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August 31, 2018
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August 31, 2018
The Lafourche Parish Council fired Parish Administrator Tommy Lasseigne at Tuesday’s meeting.
Parish Risk Manager Brent Abadie will serve as Interim Lafourche Parish Administrator, in the wake of decision, which was cast by a 7-2 council vote.
Parish President Jimmy Cantrelle doesn’t agree with the decision. He said Lasseigne did a great job and he believes its time the council starts to cooperate with his administration, instead of going against it.
“These guys can vote and have voted against most appointments I have made. All I have to say is to quote a passage from the Bible, where it says you can’t serve two masters,” Cantrelle said. “We’re here to do a great job for the good people of Lafourche Parish, and trust me, they are getting tired of all this back and forth,”
As a result of Lasseigne’s removal, the parish president said Lasseigne will return to his previous job as Parish Manager, where he is strictly a civil service employee.
“As Interim Administrator, he was on salary. Now, he will be paid hourly, according to civil service regulations. I’m not so sure that was a smart move by the council,” Cantrelle said. “Mr. Lasseigne did a great job as the Interim Parish Administrator. Sure, he’s often blunt and frank with people, but that’s how he is. There are people like him in this world. That’s just how they are, it doesn’t mean however that they’re bad employees. Nothing could be farther from the truth with Tommy.”
Lasseigne could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, but his colleagues on the council don’t have as high regard for the ousted employee as the parish president.
Councilman Jerry Jones said Lasseigne is one of the most “conniving managers,” that he has every worked with.
“Most of what he does on the job later turns out in some way, for him personally, like firing someone because someone he knows doesn’t like that person,” Jones said.
“He talks down to people, schemes on them, I can go on and on,” he said.
On Tuesday’s agenda, the council was set as to discuss removing Lasseigne as Interim Parish Administrator, in Executive Session. However, Jones said Lasseigne agreed to an open session.
Councilmen James Bourgeois and Michael Gros were the only councilman voting to retain Lasseigne in the job as administrator.
Jones said on Tuesday, Lasseigne told the council that he had worked the job thoroughly, but Jones said he strongly disagrees.
“Not true, there have been major gaps in his work, among other things,” Jones said.
Cantrelle said he appointed Abadie until he decides whether he will bring Lasseigne back before the council as his permanent recommendation for parish administrator, or recommend someone else. He said his deadline is Sept 8, as ordered by the council.
He said he wishes the parish council would be more open to dialogue.
“I know I’m not perfect, either. But we all have to work forward, not backward,” Cantrelle said.
Nonetheless, on Tuesday, after the council had voted to remove Laesigne from the job, Kelsey Benoit of Choctaw asked to speak to the council, to discuss how Lasseigne had threatened him, as he was trying to help a friend seek assistance through the community action program.
When he left the podium, Jones said Lasseigne called Benoit “a punk”.
Councilman Jerry LaFont said that in the six-plus years he has been on the council, he has never seen a parish employee tell a citizen that.
“I told him that’s why he got fired. It’s sad,” LaFont said.
“In all my years of service on the council, I’ve had a lot of folks call me names, and I never once retaliated, because I always felt they were the citizen of Lafourche Parish that I was serving.”
Contacted on Wednesday, Benoit recalled the incident with Lasseigne.
“When I was speaking to him, I could tell he was recording our conversation. So, I later decided to go to the parish office in Mathews and ask for the recording. He called me afterward, and said that I was ‘effing’ with the wrong person,” Benoit said. “Then he tried to say employees felt threatened by my presence in the parish office. That’s not true, some are very good friends.”
