him or shame on whoever was the mayor. It doesn’t make a difference, okay?

“What makes a difference here is, one, he possibly didn’t know he’d be running for mayor then… two, he might have thought he wouldn’t win, but he knew what he was voting on then.

“And as the chair… he should do the research, and I assume he did the research, and hopefully he talked to the attorneys. I mean, we sure talk to the attorneys.”

Editor’s Note: Councilman Skelly Kreller was factually incorrect when he stated Clay Madden was the Council Chairman when Ordinance 19-33 was introduced and adopted. However, Madden supported and voted in favor of 19-33. Madden was in fact the council chairman when Ordinance 19-11 was introduced and adopted. Ordinance 19-11 was the council’s first attempt to lower future mayors’ salary, which resulted in a lawsuit from sitting mayor Donald Villere, to which the council repealed 19-11 with Ordinance 19-27 and set public referendum to amend the charter.

Zuckerman:

“I actually agree with a lot of that, but the point I was trying to make is that I think the mayor was wrong for voting for it, so I’m here to correct it.

“He did vote for it… but I think it was a bad vote. I think he made a mistake, and I’m voting to change it.”

47:04

Danielson:

“I agree with Mr. Zuckerman on the fact that we have a right to change previous ordinance whatever it might be, and that’s very important and it’s good government that we go and we do some of those things. That’s why I kind of felt that mine was a compromise… that kind of met in the middle on both sides of that thing.

“But I also find it interesting from a financial aspect is that the benefit to the mayor’s compensation on the retirement contribution is about $37,000 a year for a cit of 12,500 people, and when you compare that to the city of New Orleans, if I’m not mistaken, the contribution for the mayor of New Orleans which is almost 250,000, is $35,000… it’s just interesting to me… Is there a bigger question here on what we need to possibly be looking at down the road.”

McGuire:

“Yes.”

47:57

Zuckerman:

“I hear the comparison about size of the city in terms of population all the time and we compare Mandeville to other cities by population and I just got to question whether or not that’s the most appropriate comparison to make.

“I mean, do you take everything that we do in direct proportion to the city of New Orleans? Are there other metrics that we ought to look at cities that we should compare to? Is it quality of life? Should we be looking at cities with a similar quality of life?

“Certainly New Orleans or Hammond or Slidell may not necessarily have the quality the City of Mandeville does. But we’re going to benchmark what we do against those because of population. That doesn’t make sense to me. Should it be the average tax base, what the average citizen pays in revenue, the average number of employees that a municipality has that the mayor has to manage? So … I personally don’t buy into we need to compare to another municipality just based off population. That correlation… I haven’t been able to make that connection yet.”

48:56

Kreller:

“What about not just comparing to New Orleans but let’s compare to Kenner, Slidell, Hammond, Covington and Abita. He (mayor) ranks the highest on all of those cities and municipalities. And so, some of those are definitely compared (sic) to us. “

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Other business from meeting

In other business at tonight’s meeting:

MINUTES:

1. Adoption of the September 23, 2021, Regular Meeting Minutes
   

REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:

To consider and take action with respect to adopting a resolution confirming an election date change pursuant to Executive Order of the Governor; establishing a new date to canvass the returns of the election; and providing for other matters in connection therewith.

PRESENTATION:

Ms. Suzanne Krieger, chairperson of the St. Tammany Levee Drainage and Conservation District, will discuss the proposed Constitutional Amendment # 3 – funding for the Levee District.

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Adoption of Ordinance No. 21-23: An ordinance amending the official zoning map of the City of Mandeville to rezone the south one half of square seventy-four (74) of the City of Mandeville, st. Tammany parish, state of Louisiana, from pm-2 marina district – non-waterfront lots, to o, open space/recreation; and providing for further matters in connection therewith (COUNCILWOMAN MCGUIRE, DISTRICT III)
   

Adopted 5-0: Danielson: Yes; McGuire: Yes; Bush: Yes; Kreller: Yes; Zuckerman: Yes

2. Adoption of Ordinance No. 21-24: An ordinance amending the official zoning map of the City of Mandeville to rezone double square 33, lot 2 of the City of Mandeville, st. Tammany parish, state of Louisiana, from R-3 multi-family residential district, to O, open space/recreation; and providing for further matters in connection therewith (Councilwoman McGuire, District III)
   

Adopted 5-0: Danielson: Yes; McGuire: Yes; Bush: Yes; Kreller: Yes; Zuckerman: Yes

3. Adoption of Ordinance No. 21-39: An ordinance of the council of the City of Mandeville amending Section 2-8 of chapter 2 of the City of Mandeville Code of Ordinances and providing for other matters in connection therewith. (Councilman Zuckerman, At-Large)
   

Adopted 3-2: Danielson: No; McGuire: Yes; Bush: Yes; Kreller: No; Zuckerman: Yes

NEW BUSINESS:

1. Establish Council meeting dates for the months of November and December
   
   November 18, 2021 and December 16, 2021 (only one meeting each month due to holidays)
   

All in favor.

2. Approval of the special event and liquor application for the Walk a Mile Mandeville 2021 on Saturday, October 30, 2021 from 4-8pm, no rain date. Event location will be from the Mandeville harbor to the Mandeville Trailhead. (Councilwoman McGuire, District III)
   

All in favor.

3. Approval of Change Order #1, Trailhead Splash Park Rehabilitation A/E Project No. 2101A06; formerly No. 2001A02 for an increase in contract time by 30 days for a total contract time of 150 days. No Change in dollar amount. (Councilwoman McGuire, District III)
   

All in favor.

4. Approval of NTE amount for Hurricane Ida debris removal project pursuant to the Emergency Debris Removal Contract from $1 million to a NTE $5 million (Councilman Zuckerman, At-Large).
   

All in favor.

5. Approval of NTE amount for Hurricane Ida debris monitoring project pursuant to the Emergency Debris Monitoring Contract from $250,000 to $850,000 (Councilman Zuckerman, At-Large).
   

All in favor.

6. Adoption of Resolution No. 21-44: A Resolution confirming an election date change pursuant to Executive Order of the Governor; establishing a new date to canvass the returns of the election; and providing for other matters in connection therewith. (Councilman Zuckerman, At-Large)
   

All in favor.

7. Adoption of Resolution No. 21-45: A resolution of the Mandeville city council endorsing the application of Susan Danielson (551 Carroll Street, Mandeville, Louisiana) for participation in the restoration tax abatement program project no. 2016-1452-RTA(Councilman Zuckerman, At-Large)
   

All in favor.

8. Adoption of Resolution No. 21-46: A resolution of the city council of the City of Mandeville accepting the bids for the Monroe at East Causeway intersection & traffic signal improvements project A/E Project No. 20-1956 and authorizing the mayor to execute a contract with the lowest apparent bid Kort’s Construction Services Inc. And providing for other matters in connection therewith (Councilman Kreller, District II)
   

Amended to add wording about properly moving and relocating trees.

All in favor.

9. Adoption of Resolution No. 21-47: A resolution of the city council of the City of Mandeville accepting the recommendation of the audit committee to contract with Postlethwaite & Netterville, for the purpose of conducting a financial audit for the City of Mandeville as of and for the year ending august 31, 2021 and authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement and providing for other matters in connection therewith (Councilman Danielson, At-Large)
   

All in favor.

10. Introduction of Ordinance No. 21-28: An ordinance of the city council of the City of Mandeville amending the Code of Ordinances, chapter 11, Section 11-64 urinating in public places prohibited; definition; penalty; and providing for other matters in connection therewith: (Councilman Kreller, District II)
    

To be voted on October 28, 2021.

All in favor.

11. Introduction of Ordinance No. 21-29: An ordinance of the city council of the City of Mandeville approving a conditional use permit for accessory outdoor seating within the Jefferson Street right of way (Councilwoman McGuire, District III)
    

To be voted on October 28, 2021.

All in favor.

12. Introduction of Ordinance No. 21-30: An ordinance of the city council of the City of Mandeville amending the Code of Ordinances, Chapter 10, to include Section 10-73 as a prohibition of parking or traversing on median strip; definition; penalty; and providing for other matters in connection therewith (Councilman Kreller, District II)
    

To be voted on October 28, 2021.

All in favor.

The next City Council meeting is scheduled for October 28th at 6 p.m.

-30-

2019 public referendum allows City Council to cut re-elected mayor’s pay

Could be used to force mayor into submission or block future opponent

Previous mayor sounded alarm, no one seemed to care

-Editorial-

Editor’s Note: A correction was made to this editorial on October 23rd. Mandeville Daily had incorrectly attributed authorship of Ordinance 19-33 to then-Councilman at Large Clay Madden. He supported the ordinance and voted in favor, but did not officially author it. Read the full correction here.

