The following questions were asked of each candidiate for Iberia Parish Council District 7. Here are the answers for John Berard exactly how they were received:

1. What are the three biggest issues facing Iberia Parish? Your district? What specifically should be done to address each?

1. We need to entice business and industry to our parish for it to grow.

Answer: Business and industry can be enticed to Iberia Parish by offering tax breaks and incentives not by forcing unwanted TIF taxes on our community. When businnesses like Simoneauds Grocery, Menard’s Supermarket, BI-LO and Fremin’s Grocery started they went to a bank and got the money to open. They did not ask parish government to stuff a TIF tax down our throats to pay for their buildings and investments.

2. We need a recurring revenue source for our Parish Jail. Right now monies are taken from our road funds to keep paying for the jail.

Answer: During 2012 money will become available from the offshore oil severance fund that can be used for the jail.

3. Crime in our parish is a problem with the growing ‘ home invasions’ and breaking and entering incidents.

Answer: The city of New Iberia and our Parish Council are always working with our Sheriff Department to halt any problems that may arise in our district. The sheriff department has helped by making a more visible show of patrol cars in our area. This along with neighborhood watches have helped much.

1. Tee Bayou needs to be made safer from possible flooding problems .

Answer: Tee Bayou worked well years ago. However in recent years debris and silt have slowed the flow of water there. Our Council is working with St. Martin Parish to get the lake dug out deeper to allow a better flow . We are working on another plan that will move water from Tee Bayou down the Pharr Canal into Bayou Teche between New Iberia and Jeanerette. Together these two projects should solve the Tee Bayou problem for years to come.

2. Protection for our area from storm surges like we saw during Hurricane Rita.

Answer: The Parish Council is working with state and federal officials to get a levee and floodgate system started to prevent future hurricane surges from reaching the City of New as happened during Hurricane Rita in 2005.

3. Homes , businesses and autos being burglarized.

Answer: Crime in our parish is a problem with the growing ‘ home invasions’ and breaking and entering incidents.

Answer: The City of New Iberia and our Parish Council are always working with our Sheriff Department to halt any problems that may arise in our district. The Sheriff Department has helped by making a more visible show of patrol cars in our area. This along with neighborhood watches have helped much.

2. What are your thoughts about the tax increment financing districts? Should voters decide taxes in such a district?

Most people feel that the laws that control tax increment financing districts (TIFS) should be rewritten . Most feel that any new tax should be voted on by the public. Right now the district is drawn with no voters in it. That way no one can vote it down. This is wrong and should br revisited by the Louisiana House and Senate. We all want tools in our box that can get ‘dirt flying’ and new business going. But we want it done in an honest and up-front fashion…not with these ‘hated TIF taxes’…..

3. Are there areas of spending in parish government that could be reduced? What areas of spending in parish government should be increased?

Our parish council members should take a pay cut before they ever cut any services for our citizens. That is the leadership that is expected of us. Our parish president gets 126 thousand a year , that could be cut. One area that we need to spend more money on is roads. More money may become available when the offshore oil severance money begins to arrive here in 2012. This money will also be available for help with our jail which we are mandated by law to operate.

4. What are your thoughts about consolidating some parish and city services?

There are a few areas where we can attempt to work together . One area would be the city and parish parks. Some joint projects have already been tried. We could try to make it work in some other areas also. Waste pick up would be another place where money could be saved without cutting back on the quality of services.

5. A recycling contract is in limbo right now. An argument against recycling is that there is little participation in the parish. An argument to it is it is a viable way to reduce the amount of waste headed to the landfills. Do you support recycling? If you do, do you have any ideas how to increase participation?

We need to work with our other elected officials to find a way to get more people to recycle. Yes I do support recycling. We can reduce the amount of waste headed for our landfills by getting more people on board. The Iberia Parish School Board would be a place to start by having teachers take part in encouraging students and their parents to take a more active role in recycling.