MANDEVILLE, La. — A former Mandeville City Council Member died suddenly last year, leaving a big void for both her family and the carnival organization she founded with a group of friends. Control of the Northshore group, the Goddesses of Fun and Merriment, was left up in the air and the ensuing struggle over it severed the very relationships it grew from.
“They built it up from scratch,” said Colin Buchholz, Carla’s husband, “They paraded for 9 years.”
When Carla Buchholz passed away last year, the five-member board of the group also lost its tie-breaking vote. Two of the board members wanted to shut the organization down and two wanted it to continue. There is no record of them ever making a formal decision about which direction to take.
Back when the group of women decided to start it, they nominated Carla to serve as Captain. She ran with the nod from her friends helping to create a day that they all looked forward to. The Goddesses hand-beaded the corsets they would wear to promenade through the French Quarter the Friday before Fat Tuesday.
The group would celebrate on the balcony of Pier 424 Seafood Market on Bourbon Street, tossing down hand-beaded bustiers to the lucky few, before strolling to the music of a brass band through the streets.
“Carla created a first-class organization. We had our own photographer, our own jazz band,” said Linda Funchess, the Goddesses’ Executive Vice President at the time of Carla’s passing.
When she died, it was devastating to everyone who knew her. A woman who was the life of every party would no longer be there. They were a tight-knit group of friends drawn closer together through their management of the organization they built from the ground up.
“We decided to go and go meet the other board members and grieve together, console each other and when we arrived, there was a board meeting in process,” Funchess said.
Days after Carla died, then-Vice President Kim Dubose was ready to take over to move the organization forward.
“Carla was a dear friend to all of us. And if it was too hard or too sad to continue on without Carla, I respected that. But we did not want to shut down the organization. We wanted to keep it going,” Dubose said.
But Funchess and Colin insist Carla was ready to shut it down even before she died, and that ending on a high note is what she would have wanted.
“At the time, we had 27 members, and it would have required, because the cost of everything had gone up, that we would have needed 70 members,” Funchess said.
That left two board members wanting to shut the Goddesses down and two wanting it to continue. The group had no succession plan or bylaws.
“She wanted to shut the organization down and we did not. And that's how it ended. And that's why she said, well, I'm going to resign then,” Dubose said.
But Funchess says she never formally resigned and after leaving two meetings without a formal decision made, Funchess started making moves to shut it down while Kim made moves to take it over.
Linda sent out an email to the members on August 18, 2023, 13 days after Carla had died.
It read, "Our day of fun and merriment has officially been canceled." Funchess then started refunding the members' money.
“We knew nothing about her sending the people their money back,” Dubose continued, “She didn't have the right to do that without discussing it with the rest of us.”
So that same day, Kim filed paperwork with the Louisiana Secretary of State to amend their articles of incorporation and take control of the organization.
Business records filed in 2017 listed Carla as the Owner/President of the Goddesses, Linda Funchess as Executive Vice President and Kim Dubose as Vice President.
But records show on August 18, Kim took Funchess off the group’s business filings through the Secretary of State’s Geauxbiz website and listed herself as President, even though the board never voted to give her the authority to.
“The funeral was on a Friday, the meeting was on a Wednesday, by that Thursday, it had been taken over,” Funchess said.
As we revealed in a previous investigation, the Secretary of State does not verify whether someone has the right to change official business documents in the state.
The only way to protect business filings from unauthorized changes is to get a PIN number by submitting notarized business documents through a secure business filing process.
“With her saying she was resigning and shutting down the organization and sending everybody their money back, I just assumed, okay, well, she's out,” Dubose said.
Linda says she never resigned.
“You got to have some kind of legal documents that say, okay, I'm resigning, take my name off of this incorporation paperwork,” Colin said.
The Louisiana Secretary of State, Nancy Landry, declined to do an interview about this story, meanwhile tens of thousands of business filings, like the Goddesses’, remain unsecured.
Dubose used the altered documents to take control of the group’s bank account as well.
Dubose also said she, Carla and Funchess were all previously authorized account users for the Goddesses' account.
“All our members who were refunded their money sent it all back in, and we proceeded to move forward,” Dubose said.
But the whole thing has gotten ugly. Colin and Funchess still believe Carla would've wanted to shut it down. And Kim still strongly feels the opposite.
“They falsified records with the Secretary of State when they told them that Linda and Rose had resigned, which they never did,” Colin said.
Rose Brady was the other board member who wanted to shut the Goddesses down.
Colin filed a complaint with Mandeville Police and the Louisiana State Police about how Dubose changed the state business and bank documents to take control. Both agencies declined to press any charges.
“I would not have gone on there and done anything if they would have told me I couldn't have,” Dubose said.
After expanding membership to over 70 people the year Carla died, the new Goddesses held their party at their usual spot. They say Colin parked a U-haul truck under its Bourbon Street balcony to disrupt the event.
Funchess said Carla never would have wanted it to play out this way, with longtime friendships lost.
“She was an incredible friend, and I'll always treasure the memories we've had together,” Funchess said.
Dubose hopes with time, the group will be able to make new treasured memories together, honoring Carla’s in the process.
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