Candidates for New Iberia City Marshal Brett Lang, Tony Migues and Corey Porter discussed a wide array of issues affecting local enforcement during Tuesday’s Greater Iberia Chamber of Commerce forum for the marshal position.

Migues, who has been marshal for a year, was elected following the death of Vic Delcambre, who had served as marshal for years.

Calling himself a “people person,” Migues said he has been able to form relationships with Mayor Freddie DeCourt, City Judge Trey Haik and the city’s new police department since he took office.

“I’ve worked diligently to honor the promises I made, and I’m proud to say things are going well for the marshal’s office.”

Lang, who worked under Delcambre and has experience working in multiple local law enforcement agencies, is running under the idea of putting New Iberia’s marshal office on par with larger marshal’s offices in surrounding districts.

“There’s a lot of things I don’t like going on in the city,” Lang said. “We need to be more diverse, we need to feel safe in our homes, the city marshal’s office needs to be like the surrounding areas.”

Porter has 28 years of law enforcement experience working in New Orleans and Houston and was one of the founding members of the New Iberia Police Department.

Porter said he offers a wealth of knowledge and experience in law enforcement, and wants to “do the work in the community to help bridge the gap in community relations.”

“Being a person with my background, this is a great community and I know this is the community for me to help,” Porter said.

When asked about the biggest challenge facing the community, Migues said finances were the number one issue. The office gets money from tickets written and Migues said those were increasing.

“We didn’t have computers, I got them donated,” Migues said. “I got radios for the units. Going out, knowing people, asking them to help you did it.”

Lang agreed that finances were the main problem, and suggested pursuing grants that would help along those lines.

“The money’s just not there for the marshal’s office,” he said. “There are grants we could be getting.”

Porter said manpower was the biggest challenge for the office, and said he would like to recruit more employees to help the court and assist local law enforcement.

“We need police officers and law enforcement agencies that want to believe in community policing,” Porter said. “It’s going to work, you have to believe in it.”