Q. You have stated that levees are important to alleviate coastal flooding, but they are expensive. Where will you start to find the money and how would you go about getting them built?

A. I’ll begin every task as parish president with a basic strategy of developing strategic partnerships with federal, state and local stakeholder groups.  My background shows I build partnerships.  During the past four years, Iberia parish only received $8.7 million of $495.7 million available to Louisiana under the Coastal Impact Assistance Program for projects like levee protection and still no action has been taken. Instead of missing these opportunities, I’ll use these partnerships to get more funding to protect our families and businesses.

Q. TIF districts have been discussed during campaigning. Could existing businesses be negatively impacted by the tax? Why or why not?

A. If used properly TIFs could be effective even though the initial concept was for blighted areas. Currently, it is taxation without representation and some studies show 65 percent of TIF districts fail, which is why a vote of the people should have been allowed.  Common sense seems to say TIFs can be unfair to successful existing businesses that used their own money to start or expand, while more recent unproven businesses are in a position to get government handouts.

Q. Much money has been spent recently for improvements at the jail.
Sometimes upkeep is a difficult dance between the Sheriff’s Office that
operates it and the parish that owns it. How can
c ooperation and communication be improved so that the facility is more
consistently better maintained over the years?

A. I have first-hand knowledge of the difficulties in running the jail. While parish government has not always recognized their responsibility to fund the jail, my knowledge of the operational intricacies of the jail will promote a better understanding so that the parish and the sheriff can work together more efficiently. And, I’ll implement a bi-annual inspection of the jail by the parish council so we can take corrective measures before problems begin.