Iberia Parish Council candidates in the second part of the forum on Monday night at the Sliman Theater included Marty Trahan, Chris Feller and Matthew Henry.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

This is the second of two parts of Monday’s political forum for Iberia Parish Council candidates. The first part was published Tuesday.

Financial stability, consolidation and the tenuous relationship between the Iberia Parish Council and the Iberia Parish president were the hot topics at a forum in which most of the candidates participated.

With only two of the Parish’s Council’s seats filled by unopposed incumbents — District 2 and District 4 — a whopping 12 seats are up for grabs on the Oct. 24 election. Six seats have their incumbents being challenged by one candidate. Two seats have their incumbents challenged by two candidates and four look to have all new faces.

The candidates were asked to compare themselves to their opponents, name major issues in the parish, opine on the Parish Council-parish president relationship (though not stated explicitly, the current council and outgoing Parish President Romo Romero historically have been adversarial) and weigh in on the idea of consolidating all or some portions of Iberia Parish Government with New Iberia and other municipalities.

The Greater Iberia Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Iberia and The Daily Iberian sponsored the forum Monday at Sliman Theater in New Iberia, as well as last week’s forum for Iberia Parish Sheriff candidates, and Tuesday’s forum for Iberia Parish president candidates.

District 9

To succeed longtime Councilman Glenn Romero in District 9, which covers the Loreauville and Coteau Holmes area and reaches to Lake Fausse Pointe, Joel Dugas and Scott Ransonet face each other this year.

Dugas, a former Iberia Parish School Board member who briefly served as Parish President Romo Romero’s chief administrative officer, said people often talk about the legislative and executive branches of government but leave out the third branch.

“What about the judicial branch?” he asked. “There’s got to be consequences when one part of the government interferes with the other.”

On consolidation, Dugas said consolidation of services would work better than total consolidation, as evidenced by ongoing intergovernmental collaborations. He said tackling the relatively smaller issues like roads, bridges and drainage will ultimately help with the larger problem in Iberia Parish’s lack of growth.

“Unless you take care of the small things first, people aren’t going to want to move here to increase the revenue,” he said.

Ransonet, a newcomer, said it would behoove the parish government to poll former residents who moved to nearby parishes on why they left to help find the most pressing issues.

“Let’s go to them, figure out why they left and make the changes from there,” he said.

Ransonet cited roads and water quality as issues he’d like to see handled. In an effort to avoid future slumps to go along with oil industry downturns, he stressed the need to diversify the local economy, too.

“We can’t just keep living off oil,” he said. “Our kids are growing up in a different world than we did.”

Although supporting the current forms of intergovernmental consolidation, Ransonet cautioned against total consolidation, saying “sometimes these grand ideas get in the way of progress.”

District 10

District 10 includes the Port of Iberia, a stretch of U.S. 90 and Avery Island, but it also includes the smaller rural communities like Lydia and Grand Marais. The geographically large district has brought out Gerrit “T-Blu” Landry and Eugene Olivier to challenge incumbent Roger Duncan for the seat.

Landry, an offshore oilfield worker, touted his availability to the community, especially because his work schedule typically gives him two weeks off at a time.

“My phone, my house, my door’s open to the citizens’ needs,” he said. “I’m accessible half the month.”

Landry said fixing roads, bridges and flood protection would help spur economic growth by making the parish more attractive to businesses and prospective residents. The caveat, he added, was doing it within the parish’s financial means.

On consolidation, Landry said the discussion starts with a better relationship between the Parish Council and local city councils and he was confident new faces on the parish end could help foster that.

“That’s where we’re going to start,” he said. “With a new council and with a new president, I think everyone’s going to start agreeing more.”

Olivier, an auto mechanic who presides over Water Works District 4, pointed out his regular attendance at Parish Council meetings and familiarity with ongoing issues in parish government.

He called the past four years a “roller coaster ride” and “terrible for Iberia Parish,” thanks to the contentious executive-legislative relationship.

“It’s a one-sided argument,” he said. “The council was there, but there was no one from administration.”

Olivier proposed linking the variety of rural infrastructure districts — for example, the two water works districts — into one big system to save money and simplify operations. He said a comprehensive master plan was the best way to go for the parish’s future and said in discussions, one group often gets forgotten.

“We can’t forget the farming community,” he said. “Helping the farm people with what they do is vital for Iberia Parish.”

Duncan did not attend Monday’s forum.

District 11

Two men are looking to replace outgoing Councilman Jerome Fitch in District 11, which covers the northern half of Jeanerette and reaches northwest to New Iberia’s edge.

