Obama wins re-election; the latest in local election results
November 7, 2012
Morgan City mayoral race heads to run-off
November 7, 2012Lafourche voters ousted the non-elected parish administrator, second in command to the parish president, on Tuesday when they approved two amendments to the parish’s Home Rule Charter.
Crystal Chiasson, the administrator, was not immediately available for comment.
Voters imposed a requirement that future administrators must have been domiciled in Lafourche Parish for one year prior their nomination with 58 percent of the vote. A complementing proposition retroactively enforcing the provision passed with 54 percent of the vote, meaning Chiasson, who lives in Assumption Parish, will vacate the office within 10 days.
Chiasson paid $1,200 in tax on three Lafourche properties last year. She is a graduate of Nicholls State University, and retained her position in January after a supportive council vote.
Supporters of the amendment contended Lafourche residents are more invested in the parish’s welfare, and that Chiasson’s out-of-parish residence obstructs the proper government succession plan from working in the event of an emergency.
In the event Parish President Charlotte Randolph must vacate office, the parish administrator is second in line. Because Chiasson lives outside the parish, that duty would fall on the council chairman, which has prevented at least one councilman from seeking the position.
Regarding where she lives, Chiasson has said assertions of her caring less about the parish’s welfare because of her address – less 20 miles from her Thibodaux office – are false.
“If I own property here and my plans are to build here, I want the parish to be the best it can be,” Chiasson said last month. “You don’t have to be in a parish to love a parish. … I don’t own my home in Assumption Parish. I don’t own anything in Assumption Parish.”
Chiasson was fired via amendments to the parish’s Home Rule Charter, the set of foundational bylaws that direct Lafourche Parish Government. The amendments were posed after parish council approved their inclusion on the ballot by a 6-2 vote.
Voters approved the residency requirement on future nominees with a 18,372-to-13,315 vote. Voters approved its retroactive enforcement with a 16,795-to-14,438 vote.
Councilman Jerry Jones, of District 1, sponsored the ordinances for council vote.
Some councilmen said last month they were surprised the propositions were split. A council amendment that would have mandated this failed, and early impressions were that the residency requirement and retroactive enforcement would be intertwined.
However, Alan Offner, an attorney with Foley and Judell, the firm that drafted the propositions for the ballot, said voters typically aren’t asked two questions in one proposition because it creates confusion. So the provisions were divided.
