Lake Charles mayor slams nonprofit leader for online criticism, leading her to resign

LAKE CHARLES – A batch of emails Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter initially sought to withhold from a public records request shows he complained to the board of a nonprofit that does work with the city on programs for at-risk youth after the director criticized the city and school system on social media. 

Then, he rejected a funding request from Erin Davison, who says she was later encouraged to resign by the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters. Davison had questioned the city’s Mardi Gras safety protocols and panned how the local public school system handled severe weather.

Hunter called Davison, then-executive director of the youth mentoring group, “unhinged” in one email sent in April to their board of directors. Shortly after, the mayor declined Davison’s annual funding request for MentorU, a Big Brothers Big Sisters’ program that prevents students ages 12 to 16 from dropping out of school. 

The mayor’s remarks were revealed in hundreds of pages of emails the Illuminator obtained in a public records request. Hunter initially withheld the records until the Illuminator sued, challenging his reasons for not providing them. 

  

Davison, who won a Blue Cross Blue Shield Angel Award in September for her work with Big Brothers Big Sisters, resigned from the nonprofit in October. She said board members told her she should move on from the organization.   

“I was very upset and angry that the board did not defend me or support me on the record,” Davison said. 

The Illuminator reached out to the mayor for comment, but city public information officer Katie Harrington answered questions on his behalf.

“The mayor’s email speaks for itself,” Harrington said. BBBS board members either did not respond or declined comment, as did several city council members and other officials.

Severe weather April 10 that spawned three tornadoes triggered Davison’s online criticism. School bus drivers were forced to navigate dangerous conditions to get students to school when administrators opted not to cancel classes. The National Weather Service confirmed three separate tornadoes touched down in the area, including an EF-2 tornado with winds up to 115 mph near McNeese State University.

“Stop the buses from traveling in a live tornado warning, keep teachers at home and avoid what could have happened in a major weather event,” Davison wrote, in part, in a Facebook post. 

Calcasieu Parish School Superintendent Shannon Lafargue ultimately took responsibility for not closing schools and resigned in early May.  

Also on April 10, Hunter emailed three BBBS board members – Erica Martin, Ed McGuire and Velika Trahan – to share his displeasure with Davison’s social media activity. 

The mayor cited a string of social media posts from her personal Facebook page, made from February through April. They included her disapproval of the city’s safety measures during its Krewe of Krewes Mardi Gras parade.

“The city decided to buy more barricades instead of paying law enforcement to escort floats along the parade route,” Davison wrote in a Feb. 14 Facebook post. She also alleged officers along the parade route were given compensatory time off instead of being paid.

Harrington said Lake Charles police officers were paid double time for working the event because it fell on a holiday.

“Constructive criticism in the proper setting is one thing, but emotional rants on social media is another,” Hunter said in his email to the board members. “These agencies are your partners. I just don’t understand her and don’t understand why this behavior isn’t called out. This stuff makes agencies not want to work with BBBS.”

In addition to the city and Calcasieu Parish School Board, partners for MentorU listed on the BBBS website include the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, PPG Industries, Cheniere Energy and other local government agencies. 

Hunter also wrote that he “did nothing when she made some ridiculous and uninformed comments about the City of Lake Charles and our lack of care and support for public safety during Mardi Gras. Today, she is attacking the Calcasieu Parish School Board on social media, and I feel inspired to give y’all my two cents. She seems unhinged.”

The ask

On the same day as the severe weather, Davison had requested Hunter add the MentorU funding request to the city council meeting agenda.

The city has been a MentorU partner since its inception in 2021, according to Davison, in response to “increased juvenile problems post-COVID.” Its participants are referred from juvenile justice programs, local schools and other at-risk programs in Calcasieu Parish. 

“The mayor helped me craft the program outline,” added Davison, who also credited the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office, the local district attorney, police jury members and the state Office of Juvenile Justice for their input.

MentorU started with 40 youths, Davison said. By the time she left BBBS in October, the program had expanded into two alternative high schools and served more than 200 teenagers.

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According to Davison, 90% of MentorU youth earned passing grades, 85% reported less alcohol and drug abuse, 80% graduated high school and 75% had fewer run-ins with law enforcement.

A representative of BBBS did not respond when asked through email to verify Davison’s statistics.

Despite that track record, Hunter chose to sever ties with Big Brothers Big Sisters. 