Those are strong words. Incendiary, some might say.

But it’s true. Read the City of Mandeville’s Home Rule Charter and pay careful attention to the changes made with a 2019 public referendum that was forced on voters by the previous City Council so that they could cut the pay of future mayors.

The charter, adopted in 1985, only allowed a council to increase a mayor’s pay, not cut it. That changed in 2019.

Depending on who you ask, you’ll get a different story as to why the events in 2019 transpired. Some say the council was trying to punish then-mayor Donald Villere. Others will tell you they were trying to contain what they say was a runaway salary for the mayor of a town with a population of just over 12,000. Yet others suggest it had to do with jockeying for position in the upcoming election.

Whatever the real reason is, it happened. And now we’re stuck with it.

Changing the Charter: ’The road to hell is paved with good intentions’

After a months-long battle with then-mayor Donald Villere, the 2019 council finally conceded the Home Rule Charter prevented them from cutting a mayor’s pay, so they changed it… with the help of the voters.

It didn’t occur to anyone else at the time that maybe there was a good reason why the authors of the city charter didn’t give the legislative branch the ability to cut the pay of the executive branch’s current occupant.

It’s worth noting that then-councilman at large Clay Madden was in favor of just cutting the pay and benefits without a charter change. In fact, he and others on the council tried that first, before the 2019 referendum. He told the Times-Picayune in April 2019 that he believed it was permissible under the existing charter:

While the 2019 charter amendment allows the City Council to cut the mayor’s pay to whatever they want, it also says the “salary of the mayor shall not be reduced during the term for which the mayor is elected.”

Therein lies the rub.

There’s nothing preventing the City Council from drastically cutting the salary of a popular first-term mayor whom they don’t like, and having it take effect in his second term, assuming re-election. So in effect, the Mandeville City Council has the authority as of 2019 to cut the pay of the current, sitting mayor.

This change to the charter also sets up a situation where the middle-class could be eliminated entirely from ever running for mayor. Only the poor or the independently wealthy who no longer need to work could afford to run.

Imagine there was an independently wealthy, millionaire City Council member — Jane Doe — whom the other council members really liked and wanted her to run for mayor to replace the current, term-limited mayor.

Now let’s pretend there is a financially responsible, upper-middle class guy — John E. Appleseed — who has a family, a mortgage, car notes, and kids in private school, and he earns about $100,000 a year in his current job. He has great ideas for the city and wants to run for mayor, and his friends and colleagues are urging him to do so.

All the pro-Jane-Doe City Council would need to do is to set the mayor’s salary for the next term to some ridiculously low amount, like $50,000, and Mr. Appleseed wouldn’t be able to run.

This is a real problem we have here. The intention was to prevent someone from “getting rich” as mayor, yet it created a situation where potentially only non-working millionaires could ever become mayor.

Nuclear Option: ‘Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines’

We can call it the Mandeville City Council’s “nuclear option” to force a mayor into submission, or to prevent a possible rival from running in a future race.

Of course, Mandeville Daily is in no way suggesting there is actually a plan afoot to do this. We’re merely making the point that this City Council — and all future city councils — have the authority to do it, thanks to the Home Rule Charter change in 2019.

And we need to let go of this notion that we can’t undo anything the previous city council did, including this pay cut, as if it’s the Roe v. Wade of Mandeville politics.

And what’s more, there have been references made to “the will of the people” to reduce the mayor’s pay, referring to the 2019 public referendum.

The 2019 public referendum did not cut the mayor’s pay. Let’s get that straight once and for all. The referendum merely — by accident or by design — created this nuclear option the council now holds over the mayor.

Irony: ’It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife’

What makes this all the more interesting is the bitter layer of irony heaped on top.

Madden himself was a council member back in 2019 and supported the original ordinance which was to cut the next mayor’s salary in April of that year. Villere vetoed it, but the council came back and overrode the veto to which Villere sued the City Council for violating its own charter. This ultimately led to the public referendum, which changed the charter to authorize the council to reduce the chief executive’s pay.

Immediately after the referendum passed with 70% of the vote, the City Council adopted Ordinance 19-33 which cut the mayor’s salary from $114,475 to $94,500, and it excluded the mayor from having their state retirement contributions paid by the city like all other full-time employees.

Councilman Madden supported the pay cut, the change to the charter, as well as removing the retirement benefits.

Villere was outspoken on the matter, even though the pay cut would not have affected him because he was term-limited to leave office anyway. His remarks to The Times-Picayune in October 2019 confirm it.

Perspective: ‘Time will say nothing but I told you so’

Whether you agreed with Villere’s policies as mayor or not, think he did a good job or not, one thing is clear… He was right about this.

The public’s perception of Villere’s relationship with the City Council in 2019 was a real problem. Let’s face it. We don’t have the press coverage shining the light of day on local government we once did. There’s no more pesky beat reporter who covers everything at City Hall. Read “Mandeville Daily to cover City Council” to understand Mandeville Daily’s perspective on local news coverage in the modern era.

Even today, Nola.com — a.k.a. The Times-Picayune — provides spotty coverage of Mandeville government, usually only when something controversial or bad happens relevant to people outside of Mandeville.

The scuttlebutt in 2019 among friends and on social media was that Villere and the council were always fighting. Accurate or not, whether you blame Villere or blame the council, that was the perception that was floating around.

Because most people don’t bother attending City Council meetings or even watching them on Facebook, and there are no local beat reporters churning out multiple stories a week on every aspect of local government, the citizens only know what they hear from friends.

So to the casual observer, a fight over the mayor’s salary, where lawsuits were filed and lines drawn in the sand, naturally made Villere look like he was fighting to keep his salary from being cut.

He was not.

Mandeville v. Covington: ‘Separate but equal’

One of the arguments that then-councilwoman at large and eventual unsuccessful mayoral candidate Lauré Sica used to justify the pay cut was that it would put Mandeville in-line with Covington. The inference was this comparison was based on population — according to reporting by The Times-Picayune in April 2019 which attributed the remarks to Sica — and hence Mandeville’s mayor should be paid about the same as the Covington mayor which was $90,700.

The only problem was, the numbers didn’t add up. But again, no one except Villere seemed to notice.

Mandeville’s population was 12,475 in 2019 and Covington’s was 10,564, according to the United States Census Bureau. In who’s world is that “similar?”

According to a recently discovered, newfangled witch’s device called the calculator, that’s an 18% difference. Would you consider a 5-foot-tall person “similar” in height to a 6-foot-tall person? No woman on Tinder would, that’s for sure.

By this reasoning, the mayor of Mandeville’s salary should have been cut to about $107,000, not $94,500. It’s simple algebra.

And who determined that Covington should be the gold standard anyway? Suppose their mayor is underpaid? Suppose they’re overpaid? What does that have to do with Mandeville?

And should population really be the determiner for how much a mayor is compensated? Doesn’t a full-time mayor still work 40 hours a week whether he is the leader of 12,000 or 120,000?

Why shouldn’t we use the wealth of the city to determine the mayor’s pay? If you think of a city as a family, can’t rich families afford nicer stuff, like fancier cars, better clothes, better food, and, yes, bigger allowances for their children?

Doesn’t Mandeville have nicer streets, better parks, better everything? Why else do people come here from all over the region every Saturday and Sunday to enjoy the lakefront and shop and dine down here?

Why do people move here just to get into the famed “Mandeville school district?”

Who says we can’t pay our mayor, councilmen and employees more, and shower all Mandeville workers with nicer perks and benefits, like taxpayer-funded retirement contributions?

If you consider per capita income for Mandeville versus Covington in 2019, it’s night and day, with Mandeville at $45,465 and Covington at only at $32,455. Mandeville’s median owner-occupied housing value was $288,000 while Covington’s was only $232,900.

Looking at these numbers — if you still insist on using Covington as the benchmark — then the Mandeville chief executive should fall somewhere in the range of $104,000 to $127,000. Remember, Villere was at $114,475 before the charter change.

So the arguments used back in 2019 really didn’t hold water then and they don’t pan out today either. But the greater travesty of justice wasn’t the pay cut itself, it was the public referendum.

About-face: ’It appears my hypocrisy knows no bounds’

We may have already witnessed the beginning of the end.

At the September 23rd City Council meeting, two council members were adamant they would not support Ordinance 21-39 which would have restored taxpayer funding of the mayor’s retirement contributions plus correct legal language in city code created by — you guessed it — Ordinance 19-33, the instrument that Madden and the 2019 City Council used to cut the mayor’s pay and strip away retirement benefits that Madden wants restored.