Robert Gates, who is retired, said availability would be one of his best abilities and he believed current Parish Council members needed to learn “how to balance a budget and a checkbook.”

Specific issues to focus on, Gates said, also included drainage, roads and bridges, especially considering $6 million was just bonded out to fix 10 closed bridges.

“Seems like to me, they should have worked on these bridges a long time ago,” he said. “Inspected them more frequently and repaired as needed.”

Gates agreed consolidating intergovernmental services was a potential money-saving tool and turned to neighboring parishes for inspiration when it comes to attracting business.

“Every time I get on (U.S.) 90, when I get by (Louisiana) 88 when St. Martin Parish starts, whatever they’re doing, they’re doing it right,” he said. “Whatever they’re doing, we need to emulate. I think if we get enough business here, we won’t have a spending problem.”

Brian Napier, a business owner, said he’s made it a point to attend Parish Council meetings all year long to familiarize himself with the issues, especially as a political rookie. Aside from roads (“That doesn’t need to be said,” he quipped), Napier said Parish Council and parish president cooperation is key for progress.

Scaling back services, possibly through consolidation, should at least be discussed as an expenditure reducer, Napier said.

“Surely that’s something we should look into as a council because duplicating services is spending money,” he said.

Napier, too, looked across parish lines for inspiration, but instead toward casinos in St. Mary Parish.

“I know that’s a touchy subject, but there’s a lot of money being spent in Jeanerette right at the parish line,” he said.

District 12

Incumbent Aquicline Rener-Arnold is being challenged by Berwick “June” Francis Jr. for the District 12 seat, which includes the southern half of Jeanerette following the St. Mary Parish line down to the Intracoastal Waterway.

Rener-Arnold, calling herself a “perfectionist,” said repairing the parish government’s image and infrastructure would do well to attract residential and business growth in the parish.

“No one wants to relocate to a parish where there’s always confusion, so that’s the most important thing,” she said.

Rener-Arnold said she hoped to build up the U.S. 90 corridor as a landing spot for future business because the existing tax increment financing, or TIF, revenue stream could help improve and maintain infrastructure.

“We’re not broke,” she said. “We’re not in a deficit, but we do need to tighten our belt and reduce expenses.”

For consolidation to work, Rener-Arnold said the parish government would have to make a serious effort to educate parish voters on the benefits of such a move before hoping bring that to fruition.

Francis did not attend the forum.

District 13

In District 13, centralized in Delcambre, reaching north to Lake Peigneur, east to U.S. 90 and south to Intracoastal Waterway, incumbent Marty Trahan faces a challenge from Chris Feller.

On the importance of infrastructure to the parish, Feller argued it was just as important to bring families to root themselves into the community as businesses.

“You want families to come back here?” he asked. “Fix the roads. Fix the parks. Bring something here that’s going to bring families here and the businesses will all follow.”

Feller, admitting he was “not privy” to longstanding tension between administration and the Parish Council, said the collaboration was vital to bringing progress to the parish. On consolidation, Feller compared jumping headfirst into the concept was like buying the first dishwasher ever made in the sense that an imperfect mechanism simply moves something bad elsewhere instead of fixing it.

“That dirt goes somewhere,” he said. “I don’t think you’re going to fix anything if you just jump into something.”

Trahan stressed the need to keep up bridge maintenance and coordinate bridge or road repairs to minimize restrictions on motorists, especially during harvesting seasons. He also stressed the need to re-examine existing taxes and millages to see where they might be effectively distributed.

“We have some fund balances that go really low,” he said. “I think we need to readjust them.”

Trahan said he would support forming ad hoc committees to thoroughly dissect those revenue sources for improvement. He added consolidation needed to be a discussion between parish and municipal leaders and said he was ready to take a leadership position if elected to a second term.

“I want to pull the new council together and show leadership to the parish president’s office,” he said. “There’s always room on the table to negotiate our differences.”

District 14

Two have challenged incumbent David Wayne Romero for District 14, which covers the Coteau area along the U.S. 90 corridor, straddling Louisiana 88 to the east and stopping just north of Lake Peigneur to the south.

Matthew Henry, a newcomer, said the communication issues between branches of government are long in the tooth and they need to be fixed before other issues like roads and job creation can be addressed.

“We’re losing population,” he said. “We’re losing business. Everyone’s leaving. Until (that stops), we’ll just have to work at it.”

On consolidation, Henry said intergovernmental cooperation was already successful, but for total consolidation to be seriously considered, people should be educated on the matter and decide whether to put it to a vote.

“It’s y’all’s decision on this one, not just the 14 people up here,” he said.

Romero and candidate Chad Maturin did not attend the forum.