Lafourche Parish Council chair’s post safe

The Lafourche Parish Council agreed, nearly unanimously, to allow Tommy Lasseigne to keep his chairman seat, at last Tuesday’s meeting.

Councilman Phillip Gouaux brought forth a motion to remove Lasseigne from the seat of Chairman due to “unprofessional conduct and lack of cooperation with the administration.”

Gouaux was the only councilman to vote for the motion. Tyrone Williams abstained from the vote, and Brent Callais was absent from the meeting.

Goauax started his argument as to why Lasseigne should be removed from the seat by pointing to an alteration in seating arrangements at the beginning of the year. “I tried to call you prior to that meeting,” said Gouaux. “During that discussion, you could not give me a valid reason why you wanted to change. In fact you even told the newspaper, ‘just because.’”

Gouaux went on to defend his belief in the old seating arrangements. “I was sitting between two of my fellow councilman in neighboring districts,” he said. “That was the seat that I held since being elected. I couldn’t see any reason for the move.”

Gouaux also said that Lasseigne failed to give members of the parish administration an opportunity to offer input into conversations. “At the last meeting, there were several questions posed by the public,” said Gouaux. “You refused to let the administration answer these questions.”

Before the vote, councilman Michael Matherne and Daniel Lorraine spoke out in support of Lasseigne, both saying that after just two months as chairman, some rough edges are to be expected.

“Being chairman isn’t easy,” said Matherne. “It’s time consuming. You balance your own personal wishes with the wishes of the council and the administration.

“I think you’re going to get there,” he added. “I think you’re working the kinks out. I think you’re doing a better job running the meetings.”

Matherne did request that Lasseigne allow members of the administration more contributions in conversations between the council. “I’d (also) ask you to regularly meet with members of the administration and with the council members so we’re all on the same team, and we continue to make progress.”

Lorraine commended Lasseigne for putting the motion to remove himself from chairman at the top of the agenda. “I know how it feels when you don’t want to put something on the agenda,” said Lorraine. “One of the previous council chairmans denied putting something on the agenda for me.

“(Lasseigne) has never refused, as far as I know, to put anything on the agenda. To get rid of him … he didn’t have to put it on the agenda if he didn’t want to. He was nice enough to put it first. You can’t make everybody happy,” he said.