Parish president reminisces about tenure in Terrebonne

Community and government leaders honored the outgoing Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet during an interview where he answered questions about his experience over his two terms at a gala held at Houma Municipal Auditorium last Thursday.

Claudet was asked questions about his presidency by former Terrebonne Parish Council Clerk Paul Labat onstage before a glittering crowd of the who’s who of the parish.

The event, dubbed “Kudos for Claudet,” was organized by the Leadership Terrebonne Alumni Association and the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce.

Claudet reminisced of the many ups and downs of his presidency, which has lasted for the last eight years.

“Throughout my entire life, I never thought I would ever, ever, ever, ever, ever be a part of (sic) any kind of elected official,” Claudet told Labat as he described how he came to run for parish president.

He said it was David Chauvin, owner of Chauvin Real Estate, who first approached him and suggested that he run for parish president.

The idea “rattled around” in his head, he said, and after a vacation in Mexico, he came back to run for the big office.

Claudet said that although he had never held public office before, he is a quick study, as evidenced by his previous business endeavors.

“I’d bought a restaurant, never run a restaurant. I’d bought a bar. I had never run a bar,” Claudet said.

But, he admitted, had he better understood the pressures, responsibilities and expectations that came with public office, there likely would’ve been someone else in the top office.

““I don’t think I had ever watched a whole [council] meeting before in my life,” Claudet confessed. “If I had done that, I don’t know if I would have ever run.”

Claudet said his most memorable time in office was during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Although it was an extremely stressful time, he said he received numerous phone calls from the public with suggestions on how to cap the well at the bottom of the Gulf.

He said that some of them were “wackos,” but entertaining at least. At the time, Doug Bourg was his personal assistant and public information officer.

“If we had a weirdo, we gave him to Doug,” Claudet said.

It was during that disaster that President Barrack Obama visited Louisiana. Claudet met the president briefly and stood quietly during a meeting between the commander-in-chief and various state and parish leaders.

Then, Obama turned and said, “I want to hear what Michel has to say.”

Claudet said that this surprised him and after the meeting he ran after the President and asked him how in the world he remembered his name.

To this Obama responded, “It’s simple. It’s the same as my wife’s.”

Claudet said his tenure was a lot of “work, work, work,” but he enjoyed it.

As for his future plans, Claudet only said there “are plenty of opportunities all over the country,” but that he will not be showing up at ribbon cuttings like other former parish presidents do.

“I’ll let the current parish president run the parish,” Claudet said.