Councilman at Large Rick Danielson, with support from District II Councilman Skelly Kreller, attempted two unsuccessful amendments to 21-39 to prevent the mayor from returning to 100% funding on his retirement contributions. But then at the last minute and before a final vote on passage, they managed to sway District III Councilwoman Jill McGuire to help them get the vote deferred to a future meeting.

And who would benefit if this council restores the mayor’s state retirement contributions? None other than Clay Madden, the same City Council member who in 2019 voted to end those benefits.

Madden insisted at the last meeting that the 2019 City Council didn’t make a mistake with Ordinance 19-33.

He said the 2019 council was simply unaware that the mayor is legally considered a full-time employee, and required to participate in the retirement system. Ordinance 19-33 said the mayor “may participate” but if he or she does so, they would be responsible for paying their own contributions into the system, not the city.

Nowhere — at least for me — was it said that the former council made a mistake. That was never said. What happened was … there was a piece of information that was not known at the time of the vote. It was not known at the time by me, or any of the other former councilmen, that the mayor had to participate. That was information we got when I became mayor.

— Mayor Clay Madden, September 23, 2021

Madden apparently didn’t intend to contribute to the state retirement system if elected mayor, so once he took office and the state told him the contributions were required by law, this in effect became a pay cut.

Fair enough.

But as long as we’re being fair, let’s be honest too. Those on the 2019 City Council did most undeniably make a mistake, including Madden. Just because they were unaware of the law doesn’t let them off the hook. As the old saying goes, “ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

Mandeville Daily holds the position that all full-time employees at the City of Mandeville should have the same benefits. This council should vote to restore this benefit out of fairness to the office of mayor.

Conclusion: ‘The chickens are coming home to roost’

The real problem remains the 2019 referendum and how it amended the charter.

The 2019 council and Madden were shortsighted, or hasty at the very least, in crafting the wording. It opened Pandora’s box, and now we’re faced with the very real possibility that a city council may cut the pay of a sitting mayor, even if it doesn’t take effect until his next term.

Madden could become a victim of his own actions from 2019.

Do you think they wouldn’t do it? Think again.

Madden’s been butting heads with the current council on a number of issues since he took office as mayor. Kreller and Danielson are both embroiled in the aforementioned retirement contribution battle with the mayor.

Danielson and others on the council were perturbed at an August meeting when it was revealed that Madden had given his executive assistant a $10,000 raise without telling the council.

Months before that, Madden had pushed contracts before the council after having sent notice-of-award letters to contractors to work on flood protection projects before a much-touted public flood summit had been scheduled, seemingly putting the proverbial cart before the horse. This drew harsh reactions from several on the council.

Barring some crazy, unforeseen revelation, none of these things were illegal or even unethical.

They may have been unpopular with the council, but for all we know, the voters may have liked them, or perhaps not. Maybe Madden will overwhelmingly be re-elected in three years, or maybe he’ll go down in flames. Who knows.

Madden’s had his share of successes. Even his critics gave him credit for his performance in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. Morale is reportedly up at City Hall. His pick of Todd Schliem as the new police chief was roundly praised. He’s a great public face for the city and highly visible, which is part of the role of a mayor. Has he had missteps? Sure… or maybe. Again, it’s up to the voters to decide.

Consider what could happen next.

Let’s assume Ordinance 21-39 is adopted at the next council meeting, restoring the mayor’s 10% retirement contribution. What if in response Kreller or Danielson introduce an ordinance that would cut the mayor’s salary to $85,909 next term, which would be the equivalent of backing out the 10% retirement contribution so that the mayor still ends up with only $94,500 in total compensation? All they would need is three votes.

And then what would happen if Madden angers the council again, and they decide Mandeville is better off without him and pass an ordinance to cut his pay even more drastically, should he be re-elected?

It’s all hypothetical at the moment. But it’s a slippery slope.

The mayor should be held accountable for his policies and actions, but only at the ballot box, not through some unintended consequence of a badly worded charter amendment.

Any move to reduce the mayor’s pay at this point would seem petty and set a dangerous precedent, one that wouldn’t have been possible just two years ago.

Until this is fixed by another amendment to the charter, the office of mayor shall live under the threat of this nuclear option, reducing him or her to little more than a figurehead.

Mandeville Daily holds the position that the 2019 public referendum to allow the City Council to reduce a mayor’s pay was a mistake with many unintended consequences as detailed in this piece.

The change to the charter created by the referendum should be reversed, returning the section on the mayor’s compensation to its pre-2019 state. If reducing the chief executive’s pay should ever become such an emergency in the future, the City Council would still have the authority — as they always have — to ask the public to reduce the pay, each and every time they should ever want to do so.

But the City Council itself should not have the authority to do it directly. The 2019 charter change has created a powerful political gadget for seated council members to punish mayors or block competitors from running… it gave them a nuclear option.

It would appear the 2019 City Council’s chickens are coming home to roost.

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Email Mandeville Daily

Updated 10/2/2021 at 8:25AM: Expands on why change to charter was bad and other problems it creates. Adds Mandeville Daily’s position.

Updated 10/1/2021 at 7:30AM: Clarifies remarks on Madden’s performance as mayor and his connection to referendum.

Updated 10/1/2021 at 4:42AM: Removes “and benefits” from first paragraph. The City Council has always been able to adjust the benefits of a mayor. Adds quote from Madden. Adds more references to 2019 referendum.

References:

”Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines.”
—General “Buck” Turgidson, “Dr. Strangelove”

”Time will say nothing but I told you so,”
— W. H. Auden, “If I Could Tell You”

“It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.”
— Alanis Morrissette, “Irony”

“It appears my hypocrisy knows no bounds.”
— Doc Holliday, “Tombstone”

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Before and after pix of Mandeville’s Hurricane Ida recovery progress

Photographer Eric McVicker contributes

Updated September 27, 2021 at 5AM

Today (September 27th) marks 28 days later. It has been 28 days since Mandeville woke up to unprecedented damage from a hurricane named Ida.

Hurricane Ida plowed through Mandeville on the evening of August 29th, 2021, damaging homes, businesses and parks with 100-mile-an-hour-plus winds and a devastating storm surge estimated at 7.6 feet. It toppled trees and utility poles on nearly every block south of Florida Street, effectively cutting off Old Mandeville from the rest of the world.

AT&T cell service was down for over 24 hours in the heart of Mandeville and unreliable for another day after that. Locals were seeking out friends who had different mobile carriers to make calls or posts to social media to let loved ones know they were OK.

On the morning of August 30th, Mandevillians found themselves climbing over trees and ducking downed utility poles just to check on neighbors only a block or two away. The recovery had begun.

Some had trees in their homes. Others had vehicles or property damaged by the storm. Businesses were flooded that hadn’t taken on water since — well — Hurricane Katrina.

The breadth of damage was disheartening to say the least.

But amazingly, the recovery and cleanup seemed to move much faster than anticipated. Perhaps it was because of the many lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, which ironically struck 16 years earlier to the day.

Cleco seemed well prepared. A number of residents had their power restored within days and most homes in Mandeville had lights within a week. Also, internet services were more easily restored compared with Katrina, probably due to advances in technology in the last 16 years, but still, impressive overall.

Mayor Clay Madden provided constant updates via social media as soon as the city regained cellular service. Unfortunately, the City of Mandeville government relied solely on AT&T, which one can only hope that the city’s new disaster response and recovery contractor Richard C. Lambert Consultants has identified as a serious flaw.

Other than the complete communications blackout from the city during the first 24 hours, the mayor regularly posted the exact information he was receiving from utility companies, almost as he was receiving it himself. Madden and other officials seemed aggressive to get debris cleared so that people could get in and out of the area, and more importantly, so that utility crews could begin their work.

Grocery stores opened using generator power within a few days of the storm. After Katrina, that was not the case.

Mandeville bounced back from Ida, and fast.