“We’re going to respectfully pass,” the mayor responded in an April 12 email to Davison’s funding request.

Davison said the city’s financial support had dropped in recent years. Its allocation to Big Brothers Big Sisters was $25,000 in 2022, their first year as a partner, and $15,000 in 2023. 

“I built a diversified financial portfolio to not have to rely on one funder or funding source,” Davison said, adding that she planned to ask the city for $12,000 in April 2024.

Board intervention

Davison said BBBS board chair Lacy Viator notified Davison of Hunter’s email on the afternoon of April 10 and shared a screenshot of it. After Hunter rejected Davison’s funding request, she said she reached out to all 11 BBBS board members to intervene on her behalf. She described the email the mayor had sent to three of the board members as “a personal attack, using words that demean women in leadership.”

Davison was present at an April 17 BBBS board meeting when members discussed how to respond to Hunter’s refusal to fund the MentorU program.

“The men on the board felt it wasn’t important for them to respond and support me,” Davison said. “The women on the board agreed there should be a support response, but the men outvoted the women.

“The board members have jobs and business interactions with the city,” she added. “That impacted their decision based on their personal professional dealings, I can only assume.”

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Davison said she also asked for the board’s help reaching out to Lake Charles City Council members, who could set aside the funding for MentorU themselves. Board member Velika Trahan said she would contact City Council President Craig Marks, according to Davison, who said she never received follow-up from either one. 

Trahan would not comment. Marks did not respond to a request for comment. BBBS board members Anthony Celestine, Lindsey Cutler, Ed McGuire, Kedrick Nicholas and Cinnamon Salvador also would not comment. The remaining board members, David Foley, Eric Fry, Carl Lanham and Alex Richard, did not respond to interview requests by phone and email.

Davison said she then contacted City Councilman Ronnie Harvey, who’s also chief academic officer for the Calcasieu Parish School District. Harvey told her the funding renewal would be placed on an upcoming council meeting agenda but did not specify a date. 

Davison and Harvey exchanged texts regarding the proposed agenda item, she said.  

“After a few follow-ups on my part,” Davison said, “I gave up.”

Harvey did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this report.

Current BBBS chair Erica Martin, who would not respond to the Illuminator’s specific questions, provided a written statement. 

“While we can speak broadly to all of the relationships we’ve built, how these partnerships and donations support our mission, and the impact that they have on the community, it would be counterproductive to the goals of our organization to focus on just one individual partnership that supports our mission,” Martin wrote.

Viator also declined to comment for this report, citing her confidentiality agreement with the organization. Emails the Illuminator obtained show she responded to the mayor’s complaints about Davison.  

“We are currently addressing the matter,” Viator wrote to Hunter in an April 18 email.

Davison failed to secure city funding for MentorU before the city council’s Sept. 15 deadline to approve its budget for the following fiscal year. She told the Illuminator she “did not want to resign or leave the organization,” but felt resigning was the only choice she had, in part, because the board of directors was not being transparent. 

Two BBBS board members, who Davison declined to name, reached out to her separately to suggest she make an exit plan for leaving the organization.

“I don’t know if it has anything to do with the mayor’s comments. I never asked. I was scared to ask,” Davison said. “I just had, and have, a gut feeling. I feel there is something I don’t know or is missing.”

During the Oct. 16 BBBS board meeting, Davison said the board accepted her resignation. She was also instructed to leave the building, which she did.

Moving on

It appears that Hunter has since made efforts to re-establish a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Louisiana.

In emails from late October to early November that the Illuminator obtained in a separate public records request, Hunter requested a meeting with three Big Brothers Big Sisters board members – Nicholas, Martin and Viator – and received confirmation of a phone meeting to take place on Nov. 1. 

By Nov. 25, Hunter received an introductory email from Jillian Cormier, who had been named interim executive director of the nonprofit a day after Davison resigned. 

“I’d love the chance to meet with you in person to share a little more about myself, talk about Big Brothers Big Sisters, and discuss my vision for where we’re headed,” Cormier wrote. 

Hunter told Cormier that he would “be honored,” but it would “literally be after January 1” before he could meet with her.

Harrington told the Illuminator Jan. 8 the Lake Charles Police Department recently partnered with Target for its Heroes and Helpers holiday event for the second consecutive year to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Louisiana.

“At this time, the city has no additional outstanding program participation requests from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Louisiana, but remains open to consideration of any future requests,” Harrington said.