Dear Citizens of Mandeville,
I wanted to reach out to make you aware of some serious issues regarding the current finances in Mandeville.
Mayor Madden has severely violated the public trust by witholding important financial information which the City Charter requires be produced within 45 days of the end of the fiscal year. The "final" and completed financial report was due 15 Oct 2023. We are now 4 months past the deadline in the fiscal year for 2024.
Councilman at large Rick Danielson has repeatedly asked that this information be made public at council meetings and special budget meetings however, the mayor has yet to provide the reports. There have been at least 2 public information requests for the report that have failed to be properly answered by the city attorney. Moreover, the city finance director and the mayor have several times promised to post the information on the city website but have failed to do so.
The Mayor's denial of these repeated requests screams that he has something to hide. Whether there is incompetence, mismanagement or criminal activity is yet to be discovered. One issue seems quite evident; the Mayor of Mandeville does not want this information out before the upcoming election in March 2024. As a native of Mandeville, I find this to be highly repugnant. I can not remember a time in Mandeville where this has been acceptable behavior.
From preliminary reports, we can deduce the city has deficit spent for the first time in over 40 years.
To date, the estimate looks as though the off budget spending is in excess of $2.375 million and growing. The wreckless spending by the mayor and council has resulted in the general fund being decreased from $23.1 million to an estimated $16 million in less than 2 years.
The true number can not be known at this time because of the administration's decision to hide key information from the public.
Equally disturbing has been the study by the CPA firm CRI which warned the city will possibly not be reimbursed for over $3.65 million in hurricane Ida recovery spending because the administration failed to submit requests in a timely fashion missing hard deadlines.
What is even more worrisome is the city's disregard for the sales tax revenue projection recomendations by CRI which suggested a projected sales tax growth of 2.5%. The mayor originally wanted a 7% factor but decided with the council on 5% as the revenue number. As of the first quarter, the revenue has drastically fallen behind and if CRI estimates hold, the city is on track to lose an addional $1 million dollars.
Another disturbing development occured when the city placed $2.3 million of restricted Federal ARPA funds into the unrestricted general fund. This seems to have been an attempt to hide yet an even larger budget deficit.
Lastly, the city gave 3 years of massive salary increases to all city employees adding an additional $1.3 million to the operating cost. In addition, the city mandated through an ordinance that all civil service employees will be eligible for a minimum of 2% COLA raises. Additionally, all city workers are eligible for up to 2% merit raises. I take no issue with paying city workers a fair wage however, we as a city must live within our means.
Spending on salaries and benefits represents 70% of the operating budget. Most unsettling is the fact that the city does not have a permanent funding source for the increase. Honestly, what healthy business could sustain this level of high labor costs?
Again, it appears the administration will rely on the already depleted general fund to make up the difference.
It seems a forgone conclusion that property taxes will be increased to the maximum allowable rate approved by voters. This fact prompted the city finance director to state on the record that the spending the city has been doing is in her words, "DANGEROUS".
It is my understanding that we are on a negative financial trajectory because the rate of revenue increase is less than the increase in expenses. Since Madden took office we know the actual revenue increase has been 32% while the recurring expense is 45%.
If no corrections are soon made, the city will begin to realize losses which will prevent any future unrestricted capital spending and greatly reduce the cities ability to recover from natural disasters.
It is notable to mention that 3 council members who are politically aligned with Madden voted in lockstep to prohibit the reestablishment of the Mandeville Financial Oversight Committee. The all volunteer committee had been spearheaded by former councilman Clay Madden when he was at odds with former Mayor Villere over his handling of the budget.
It is my sincere hope that you as voters will do your due diligence prior to voting. I implore you to look into the allegations and help force the mayor of Mandeville to level with the citizens and provide the required information so that we can understand the extent of the damages.
To the naysayers who will most assuredly try to refute this information with ad hominem attacks, I strongly suggest to you to pressure the mayor to end this ridiculous withholding of the people's information and release all financial data associated with fiscal year 2023. He could have ended this months ago.
The Mandeville I grew up in has always been much better than what we are presently witnessing.
Michael Blache
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