The two candidates in the Mandeville mayoral election were hit with several questions revolving around ethics and encouraging business in Old Mandeville during a forum held Thursday evening by the Old Mandeville Business Association.

Many of the questions asked concerned what the candidates would do if elected to help promote business in the B-3 district.

After a question about what the candidates would do to help attract new business to the district, current councilwoman Trilby Lenfant pointed out that she has lobbied for the city to hire a cultural and economic development director for some years now, and if elected she would seek to fill that position as soon as possible. Candidate Donald Villere said he would first have to look at the job description for the position to determine to what percent would the person be an event planner as the cultural development director.

“I don’t want someone wearing three or four hats that gets bogged down in the details,” he said.

Lenfant said the areas cultural resources are its economic resources.

“We have cultural resources, historic resources and environmental resources and those are our economic resources,” she said.

One attendee questioned why the city raised building permit fees when businesses are struggling to stay open in the economy and asked what the candidates would do to help make it financially feasible to do business in the city?

Lenfant pointed out that she did vote for the permit fee increase but only because it had not been increased in 10 years and the fees collected were not covering the cost of operating the department.

Villere said if he is elected he would always do everything he could to ensure the city is running at top efficiency before raising any fess.

When asked what they would do about run-down homes and empty storefronts in the B3 district, both said they would get code enforcement involved.

Lenfant said she would continue her work with trying to build a “viable business cluster in Old Mandeville.”

She said there is ways the city can fix up blighted properties and then recoup the money spent by having it tacked onto the property’s owner’s tax bill.

Villere said the first step to bringing business to the Old Mandeville area is to come up with an identity for that area.

“I don’t think it has one,” he said. He said whatever kind of economic development is brought to the area needs to be conscious of that it is a mixed-use area and all commercial developments need to considerate of the residential uses that area already there.

When it comes to ethics and transparency in city government, both candidates said they would not be in favor of requiring financial disclosures for all department heads but would be in favor of requiring contractors to disclose all commissions and fees and subcontractors.

Both candidates also agreed that they would be in favor of a qualifications based process to follow when awarding professional service contracts.

Lenfant said she has tried on the council to put this in place but it has not been determined if it needs to be done by ordinance or charter change.

“If I am elected mayor I will do it by executive order,” she said.

Villere said the School Board, of which he is a member, has been using this process successfully for many years.

Lenfant was questioned if she knew about any of former mayor Eddie Price’s unethical dealings before the release of the legislative auditor’s report in 2008, and she replied no, stating that the separation of the executive and legislative branches of government prevented her from knowing about any of the unethical practices he has been cited for.

“Those issues were coming out of the mayor’s office. There was not a council issue. They were an executive and administrative issue,” she said, stressing that is why she feels it is so important that the city have a committee to conduct internal audits.

“I did not realize we had an ethics problem until the audit came out,” she said.

Both candidates said they would be in support of a citizens’ committee to review the city’s budget. When it comes to the budget, Villere said if elected mayor he would look at the break down for each department and she what dollars are spent and what services are provided to eliminate any waste.

He was questioned if he felt he did a disservice to the people he serves in his School Board district when he recently missed a School Board meeting to attend a Mandeville Council meeting.

Villere said he can “count the number of meetings on his hand” that he has missed and said he saw the agenda for the meeting and he felt he does a good job serving the people in his district.﷽