Surrounded by his family and teary-eyed city staffers, Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price announced his resignation Friday, saying the "distractions" of the past year are weighing too heavily on the city. Price addressed reporters at a 4:30 p.m. news conference at City Hall, ending a political career that seemed headed on a fast track to the parish presidency before disintegrating into a morass of out-of-control credit card spending, vacations on city contractors' dimes and near-arrests for drinking and driving. For more than a year, Price has been a target of a federal investigation stemming from a scathing state audit released a year ago. Sources close to the case said that Price is in the process of negotiating a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. Neither Price nor his attorney, Ralph Whalen, would comment on whether a deal is in the works.
