Trilby Lenfant - Too late for Reform

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Just the Facts

This all started about one month ago when a friend of a friend asked me to put up Trilby's sign. I trusted my friend's judgment, so agreed to it. Like most voters, I will follow the opinion of those that I know that seem to have good judgement. Boy was I wrong. I started hearing rumors, which my friend said where blatantly false, so decide to do a little research. Most everything on this site can be found with simple Google searches. What an eye-opener. I hope you take the time to read what's on this site, because it certainly changed my mind. The sign is no longer in my yard and I refuse to vote based on someone else's opinion. Obviously I have my own opinion now. Take the time to look at the facts before you cast your vote.


UPDATES

3/17: The Case of the Missing MLS
Two days ago, MLS #805906 ($1,090,000.00) was listed on the realtor pages for sale. This property was described as 22 acres in The Preserve. Today, it's gone. Don't worry, it can still be found here. Probably either a very quick sale, or a nervous owner. Looks like as of 3/25 it is back on the market.

3/22: Wetlands Assimilation
I spilled coffee all over myslef this morning watching this WWL interview with Trilby. At around -3:45 in the interview, Trilby touts her involvement in the Mandeville Wetlands Assimilation Project. Once again, she forgets to mention her personal involvement. Just so happens, I had just printed out the attached Council Meeting Minutes. Ordinance 04-51 is where the Council voted unanimously to allow the Mayor to negotiate the purchase of land from Mr. Rene Ferran to used for wetlands assimilation. If you don't recall, Mr. Ferran is Mr. Lenfant's business partner in the Preserve, LLC.

Not a lawyer, but seems that Council members should not be voting on issues where they may have a real or perceived conflict of interest.

Mandeville City Attorney disagrees and said, "there did not appear to be a problem with the votes because Lenfant did not have an economic interest in Ferran's property". Louisiana Conflict of Interest Laws state on pg.10, "No public servant, except as provided in R.S. 42:1120 [See,page 18], shall participate in a transaction involving the governmental entity in which, to his actual knowledge, any of the following persons has a substantial economic interest
(3) "Any person of which he is an officer, director, trustee, partner, or employee."

Think the above fits the Lenfant/Ferran relationship.

3/26: Times Picayune Story
This story states, "An examination into the claims made on the site, and later in the flier, has revealed a mix of truth, unverifiable assertions and information that is less controversial than it appears." So let's figure out which is which...look for the RED text - these are the only items in the Picayune article for this website that were questioned, therefore I assume that they agree with me and the rest is TRUTH.

4/2: Buisson Creative Strategies Rsponses
Came across Trilby's responses to some of the stuff on this website, so figured I would share

1. Use of City Credit Cards
Buisson, "She did have meals with the former mayor in the company of other city personnel and elected officials. These were to discuss city business and were not in violation of any laws according to the Legislative Auditor."

Trilby, (from Legislative Audit), "Council member Trilby Lenfant indicated that she felt it was inappropriate for Mayor
Price to purchase meals for employees."

Trilby, (from Legislative Audit), "In addition, from February 2004 to September 2007, Mayor Price purchased seven meals
totaling $1,538 which were attended by a majority of City council members. City council members Lenfant and Coogan stated that the meetings were not business-related and would not violate open meetings law".

ME: Buisson, representing Trilby, says the meals were business related. Trilby is quoted as saying they were not business related.
ME: Buisson, representing Trilby, says meals were in the company of city personnel. Trilby says it's inappropriate to purchase meals for employees.

so, who is telling the truth here.....

2. Preserve Acreage
Buisson, "The acreage owned by the Preserve LLC is owned jointly by the 11 original property owners of the Preserve". Trilby and her husband own 1/11th of the property or less than 10% as required for reporting in the financial disclosure.

ME: Then why is listed as her personal property on her Financial Disclosure. Why isn't it stated that it is a 1/11th ownership.



Does Trilby have Integrity?

Integrity as a concept has to do with perceived consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcome. Integrity is a quality of having a sense of honesty and truthfulness in regard to the motivations for one's actions.

-Based on her actions, expectations and outcome, her Integrity is aligned with Developers and vendors that do business with the City of Mandeville.

·         As an appointed Planning and Zoning Board member and elected Councilwoman, she consistently voted on matters that were directly related to the Preserve subdivision. Doesn't sound wrong, but her husband is an Officer of THE PRESERVE, LLC, a for profit LLC.

