Lafourche broaches term limits

The Lafourche Parish Council took the initial steps to allow its constituents to vote on the October ballot concerning whether council members and the parish president should face term limits, at its meeting last Tuesday at the Barrios Center in Raceland

Councilman Michael Matherne presented the resolution, which originally called for four-consecutive, four-year terms.

However, Brent Callais offered an amendment said a parish president could only serve two consecutive terms, while council members could serve three consecutive terms.

Callais’ amendment, which passed 9-0, called for council members to serve no more than three consecutive terms, and for the parish president to serve no more than two consecutive terms. “I basically modeled what the state legislature did,” he said. “I just dislike it, where it’s four terms for the parish president and four consecutive terms for the councilman. I think that’s a bit much.”

Matherne brought up the possibility of term limits after saying it was something his constituents had recently talked to him about. After researching how Lafourche Parish voters approved a 1995 ballot concerning term limits for the legislature, Matherne went ahead with the resolution.

In that 1995 election, 76 percent of Lafourche voters favored term limits. Matherne broke the votes down by district, where percentages voting in favor of term limits ranged from 70- to 80 percent.

After passing the resolution, the council will send it to the bond attorney. From there, it would become an ordinance, and if approved, would be put on the October ballot. Throughout the process, the council plans to hold public hearings to gauge exactly how constituents might currently feel.

“I think that it’s important to have dialogue about it,” said Matherne. “I think this is something that we should allow our citizens and constituents to decide.”

Even though he voted for the resolution, councilman Lindel Toups questioned it. “I say keep term limits every four years,” he said. “When you run for office, let the people decide if they want you or not.

“Some people want to be a councilman the rest of their lives, and some want to move up,” added Toups. “Like me, I don’t want to run for parish president or representative. But I don’t mind being a councilman for the rest of my life.”

Councilman Phillip Gouaux said the public hearings concerning term limits would be beneficial. “I really think the public hearing part of this is going to tell us exactly what the people really feel about this issue,” he said.

Gouaux added that a separate meeting concerning changes to the Home Rule Charter would help. “I want to make sure our verbiage and everything is correct, and what the public wants,” he said.

Chairman Tommy Lasseigne voted for the resolution, saying that as long as the measure is sensible, he is “all for putting it to the people.”