To illustrate the progress the city has made, Mandeville Daily and local photographer Eric McVicker conducted a photo survey of the damage on August 30th compared to now — 28 days later:

Mandeville Beach facing east

The Mandeville Beach had almost all of its sand washed over and onto Lakeshore Drive to the north. It took more than a week to move the sand back to the beach after having been cleared to a staging area just outside the park. (Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)

Mandeville Beach facing northeast

Within days city crews and contractors were busy moving the sand to a staging area south of Lakeshore Drive to clear the roadway for cars. (Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)

Coffee Street near Jefferson Street facing north

Two ladies in wading gear making their way down Coffee Street toward Lake Pontchartrain. (Eric McVicker Photography)

Jackson Avenue at Tammany Trace facing north

Looking north down Jackson Avenue standing at the intersection of the Tammany Trace. City work crews can barely be seen here behind this tree as they clear a path through the numerous downed trees blocking one of Old Mandeville’s main access points. (Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)

Carroll Street near Lakeshore Drive facing north

Carroll Street near Lakeshore Drive facing north. The storm surge left its mark. (Eric McVicker Photography)

Madison Street facing south toward Bayou Castine

Madison Street between Jackson Avenue and Atalin Street facing south toward Bayou Castine. Even almost 24 hours after Ida passed through, the water had only receded several inches, and leaves, limbs and debris of all kinds created a ‘carpet’ that obscured the bayou completely. (Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)

Monroe Street at Antibes Street East facing east

Monroe Street at Antibes Street East facing east. Trees and utility poles crisscrossed Monroe Street at multiple points. (Eric McVicker Photography)

Monroe Street at Coffee Street facing west

Monroe Street at Coffee Street facing west. Trees and utility poles crisscrossed Monroe Street at multiple points. (Eric McVicker Photography)

Atalin Street at Livingston Street facing north

Atalin Street at Livingston Street facing north. Much of the Jackson Avenue corridor, including Atalin Street, was a tangled mess of trees and utility poles and their wires. (Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)

Carroll Street at Lakeshore Drive facing north

Carroll Street at Lakeshore Drive facing north. The storm surge bent signs over as it pushed inland. (Eric McVicker Photography)

Coffee Street near Jefferson Street facing south

Coffee Street near Jefferson Street facing south toward the lake. Water was still 2-3 feet high blocks inland almost 24 hours later. (Eric McVicker Photography)

Tammany Trace near Jackson Avenue facing west

Tammany Trace between Jackson Avenue and Atalin Street looking west. The Trace was barely visible at numerous points. (Mandeville Daily/William Kropog)

Editor’s Note: Mandeville Daily thanks photographer Eric McVicker for his contributions to this piece. His work greatly enhanced Mandeville Daily’s Hurricane Ida coverage.

Mayor remains in limbo on who should pay retirement contribution

Updated September 24, 2021, at 10:30AM: Clarifies that the 2019 public referendum did not cut the mayor’s salary, but only changed the City Charter to allow a city council to do so, which they immediately did.

Updated September 24, 2021, at 6:00AM and 9:30AM: Adds comments and context from council members. Clarifies that current code expires with current mayoral term.

MANDEVILLE — After almost an hour of debate, the City Council failed to take action on what seemed like a simple matter to correct wording in city code that would have put the mayor in the same category as all other full-time city employees where the taxpayers foot the bill for their contributions to the state retirement system.

After several failed motions to change the wording of the ordinance, the council could only agree to defer the matter.

According to state law, the office of mayor is a full-time employee and hence is required to participate in the Municipal Employee Retirement System (MERS). Some cities pay their employees’ contributions, other cities do not. Mandeville is a city that does.

But on November 21, 2019, the previous council voted to cut the mayor’s salary from $114,475 to $94,500, not including benefits.

This came on the heals of the passage of a November 16, 2019, public referendum to change the City Charter, allowing the city council to cut a mayor’s pay. Before the referendum, the council could only vote to raise the salary of a mayor.

The problem is, Ordinance 19-33 used flawed legal language, saying the “Mayor may participate” in MERS, which needs to be corrected to read the “Mayor shall participate,” putting it inline with state law.

Mayor Clay Madden served as a council member on that 2019 City Council. Madden went on record at this meeting (September 23, 2021) to say that the council did not make a mistake with the 2019 ordinance because they were unaware at the time that the mayor is legally considered a full-time employee. Former District II Councilman Michael Pulaski, who also served on the 2019 council, appeared at the meeting and echoed the mayor’s sentiment.

“I don’t think we made a mistake. We just were not informed. Maybe that’s a legal problem.” Pulaski said.

Yet the fact remains, Ordinance 19-33 does contain a technical mistake, which is the reason why a new ordinance was proposed in the first place.

The issue for some on the council was that Ordinance 21-39 specifies that the city — or taxpayers — would pay the mayor’s retirement contribution, just like it does for all other full-time employees.

Councilman at Large Jason Zuckerman and Council Members Jill McGuire and Rebecca Bush where ready to put the matter to bed. Zuckerman said he felt the issue of the mayor’s compensation had been thoroughly debated at previous meetings and the council needed to move forward.

Zuckerman, who currently serves as the council chairman, said the council would need to revisit the issue later to craft language that would affect the next mayoral term because the current code only addresses the current mayoral term. Also, Zuckerman, McGuire and Bush had all previously said it would be unfair to single out one full-time employee by not paying their share into the system.

However, Councilman at Large Rick Danielson and District II Council Member Skelly Kreller were against adopting the ordinance as is.

Danielson offered two different motions on the evening.

The first proposed to phase in the taxpayer contribution one-third each year until the mayor is back to 100% taxpayer funded. Kreller was outright against the city paying any of the mayor’s retirement, but went along on this motion. The motion failed 2-3, with only Danielson and Kreller voting in favor.

In responding to a question from McGuire, Danielson said part of the reason he favored phasing in the MERS funding for the mayor was that doing so all at once was the equivalent of about a 10% pay raise for the mayor while other full-time employees were only receiving a 2.5% increase this year.

During budget workshops in recent months as well as the September 9th meeting, Kreller had a number of dustups with Madden over budget-related issues, including a $10,000 raise for Executive Assistant Trilby Lenfant.

Danielson’s second motion on the night would have changed the wording of Ordinance 21-39 to read “the Mayor shall pay the Mayor’s contribution,” not the city. That motion also failed 2-3 along the same lines.

Seeing the council was at an impasse, McGuire offered a motion to defer the matter to the October 14th meeting.

McGuire said, “This meeting has brought up several factors that have come into play. I thought this was just going to be a formality… We’ve hashed this out. We’ve discussed and discussed this… But we debated it from a budget perspective.”

Zuckerman disagreed with that assessment: “I know we debated the merits of it not just from a budget standpoint because I kept bringing up the issue of it not being fair to single out a full-time employee … from a benefits standpoint.”

The motion to defer carried 3-2, with McGuire, Danielson and Kreller in favor.

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Email Mandeville Daily at editor@mandevilledaily.news

City Council to vote to lift permit fees for Ida repairs

Ida damaged many more utility poles than Katrina: Entergy

Spectrum ‘quadrupled’ their local workforce: mayor

Curfew lifted by mayor

Sunset Point suffers heavy damage to pier (photos)

Lagging Jackson Avenue corridor restored Sunday night

Many Spectrum, AT&T internet customers up and running, some not so lucky

No boil-water advisory for Mandeville residents

editor@mandevilledaily.news

Updated September 9, 2021, at 8:22AM: Updates the Cleco outage mage updates in last hour.

Updated September 9, 2021, at 7:42AM: Provides latest update.

MANDEVILLE — Mayor Clay Madden is reporting that fewer than 10 homes inside Mandeville city limits are without power while the Cleco outage map — which has been reasonably accurate throughout the Hurricane Ida recovery effort — shows roughly that number still in the dark.

The news is good for Mandeville just 11 days after Category 4 Hurricane Ida decimated portions of the city, leaving all of its citizens in the dark with presumably millions of dollars worth of damage to the immediate area.

Also, the City Council will consider the adoption of emergency Ordinance No. 21-40 to waive all local permit fees associated with residential and commercial building permits associated with Hurricane Ida.

Spectrum and AT&T internet and TV services returned for most in Mandeville as electricity was restored. However, there were a number of pockets of homes who were still offline as of yesterday, although a number of those are now reporting their services have been restored.

Mandevillians were greeted to damage unlike what was witnessed even after Katrina plowed through the area 16 years earlier to the day. According to various reports, more trees were toppled during this storm because the ground was already saturated due to recent rains and flash floods. This made it easier for high winds to overturn trees at the roots, and those trees are what brought down power lines in many cases.

In Old Mandeville, trees or utility poles blocked nearly every street — some at every block — at one point. It took up to 24 hours for locals or first responders to clear access to the area.

A number of Old Mandeville businesses suffered flood damage this time. La Lou, Nuvolari’s, the Grapeful Ape, and others within three blocks of the lake took on water and are effecting repairs.

A number of homes in Mandeville suffered significant tree and other storm-related damage. No Ida-related deaths were reported in Mandeville.

According to a graphic released by Entergy, Hurricane Ida damaged over 30,000 utility poles while Katrina took down around 17,000.

It’s going to be a while before all of Mandeville’s attractions are restored to pre-Ida states.