-Based on her sense of honesty and truthfulness, she once again fails. Once again, aligned with the Developers and vendors that do business with the City of Mandeville.

  • Dinner and drinks at Nuvolaris. Never paid? Didn’t know who paid? Total dishonesty, or just plain stupidity. Quote from the Legislative Audit, "Mr. Meyer also stated that he purchases drinks and meals for city council members and City employees after Council meetings ona regular basis." (Testimony from Rick Meyer of Meyer Engineers - the City's counsulting engineering firm.

Trilby calls for an annual Internal Audit

There already is one. You sign it every year. Your name is on it and you have never had any objections, much less a question. Here are a few examples:

  • 2/8/2001 - Acceptance of annual audit by LaPorte, Sehrt, Romig and Hand. Mr. Bechac moved to accept the annual audit by LaPorte, Sehrt, Romig and Hand; and was seconded by Mrs. Lenfant.
  • 1/10/2002 - Approval of City of Mandeville Audit Summary prepared by LaPorte, Sehrt, Romig & Hand. Mr. Jimmy Hand presented the audit summ ary of August 31, 2001......A motion was made by Mrs. Boettner and seconded by Mrs. Lenfant to approve the audit summary.
  • 8/28/2003 - A motion was made by Mr. Bechac and seconded by Mrs. Lenfant for the approval of the Louisiana Compliance Questionnaire as prepared by LaPorte, Sehrt, Romig & Hand. Mr. Stiebing said that this was just a pre-audit questionnaire that the City had to answer.

I stopped reading the rest of the Council minutes because it's all the same.

Trilby - saying you want to start an Annual Audit is nothing new....you just have not been following your own laws. The Mandeville Municipal Charter, Section 2-08 states the following, "The council shall provide for an annual independent post audit, and such additional audits as it deems necessary, of the accounts and other evidence of financial transactions of the city, including those of all city departments, offices or agencies."

The audit has always been your responsibility and you fell asleep at the wheel.


Trilby wants to prevent misuse of City Credit Cards

These are the same credit cards that bought so many of your meals and drinks over the years. Now that everyone got caught, it's time for Reform? Answer one question with a Yes or No answer:

Have you ever received meals or drinks bought on City credit cards?

Quoted from the Legislative Audit, "In addition, from February 2004 to September 2007, Mayor Price purchased seven meals totaling $1,538.00 which were attended by the majority of City council members. City council members Lenfant and Coogan stated that the meetings were not business-related and would not violate open meeting laws."

So, you admit that you where there. 

 

 

 

Trilby wants to improve the process for selection of engineers, architects and other professional service providers

Looks like around 80% of your campaign donations come from these same people. Trilby - return all of these donations, then you can make this statement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special Land Use

We have all heard about our Assesor and the problems going on with Special Land Use Taxes. Basically, it's a way for "connected people" to pay less on their Taxes for land they own. There was even an Investigative Report on this subject.

What the Report forgot was Trilby. This is a little confusing, so please follow this path:

1. Trilby's husband is an Officer of the Preserve, LLC.

2. The Preserve LLC looks like it owns almost 200 acres in the Preserve. Straight from the Assesor

3. Trilby's financial disclosure, page 9 lists this same property as her personal property. (think she forgot to list the Preserve, LLC in this same disclosure as business controlled by her or her husband--ethics violation?)

So, what we have in the end is a "connected politician" who pays less than $2,500.00/year on almost 200 acres in the Preserve. In 2003, on one of these parcels, they actually paid  $25,981.55 is taxes. This was, of course, before the new "Special Use" designation.

So, the next question is - "What is the land actually worth". I am not a real estate agent, but the following Preserve properties are for sale.

-MLS# 805906, $1,090,000
-MLS# 815874, $2,800,000
-MLS# 806595, $3,300,000

And I will end this with the worst part. Trilby cannot deny that she knew what was going on with the Special Land Use because she read by title Ordinance 02-23 and made a motion for its introduction. What's important about this Ordinance - It rezoned land she owns in the Preserve to Special Use, allowing less Taxes for herself. 

Ms. Lenfant did not vote on the actual matter. The City Attorney says, "You can participate but not vote. I say, participation leads to influencing. Our Assesor says the Special Use Tax is appropriate becasue the land is marsh. The MLS listings, potential comparables, are also marsh. So if land is marsh, it's worth less?


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