William Short
October 12, 2010
Trial in Gulf oil spill cases postponed
October 14, 2010Tommy Eschete went door-to-door, touting change in leadership and means of attaining goals for the city of Thibodaux. On Oct. 2, his hard work was rewarded when he was elected mayor of Thibodaux, and the next step is his timeline for policy enactment.
Eschete takes office Dec. 13, and in the meantime, he will work to put together not only a staff for himself, but also a committee of community members to appoint a new police chief for the Thibodaux Police Department.
“A committee will be formed prior to the time I take office, so we can start reviewing potential applicants,” he said. “Hopefully, we can put that selection process on the fast track. I have to, by charter, have a nomination to the council within 60 days [of taking office], so we will need to move rather quickly on that.”
In his four-year plan, Eschete brought up concerns about leadership within the department, citing the turnover of three police chiefs and 91 officers in 10 years.
“This is not acceptable,” reads a segment of the plan. “My sound policy of leadership will not promote this type of instability within our department.”
The mayor-elect acknowledged the selection of a new police chief was among his top priorities, but he seemed most concerned about an infrastructure issue.
The gas distribution center in Schriever, which serves as Thibodaux’s gate to natural gas, needs immediate attention, Eschete said.
“It needs to be replaced, refurbished, updated, and that’s really more of a safety issue than anything else,” he said. “That will be a top priority as far as an infrastructure standpoint.”
Eschete said the gas distribution system, which was built in 1941, was included in the budget last year, and he also emphasized that it is of utmost importance to address it as quickly as possible. His four-year plan estimates a cost of $100,000 for the project.
Because he has not been inaugurated as mayor, Eschete does not have a say in how the 2011 budget is compiled. Instead, outgoing Mayor Charles Caillouet and the Thibodaux City Council will work together to construct the financial plans for the next year.
“I’ll have to review the budget that the council adopts and see if there is some changes that need to be made,” Eschete said. “If I think that there is other infrastructure issues that would take priority over what is actually going to be budgeted in 2011, then certainly I would want to sit down with the council members and ask them to reassess what they appropriated in the budget.”
Eschete will address those three issues when he enters office, but in the two months prior, he will work on assembling his staff sans the police chief.
“Assembling a staff is something that’s going to take a little while but hopefully I’ll have most of the people other than the police chief ready to go when I take office,” he said. “Hopefully those selections will be made or will be made in short order right after that.”
Eschete, who won the mayoral election with 55 percent of the vote, said he wasn’t surprised by outcome as much as he was the margin.
“We anticipated a close election, so I was a little surprised that it was that large of a margin,” he said. “I anticipated it being close either way. Of course, we were pleased with it, but I believe in the long run, basically, the hard work with reference to our door-to-door campaign paid off.”
