Sheila Alldredge
January 22, 2008
Lillie Reed
January 24, 2008
The Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce installed new board officers and handed out awards for 2007 last Wednesday night at a banquet held at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center.
The guest speaker was Gambit Weekly co-owner and editor Clancy DuBos, who previously had been a well-known television political reporter in New Orleans.
Lisa Schilling, director of behavioral and rehabilitative services at Chabert Medical Center, was announced as the Chamber’s new chairperson for 2008, taking over from Steve Crispino.
Schilling said the chamber is looking for a replacement for outgoing chamber CEO Kandy Theriot.
The Small Business of the Year Award was given to the Houma business technology consulting firm Technology Professionals. David Landry, who co-owns the business with Jason Bergeron, called Terrebonne Parish “the best place to raise a family.”
“Our families have sacrificed countless hours (for our success),” he said.
Synergy Bank, which was started in Houma in 1998, received the Large Business of the Year Award, given to businesses employing more than 25 people.
The bank has 62 employees and more than 300 stockholders.
“They (the employees) work to be an integral part of the community,” Schilling said. “They’re committed to fostering the growth of Terrebonne Parish.”
“We knew there was a market need for another bank,” said Jerry Ledet, president and CEO of Synergy.
The Most Useful Citizen Award was presented to Alexis and Berwick Duval, Houma accountant and lawyer, respectively. The two are extensively involved in coastal restoration efforts, working to foster coastal preservation by addressing the issue in Terrebonne Parish schools. They have promoted the subject as well through involvement in America’s Wetland Foundation and the Morganza Action Coalition.
Alexis Duval spoke to a U.S. Senate committee in 2005 about coastal preservation in Louisiana when she served as the chamber’s chairwoman.
William Dunckelman, a senior at Houma Christian School sporting a 4.0 grade point average, was named Teenager of the Year. In 2000, Dunckelman started Fine Arts Motivating the Elderly (FAME), a program that provides art supplies to the residents of nursing homes.
The program has given away $255,000 since it began.
Dunckelman said the administration at Houma Christian “is wonderful. I can’t speak more highly of it.”
In his talk, DuBos cited three principal reasons why Bobby Jindal was elected Louisiana governor last year.
Jindal was the first to use the Internet effectively to campaign in the state, he said, freeing the candidate from the restrictions of 30-second commercials.
Also, Hurricane Katrina exposed the limitations of government.
“Blanco’s re-election chances were the final victim of Katrina,” DuBose said. “It showed how our government doesn’t work and does work. It stripped away a lot of the clutter.”
The final factor given by DuBos for Jindal’s election was term limits for members of the state Legislature.
For the first time, legislators’ terms were ended by law in 2007. The amendment limiting their time in office was passed in 1995, permitting state legislators up to 12 years of service.
The Louisiana House has 60 new members, while the Senate has 19.
“It was a real culling of the herd,” DuBos said. “Terrebonne Parish had some surprises at the ballot box as well. It happened all over the state. There were lots of political surprises at the local level.”
He then invoked controversial former governor Edwin Edwards.
“Take one last look back because the Edwin Edwards era is over,” he said. The chamber audience applauded.
Only around a half-dozen legislators are still in the Legislature who were part of the Edwards era, DuBos said.
Entering office, Jindal is in a better position as a reformer than Republican Governors Dave Treen and Buddy Roemer because Treen and Roemer dealt with Legislatures dominated by Edwards’ supporters.
“When Treen was governor, legislators would say, ‘I’m going to speak to the governor,’ but they meant Edwards,” DuBos said.
Treen and Roemer also were burdened with $1 billion deficits when they entered office; Jindal is working with a $2 billion surplus.
“We in Louisiana have been waiting for a messiah for years,” he said. “There are no messiahs. If you want one, look in the mirror.”
Workforce development is the real key to economic development, according to DuBos.
“As business owners, you know that’s easier to say than to do,” he told the audience.
Businesses in Houma-Thibodaux, with the lowest unemployment rate of all metro areas in the state, have been experiencing difficulty finding qualified workers.
But DuBos ended on an upbeat note.
“I love politics almost as much as I love Houma,” he said. “You obviously have a wonderful chamber.”
Technology Professionals co-owners Jason Bergeron and David Landry, pictured with their wives, were given the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year Award at Saturday’s ceremony. * Photo by MIKE BROSSETTE