Sunset Point Fishing Pier suffered heavy damage and Madden said it will be closed indefinitely. The Mandeville Beach at the corner of Jackson Avenue and Lakeshore Drive was left in disarray by Ida, having all of its sand washed up on or north of Lakeshore Drive. It is unclear when the attraction will return to normal.

The regularly scheduled City Council meeting is tonight (September 9th) at the Paul Spitzfaden Community Center at 6 p.m. The mayor and other officials are expected to provide updates on the Ida recovery effort.

Mayor Clay Madden’s updates from September 9th:

SPECTRUM UPDATE:

I just got off the phone with a northshore manager at Spectrum. He said they have been working closely with Cleco, and now have trucks out in Mandeville. They have quadrupled their local staff and brought in out of state help. If your internet or cable TV services are currently out, then the best thing you can do is make a service call by calling 1-833-267-6094. They are open 24 hours a day. Please call that number to report your outage. If you have BOTH your internet and cable TV through Spectrum, you only have to make one call to report both. Lastly, he said the more people who call from one area, the quicker the turnaround time, so get your neighbors to call! I will provide an update on this tomorrow. For now, please call in your outages to Spectrum. Thank you!

THURSDAY HURRICANE IDA UPDATE:

Subject: Permit Process for Public

All plumbing, electrical, mechanical and/or structure repairs are required to be permitted and inspected. All Contractors are required to be State Licensed and Registered with the City of Mandeville. If you are unsure if you need a permit, please call the Planning Department at 985-624-3103 or email permits@cityofmandeville.com.

When you submit for a permit, the Building Official will come to do an inspection to confirm the type of inspections needed. We are prioritizing processing permits associated with Ida recovery. The Permit fees are being waived for work performed due to Hurricane Ida.

Mayor Clay Madden’s update from September 8th:

I’m down to below 10 homes in Mandeville city limits without power. I drove to all on my list today and almost all had just gotten power or had linemen in front of their house. If you are still down, text me at 985-630-8578. Thank you!

Editor’s Note: When reporting on outages and restorations, Mandeville Daily often provided updates on areas immediately outside Mandeville city limits because some of those areas are pockets surrounded city limits and residents there often consider themselves “Mandeville” even though they are not officially residents, like Lewisburg and areas north of Florida Street. With that said, the above reference to exactly how many remain without power was strictly considering only those inside Mandeville city limits. Tips and story ideas: editor@mandevilledaily.news.

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Updated September 8, 2021, at 8:40AM: Provides latest update; Corrects Katrina anniversary reference;

MANDEVILLE — Perhaps as few as 100 households remain without power in the City of Mandeville today (September 8th) as locals continue to recover and rebuild in the wake of Category 4 Hurricane Ida, which devastated the city on the 16-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Cleco’s outage and storm center pages paint a much rosier picture for Mandeville than just 72 hours ago when large swaths of the city were in the dark one week after Ida made landfall, showing somewhere between 100-150 households without power. The estimated times to restoration (ETRs) for the remaining isolated trouble spots in Mandeville, including a significant patch at the far western edge of the city toward Madisonville, range from today through Saturday (September 11th).

While some residents reported their Spectrum and AT&T internet services were working when the power was restored, others say those services are still down.

The mayor announced yesterday he has lifted the city-wide curfew that had been in place since the immediate aftermath of the storm.

Mayor Clay Madden’s update from September 7th:

TUESDAY IDA MID DAY REPORT:

Curfew is lifted starting now! Curfew is over. There will be no curfew tonight. Mandeville Police will continue to be on double patrol and will focus on areas that are still dark.

Debris removal is beginning today. They are not leaving until everything is picked up. If your curb is already filled up, and you have more debris, say, in the backyard, that is okay. Bring your second round debris to the curb as soon as possible after your first round debris is picked up. They will keep making passes, but please don’t wait around-get your debris to the curb as soon as possible.

Hot meals continue to be served daily at First Baptist Church in Mandeville.

I am working hard on getting the last remaining areas still without power restored. I’ll do an update post later today on this. God Bless!

Updated September 7, 2021, at 8:30AM…

MANDEVILLE — Cleco now estimates power should be restored on or by Friday for the vast majority of the approximately 400 customers still without power in Mandeville, a far cry from just several days ago when most of the city was in the dark in the wake of Category 4 Hurricane Ida, which made landfall Sunday (August 29th) on the 16-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The Cleco outage and storm center pages show a September 10th estimated time to restoration (ETR) for most of those still without power in Mandeville.

The Jackson Avenue corridor, encompassing a significant portion of the eastern end of Old Mandeville, was reenergized Sunday night, after originally having ETRs ranging from September 8th to the 10th.

Cleco was, however, forced to cut power off twice for a few hours at a time in order to allow for excessively damaged blocks to be repaired with new equipment Monday (September 6th).

While some residents reported their Spectrum and AT&T internet services were working when the power was restored, others say those services are still down.

The popular Sunset Point Fishing Pier suffered heavy damage from Ida, according to local resident and photographer Eric McVicker who kayaked out to the attraction’s main pier for photographs. The park remains closed and will be temporarily used as a staging area for a city debris removal contractor, according to a statement by Mayor Clay Madden today. See photos below:

Garbage pickup is scheduled to resume tomorrow (September 8th) by Coastal Environmental, according to Madden. Recycling remains temporarily suspended, he added.

Mayor Clay Madden’s update from Cleco for today, September 7th:

TUESDAY MORNING QUICK IDA UPDATE:

I need to assess the areas around Mandeville still without power. I will do an update later today, however, I wanted to quickly update you on two items:

GARBAGE PICKUP: Regular garbage pickup will resume tomorrow morning (Wednesday) in Mandeville by our garbage provider, Coastal Environmental. Pickup is cart only. You can use your recycle cart for garbage and they will pickup up recyclables as garbage in tomorrow’s pickup. Recycling remains temporarily suspended. Moreover, they will NOT pickup up private round garbage cans tomorrow. They usually do, however, the mechanical truck they are using tomorrow cannot grab those-it can only grab the carts.

PARKS and DEBRIS: Neighborwoods and Paul Cordes Park (behind city hall) remain closed for clean up until further notice. SUNSET POINT remains closed until further notice and will be used as a STAGING AREA for our debris removal contractor. Debris removal begins TODAY and will continue until complete. Mandeville Police will be patrolling Sunset Point at all times. Any jokers who think it’s a good idea to sneak into Sunset Point will be arrested and heavily prosecuted. Sunset Point is an OFF LIMITS area until further notice.

Please call or text me with any questions (985-630-8578). I’ll do another power update later. God Bless!

Updated September 5, 2021, at 8:40PM: Adds power restored to Jackson Avenue strip.

MANDEVILLE — The Jackson Avenue corridor — one of last remaining major stretches of homes, spanning both south and north of Florida Street, that had been without power for a week since Hurricane Ida — finally became energized Sunday night (September 5th) after days of confusion and mixed signals over estimated times for restoration (ETRs).

The area had received an ETR of September 8th several days ago, but those who are following the progress of power restorations on Cleco’s website were disheartened this morning to see that the ETR had slipped to September 10th. But it changed yet again in the early afternoon, just before Mayor Clay Madden’s daily power update, to today’s date, September 5th.

Cleco delivered.

Officials have said since the early hours of the recovery effort that power restoration is a fluid situation that changes as more work is completed.

Customers also reported that both Spectrum and AT&T internet were already working when their lights came back on. This is a positive sign for those remaining in the dark as to when they’ll get their high-speed internet restored.

There are still significant pockets of homes without power in both Old Mandeville, Lewisburg and the far western edge of Mandeville city limits. Cleco’s posted ETRs range from September 7th to the 12th for those areas.

Updated September 5th at 3:25PM: Adds mayor and Cleco updates

MANDEVILLE — Power restoration estimates for sections of Old Mandeville still in the dark a week after Hurricane Ida struck received encouraging news today when Cleco updated its storm center and outage pages. Streets that only hours earlier had been estimated to receive power not before September 10th were given a new estimated time to restoration (ETR) of today (September 5th).

Cleco yesterday (September 4th) posted ETRs in Mandeville to show that certain key areas, such as the Jackson Avenue corridor, were set to get energized by last night, but that didn’t happen.

Then this morning, the Cleco outage map suddenly showed the same area with a September 10th ETR.

But with this afternoon’s update, the Jackson Avenue area — with a total of 365 affected households including streets north of Florida Street — should get energized tonight.

Mayor Clay Madden released a statement on social media confirming the Cleco update, saying the key streets “will receive restored power TODAY…”

Developing…

Mayor Clay Madden’s update from Cleco for Sunday, September 5th:

SUNDAY POWER UPDATE:

CLECO just sent out an update that the following Mandeville streets will receive restored power TODAY (Sunday, September 5)-

Mandeville

• Hickory Dr

• Bon Teps Roule

• Rebecca Ln

• Wilkinson St

• Aurora St

• Tanglewood (except Elmwood St)

• Golden Shores (Part)

• Avenue D

• Livingston St

• Avenue C

• Villere St

• Avenue B

• Montgomery

• Avenue A

• Lambert St

• Mariners Island

• Tops’l Condos

• Sandra Dl Mac Dr

• St Croix

• Cayman Ct

• St Jean Deluz Ave

• Mariners Blvd

• Antibes St

• Monroe St (Lambert St to Lafayette St)

• Wilkinson St (Villere St to Lakeshore Dr)

• Lakeshore Dr (West End to Carroll St)

• Massena (South of Monroe St)

• Hermitage on the lake

• Maple St

• America St (Coffee St to Gerard St)

• Carroll St (America St to McNamara St)

• Lafite St (Caroline St to America St)

• Adair St (Monroe St to Hwy 190)

• Reine St

• Albert St

• Prieto St

• Atalin St (Madison south)

• Woodlawn lane

Again, we are down to clusters of homes on

select streets that are still out. Please feel free to let me know and I’ll continue to contact CLECO.

A lot of folks have been asking me about Spectrum. If a tree knocked out your internet line, you will continue to have problems. Make an outage report to spectrum online using your phone if possible. However, in these situations it is common for Spectrum to hold off for a few days to allow for the electric companies to go first. However, I have seen some Spectrum trucks in some areas today.

God Bless!

Updated September 5, 2021, at 7AM: Adds lates info in a rolling update
Updated September 5, 2021, at 12:01PM: Adds no boil-water advisery

MANDEVILLE — After setbacks and letdowns, a significant number of blacked out areas of Mandeville were reenergized yesterday (September 4th), but a long list of other streets and strips that were estimated to have power by last night are still without, according to the latest information posted by Cleco and Mandeville Mayor Clay Madden.

In the last several days, Cleco created a special webpage where it provides a more detailed listing of estimated times to restoration (ETRs) down to the street level. Before Friday, those estimates were only delivered to public officials. Madden has posted those Cleco updates routinely since cell and internet services were restored to the City of Mandeville government and emergency response team after a 24-hour failure of the AT&T cellular network following landfall of Category 4 Hurricane Ida Sunday night.

According to the Cleco “Storm Center” webpage, the power company missed their ETRs for a long list of troublesome streets and strips in Mandeville, including the Jackson Avenue corridor and Monroe Street, targeted for yesterday (September 4th). Other areas including Marigny Trace, Colbert Street, Old Golden Shores and Brookside Drive could be four to 10 more days:

Cleco’s Estimates as of Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021

ETR, Sept. 4:

Dupard St (Coffee to Gerard St), Coffee St (Focher to Dupard), Focher St, Webster St, Lamarque St at Claiborne St, Claibirne St at Gerard St, Madison St at Gerard St, Monroe St at Gerard St, Claiborne St at Lafitte St, Colbert St (north of Hwy 190), Carmel Dr, Greenfielld Dr, Monterey Dr, Kingfisher Dr, Marigny Trace Subdivision, Jackson Ave (Lakeshore to Monroe), Atalin St (Madison to Montgomery), Albert St (Monroe to Villere St), Livingston (Jackson Ave to Colbert St), Bayou Dr, Ridgewood Loop (Part), Live Oak Dr (Part), Sandra Lee Dr (Part), Heavens Dr, Beau Chen, Penns Chapel Park, Lovers Ln (Brookside Dr North), Elmwood Pl, Park Dr (Brookside to Forest Dr), and Forest Dr (West part)

Marigny Trace, 2-4 days

Colbert St., 2-4 days

Old Golden Shores, 4 days

Brookside Dr., 8-10 days

These are the current outage maps as of publication time today at 7 a.m., Sunday, September 5th (outage.cleco.com).

Mandeville Daily will provide updates on this information throughout the day (September 5th).

Work is underway to restore the popular Mandeville Beach at the corner of Lakeshore Drive and Jackson Avenue to its pre-Ida state. Workers have moved all the sand that had been deposited onto and north of Lakeshore Drive to a staging area closer to the beach park.

This City of Mandeville has not issued a boil-water advisory related to Hurricane Ida. Those who pay their water bill to the City of Mandeville do not have to boil their water.

Numerous food, ice and water distribution points have been set up in and around Mandeville, including local churches such as Church of the King and First Baptist Church of Mandeville.

Here are Madden’s updates from Saturday, September 4th:

SATURDAY HURRICANE IDA UPDATE:

Okay folks, here’s the long awaited Saturday post. I was not able to talk to my two local CLECO contacts today as they are working hard in the trenches. However, I spoke to a gentleman at the CLECO main office in Alexandria who worked the Mandeville area during Katrina. I gave him all the questions I had about certain areas and he is going to contact all the substation managers and send me updates piecemeal. So I won’t do one big post later today. Rather, I’ll post as I get updates on certain areas.

First and foremost, the answer to the question “ALL MY NEIGHBORS GOT THEIR POWER BACK ON EXCEPT ME AND THE TWO OTHER HOUSES AROUND ME” needs to be given. Per the CLECO rep I spoke with, this is typically caused by a service wire or fuse going to your house, or a row of three houses, being damaged. What can you do? PLEASE REPORT THIS TO CLECO ASAP!!! HINT: doing this online, rather than calling 1-800-623-6537, may expedite the process. So I would report it online. He told me they want to get these situations addressed ASAP while they are in the area, so please report this to them online ASAP. I’ve gotten this question from Girod St to Claiborne St to Marigny Ave to Monroe St to Heavens Drive. Please report all of these to CLECO!

Based on both feedback from Mandeville city limits residents and the outage map, here are the areas I asked for reports on (in no particular order):

-Heavens Drive/Chateau Village/Cedarwood

-Kleber St/Park Ave/Carondelet St

-Marigny Ave/Carroll St/Coffee St/Girod St/Monroe St

-West Beach area

-The Shadows/Fontainebleau near service road entrance

-Tanglewood

-Hermitage

-Mariners Village

-Parts of New Golden Shores, Old Golden Shores and The Sanctuary

Several subdivisions and areas came on in Mandeville yesterday and last night which is great news. I’m not going to stop until every Mandeville resident is fully restored.

Old Mandeville residents-please know that your particular situation may be a little more difficult to ascertain because of the long roads, both north/south and east/west. Some streets will have power on at some, but not all, of their houses. I’ve asked about every request that has come to me and will do my best to get the information out there. I have no indication that entire Old Mandeville streets are still completely out. All of them have some houses with power.

Again, as I get the info from the CLECO contact, I will post it. Thank you for your ongoing patience.

…

Thanks to our state GOHSEP office and a company we contracted with out of Texas called FPS recovery, our lift stations that still don’t have power will all have generators or pump trucks and we will be able to maintain service completely. Big thanks to our Public Works Director Keith LaGrange for his leadership here.

…

QUICK POWER UPDATE:

CLECO is starting to flip switches and more homes are starting to come on in Mandeville right now as we speak. Here is a list CLECO just put out for those who should get power restored today:

Mandeville

• Dupard St (Coffee to Gerard St)

• Coffee St (Focher to Dupard)

• Focher St

• Webster St

• Lamarque St at Claiborne St

• Claibirne St at Gerard St

• Madison St at Gerard St

• Monroe St at Gerard St

• Claiborne St at Lafitte St

• Colbert St (north of Hwy 190)

• Carmel Dr, Greenfielld Dr

• Monterey Dr

• Kingfisher Dr

• Marigny Trace Subdivision

• Jackson Ave (Lakeshore to Monroe)

• Atalin St (Madison to Montgomery)

• Albert St (Monroe to Villere St)

• Livingston (Jackson Ave to Colbert St)

• Bayou Dr

• Ridgewood Loop (Part)

• Live Oak Dr (Part)

• Sandra Lee Dr (Part)

• Heavens Dr

• Beau Chen

• Penns Chapel Park

• Lovers Ln (Brookside Dr North)

• Elmwood Pl

• Park Dr (Brookside to Forest Dr)

• Forest Dr (West part)

I still hope to get reports on those areas I asked about earlier today. Thanks!

Updated September 2, 2021, at 2:22PM: Corrects mayor’s language to ‘highly likely’ on power restorations.

Updated September 2, 2021, at 1:30PM: Adds Thursday update from mayor
Updated September 2, 2021, at 10AM: Adds Spectrum restoration source.
Updated September 2, 2021, at 6:20AM: Adds Cleco power restoration statement.

MANDEVILLE — A number of neighborhoods and businesses will likely get electrical power tonight as Cleco is set to energize key substations, according to Mayor Clay Madden.

Madden, in his daily Ida recovery update, said he spoke to Cleco officials today and they tell him that Greenleaves, Golden Glen, Lakewood Heights, Mariner’s Village, New Golden Shores, the Causeway Blvd. system, some in Old Golden Shores, and the surrounding commercial areas from Rouse’s to Neighborhood Walmart are “highly likely” to be energized tonight. Also Mandeville City Hall and the Mandeville Police complex are expected to get power.

However, the call from Cleco brought bad news for other areas, as officials told the mayor areas near Jackson Avenue could be another four-to-five days, and Tanglewood another week.

The entire St. Tammany Parish electrical grid went down as Hurricane Ida plowed through the region on the Hurricane Katrina anniversary August 29th, and original estimates from various sources were that Mandeville could be without power and other services for two weeks or longer, which is apparently no longer the case.

The report on the Jackson Avenue area jives with what several locals with businesses in the area said they were told by power company workers who felt confident that power in Old Mandeville would be restored by Monday, Labor Day, which would be four days from now.

A Spectrum worker who preferred not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak on behalf of the company told Mandeville Daily that typically the Spectrum repair trucks roll right along with or directly behind Cleco trucks in a coordinated effort, so Spectrum service restoration often follows on the heals of Cleco.

However, this individual said that as of yesterday (September 1st) there was a problem with the main line that provides service from Slidell to the western half of St. Tammany Parish at present. Currently there are several dozen “faults” between Mandeville and Slidell that need to be diagnosed and repaired before western St. Tammany Parish — including Mandeville — has service.

This means Spectrum internet could lag several days behind Cleco’s restoration in this scenario — but not necessarily — according to the source.

Customers with AT&T fiber optic internet service are reporting that their internet connections returned with the electricity being restored or hooking up generators.

Madden announced yesterday (September 1st) that there “soon will be” two points of distribution in St. Tammany parish for MREs (U.S. military meals-ready-to-eat), water and possibly ice. Those locations are: First Baptist Church, 16333 Highway 1085, Covington, and Heritage Park, 1330 Bayou Lane, Slidell.

The mayor also said he is pushing to have a third location set up in Mandeville soon.

The recovery effort hasn’t been without trouble. A man was arrested yesterday for allegedly causing a fight at a Mandeville gas station. “This will not be tolerated and fighters will go to jail,” the mayor added.

The mayor also cautioned residents that because there are still many downed power lines throughout Old Mandeville they are not marking them all with cones or barricades.

Mandeville Police are actively enforcing a ban on sightseers along the Lakeshore Drive area, stopping cars or pedestrians to confirm they either live in the affected location or are actively assisting someone in recovery or repairs. Madden previously announced a zero-tolerance policy to deal with violators.

A citywide curfew remains in effect from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., Madden said.

The popular “Mandeville Beach” at the corner of Lakeshore Drive and Jackson Avenue appears to have suffered catastrophic damage. While structural damage to the playground facilities was minimal, most if not all of the sand from the beach was moved by the storm surge to the northern side of Lakeshore Drive.

To see more photos of Old Mandeville damage, check out the Mandeville Daily Facebook page.

Here is Mayor Clay Madden’s complete public statement for Thursday, September 2nd:

THURSDAY HURRICANE IDA UPDATES:

As I’m writing this, I just received a call from CLECO:

Two substations in Old Mandeville are likely to go HOT tonight-the Penn Street and the Lambert Street subs. It is highly likely that Mandeville City Hall, Mandeville Police Station, Greenleaves, Golden Glen, Lakewood Heights and the surrounding commercial areas from Rouse’s to Neighborhood Wal Mart will go hot tonight. This also includes Mariners Village, New Golden Shores, and the Causeway. Some in Old Golden Shores are on the Causeways system. Certain areas of Old Mandeville could come on tonight. Areas near Jackson Avenue could be another 4-5 days. Tanglewood is looking like another week. It is still a fluid situation.

Cleco could NOT give me an estimate on the Sanctuary substation. They hope to later today. This sub feeds most of the neighborhoods along the west approach such as Weldon Park, Woodstone, Fontainebleau, The Sanctuary, Beau Rivage and includes me in the back of Old Golden Shores along with Lewisburg. I will continue to connect with Cleco on this for the duration of the storm recovery.

Curfew is still in effect for night time, but the times have been adjusted to 10pm to 6am. MPD will continue to strictly enforce this.

The Point of Distribution (POD) for the west side of the parish is now open at First Baptist Church in Covington-16333 Highway 1085. They have MREs, water and ICE.

I am continuing to fight hard for a POD in Mandeville. In the meantime, the First Baptist Church in Mandeville, located at 1895 Highway 190, will have water all day and 1500 hot meals today from 4-6pm. I have put in an official WebEOC request for tarps and ice. The biggest requests I’m getting are for tarps and ice. Anyone who has these, I’m diverting to the First Baptist Church in Mandeville. I hope to have these items there sometime today. Stay tuned! Unfortunately, I as the Mayor have NO control over gasoline. Those are private businesses. However, I have made all elected officials above me aware that we have a gas shortage in Mandeville.

The majority of our roads are now passable. A big thanks to our Department of Public Works, Mandeville Police, and Fire District 4, for intense tree cutting the last few days, along with our debris contractor. There are a few exceptions-roads with trees or poles tangled in power lines. Do not go near, or drive under, any hanging trees or power posts that are tangled in power lines.

Debris pickup will begin on Tuesday, September 7. This includes green waste/trees, construction and demolition, and white goods (appliances). Please separate these piles as best you can to speed up the process. Anyone who did not get their trash cart picked up on Wednesday, please have it by the curb on Saturday morning for pickup. NOTHING BAGGED will be picked up by either our debris contractor or garbage provider. This is because they cannot see what is in it. Bagged garbage will NOT be picked up.

Our Emergency Response and Recovery consultants have been assessing city assets. We’ve made the determination that the following public parks are CLOSED until further notice-Paul Cordes Park behind City Hall and Neighborwoods. The Tammany Trace is closed. Additionally, the walking bridge near Jackson Ave. on Lakeshore Drive sustained damage and is barricaded.

TREES-if you have a leaning tree on private property and you fear it will fall on your property, it is your responsibility to remove it. The city cannot go on private property. If you fear a leaning tree may fall on a city right of way or utility line, call our planning department at 985-624-3103 or email at planning@mandevillela.net. However, our debris monitoring contractor will be assessing all leaning trees on city right of ways.

Please stay tuned for further updates. My cell is 985-630-8578. Thank you!

This is a developing story. We will continue to provide updates on the Hurricane Ida recovery efforts here.

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Makes it more difficult to conduct business while skirting state licensing rules

Dovetails with resolution to work with law enforcement to crack down

MANDEVILLE — The City Council tonight voted unanimously to make it more difficult for illicit ‘massage parlors’ to operate in the City of Mandeville.

Ordinance No. 21-26 empowers the city to revoke the licenses of businesses — including massage parlors — that are believed to be in violation of city, state or federal law. The ordinance was preceded by the adoption of Resolution No. 21-38 at the August 12th meeting which pledges city support to work with law enforcement agencies to crack down on these establishments.

Introduced by District I Councilwoman Rebecca Bush, the ordinance alters the Mandeville City Code of Ordinances Section 14-10, which is used to regulate the issuance and renewal of annual licenses to conduct business.

Previously, the city could only deny the application for a license or refuse to renew one if the city has “reasonable grounds to believe” the applicant or business is in violation of a law. With just seven words, revocation action has been added to the teeth of the law.

The change was prompted by a recent controversy surrounding two now-closed massage parlors that were operating inside Mandeville city limits, when an undercover sting operation by law enforcement netted an arrest at one of those establishments.

Michele Avery, president of Beau West Homeowner Association, told the council, “I think this is a great move… I’m very thankful to you for working with me to put this ordinance together.”

Bush thanked Councilmen at Large Rick Danielson and Jason Zuckerman for their help in bringing the ordinance related resolution to fruition.“

“I think it’s a good step forward, and a good effort on behalf of many people,” she added.

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Proposal would allow city to yank license of any business found to be in violation of law

Updated August 26, 2021, at 6:27AM: Changes “found” to “believed” in lead for clarity.

MANDEVILLE — The City Council will vote tonight (August 26th) to empower the city to revoke the licenses of businesses — including massage parlors — that are believed to be in violation of city, state or federal law.

Ordinance No. 21-26, introduced by District I Councilwoman Rebecca Bush, would alter the Mandeville City Code of Ordinances Section 14-10, which is used to regulate the issuance and renewal of annual licenses to conduct business.

Currently, the city can only deny the application for a license or refuse to renew one if the city has “reasonable grounds to believe” the applicant or business is in violation of a law. With just seven words, revocation action will be added to the teeth of the law.

The proposed change was prompted by a recent controversy surrounding two now-closed massage parlors that were operating inside Mandeville city limits, when an undercover sting operation by law enforcement netted an arrest at one of those establishments.

A 52-year-old employee was booked on one count of prostitution by massage along with license violations. She was later released on $1,000 bond. The “OBH Massage Therapy” — the establishment where she worked — later closed when it was evicted by its landlord, but concerned citizens were frustrated that the arrest itself did nothing to close the business. The city was powerless to act.

But that would change if the City Council adopts the measure Thursday, in effect rewriting Section 14-10 to read as follows, adding the bolded text:

The tax collector of the City of Mandeville or his duly authorized assistants may refuse to issue or renew a license or revoke a license whenever the tax collector or authorized assistant has reasonable grounds to believe that the applicant for the license or the license holder is conducting the trade, business, profession, vocation or calling for which the license is sought in violation of any law of the United States of America or the State of Louisiana or in violation of any ordinances or regulations of the City of Mandeville.

Michele Avery, president of Beau West Homeowner Association, told Mandeville Daily “this is a good first step” because neither of the two massage parlors in question were properly licensed with the Louisiana Board of Massage Therapy.

Avery had been pushing for months to get law enforcement agencies to investigate the establishments in question — ones that she and other activists allege were “operating outside of the law and in plain sight.”

Avery added, “This ordinance would give the City the ability to revoke their occupational license if they are not properly licensed… However, keeping this form of sex trafficking out of Mandeville will require a partnership of active citizens, law enforcement, code enforcement and landlords that are not willing to lease to these types of establishments.”

The City Council meeting is scheduled for Thursday, August 26th, at 6 p.m. at the Paul Spitzfaden Community Center in Mandeville.

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Contentious debate among council, mayor, officials raises more questions

Mayor gave executive assistant $10K raise in June

Council says they should have been advised

MANDEVILLE — Over an hour of often-heated debate at tonight’s City Council meeting (August 12th) ended with a 4-1 vote to ask the state Attorney General for an opinion on whether a $10,000 raise Mayor Clay Madden recently awarded his executive assistant Trilby Lenfant is allowed under the city’s budget rules. The raise brings Lenfant to almost $82,000 annually. Only District I Councilwoman Rebecca Bush voted against.

At the heart of the matter is that Madden gave Lenfant the raise without first consulting the council, just months after the mayor’s proposal to move Lenfant into a proposed “Director of Administration” post with a $90,000 salary was rejected by the council.

Bush, Finance Director Kathleen Sides and City Attorney Elizabeth Sconzert debated budgeting and finance technicalities and legalese with the other members of the council, particularly Councilman at Large Rick Danielson, District III Councilwoman Jill McGuire and District II Councilman Skelly Kreller, who all expressed frustration with how Lenfant’s raise was awarded.

Individual council members have weekly breakfasts with the mayor — in groups of two so that the Open Meetings Law isn’t violated by forming a quorum — and Danielson, McGuire and Kreller said they were not told in advance about the raise.

Danielson said they only heard a rumor that the raise had been given after the fact. McGuire said she is frustrated that the City Council had to file a formal public records request just to receive details about the raise.

Resolution No. 21-33, introduced by Kreller, requests an opinion from the State Attorney General’s office on whether the raise broke City of Mandeville budget rules.

According to members of the council, any line item change of greater than 5% is supposed to go through a budget adjustment process, which would require council approval. However, in this particular situation the question being asked is, what constitutes an actual line item. Both Sides and Sconzert disputed whether the 5% rule applies to individual raises.

The budget for fiscal year 2020-21 — as adopted by the City Council under Ordinance 20-13 on Sept. 10, 2020 — is comprised of various exhibits, labeled B, C and D.

Exhibit B is titled “Job Class Detail” which lists the pay levels for each of the city’s job classifications under both General Government (10100) and Police Department (10110). The “Executive Secretary” (Trilby Lenfant) is listed as $71,782,65. The total for the General Government category in the exhibit is reported as $1,294,648.98.

But Exhibit D, which contains the so-called line items one typically associates with a budget has an entry for “General Government – Salaries” with a requested budget of $1,318,049 for 2021.

This makes Exhibit B more like a detail record of the “Salaries” line item in Exhibit D. Apparently the Attorney General is being asked for an opinion on which one constitutes the actual line item and hence is subject to the 5% rule, if it is applicable.

Developing…

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Durio’s partial term to expire in 2025

Quillin to serve full 7-year term, expiring in 2028

MANDEVILLE — The City Council tonight appointed Claire Durio and Scott Quillin to fill two vacancies on the Mandeville Planning & Zoning Commission.

Durio, appointed with a 5-0 vote, will complete Jeff Lahasky’s unfinished term which expires at the end of August 2025. Lahasky moved outside city limits, requiring him to resign. Scott Quillin, appointed on a 4-1 vote, will serve a full seven-year term, replacing outgoing commission member Ren Clark. District I Councilwoman Rebecca Bush voted against Quillin.

Durio is a licensed attorney in the State of Louisiana and a state-licensed title agent with experience in land use, development, permitting, historic preservation. She is listed as a general partner in her current firm.

Quillin is an engineer, licensed commercial contractor, and project manager at a local company managing large construction projects in the energy industry. He is currently listed as project manager with a local engineering consultant firm. Served on the Planning & Zoning Commission one term from 2009-2016.

The City Council updated its selection procedures in 2020 with the adoption of Resolution No. 20-17, which established a six-step process for making appointments to municipal or district boards and commissions, including the Planning & Zoning Commission. The procedure as adopted includes: 1) Announce at a council meeting the request for resumes; 2) Post the request for resumes on the city’s website and City Hall front door; 3) Publish the request for resumes in the city’s official journal of record (The St. Tammany Farmer); 4) Allow 14 days to receive resumes; 5) Review of the resumes by two members of the City Council (allow interviews by all council members) and then make a recommendation on one applicant (per vacancy); 6) Vote by the City Council to appoint “the candidate who received the recommendation.”

In filling these vacancies, Councilman at Large Jason Zuckerman and Bush handled the recommendation to fill Lahasky’s seat, while Councilman at Large Rick Danielson and District III Councilwoman Jill McGuire handled the seat vacated by Clark.

Bush, who had previously stated that she would like a District I resident appointed to a vacancy, said she and Zuckerman could not agree on her first two recommendations — Cynthia Thompson and Michael Gagliardi — but that they were able to agree on Durio. Zuckerman has maintained that he would only support the most qualified applicant regardless of their district of residence.

Danielson and McGuire recommended Quillin, but Bush took exception, saying, “I cannot support the appointment of a commissioner who has already served, and that’s just my position.”

District II Councilman Skelly Kreller said he disagreed with Bush on the matter. “I have to look at the best… and he definitely comes to the top. I’m not sure where you’re coming from with your comments.”

Each Planning & Zoning Commission member serves seven-year terms, which are staggered by one year and expire August 31 of the expiration year. Durio and Quillin will join five other Planning & Zoning Commission members: Planning Chairwoman Karen Gautreaux (2027), Zoning Chairman Nixon Adams (2023), Simmie Fairley (2022), Mike Pierce (2024), and Brian Rhinehart (2026).

According to the original agenda, the council could only have voted to fill the unfinished term vacated by Lahasky. The updated agenda means the council could fill both vacancies at tonight’s meeting, which they did.

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RELATED STORY: Council could fill both P&Z vacancies tonight, not just one

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A vote to fill one of the vacancies was delayed at the July 22nd council meeting. A question was raised during that meeting over the availability of the list of applicants for public inspection as required by state law.

The Planning and Zoning Commission appointment provisions are outlined under the Comprehensive Land Use Regulations Ordinance (CLURO) Sec. 2.1.2: “All successive appointments to the Planning Commission (includes Zoning Commission) shall be appointed by a majority vote of the City Council. No person shall be appointed to the Planning Commission until a public hearing before the City Council attended by the nominee has been held.”

The point raised was, can the city hold a “public hearing” on an individual without publishing the name of that individual or individuals in advance. The Louisiana Open Meetings Law (R.S. 42:11 – R.S. 42:28) only states that meeting agenda items must be “described with reasonable specificity.”

Mandeville Daily filed a public records request with the city and received the redacted list of applicants in a timely manner.

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