T’bonne council taking shape

Councilman-elect John Navy said he intends to meet with current District 1 Councilman Alvin Tillman to get a feel for the position he won with 69.68 percent of the ballots cast Saturday in a five-man primary race.

Owner of a custodial service company and a guidance counselor, Navy clenched 1,248 of the 1,791 ballots in a complete field of Democrat contenders.

Finishing second in the deciding race was Daniel Turner with 239 votes or 13.34 percent of the ballots cast. Third place was taken by Edward Davis Jr. with 167 votes representing 9.32 percent of those marking this ballot. Clark Nixon secured 90 votes for 5.03 percent of the ballots, and fifth place was handed to Tyrone Turner Sr. with 47 votes for 2.62 percent of the ballots cast.

“I think we got the message that the community wants to go in a different direction and wants some unity,” Navy said. “I want to get together with Mr. Tillman and join with him in some projects he may feel are unfinished. I want to start earlier and get these areas of District 1 to have community meetings and hear some of the changes they want so I can present that to the Parish Council when I get up there in January.”

Navy said he has already spoken with Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet about working together and looking at the concerns of District 1. “He is willing to work with us on any project we want to present to the parish,” Navy said. “Those are the first things I need to do. I’m going to need to roll up my sleeves and get to work. I think we can do a great job for this district.”

District 2 Councilwoman Arlanda Williams ran unopposed this election cycle and will return to the legislative seat for a second term. “It is an honor to think I would be unopposed,” Williams said prior to the primary election. “We must be doing something right.”

Williams said working closely with other council members, the administration and other elected officials has helped in improving her district and the parish as a whole. “I look forward to a new term,” she said.

Retired police captain Greg Hood was selected to represent District 3 during Saturday’s primary election with a 1,567 to 1,043 vote to clench 59.81 percent of the ballots cast in that race against Floyd Bergeron.

“My first step now is to get with Billy Hebert, the incumbent, and look at all his projects and start getting involved with him and getting everything done so we can have a smooth transition next year,” Hood said.

In his first time serving as an elected official, Hood said he wants to address some retention ponds to gain insight on the drainage conditions for the district.

Hood said he is interested in conducting town hall meetings with the people of District 3 to gain insight on concerns of the public.

Hebert will complete his term as councilman for District 3, but is currently involved in a runoff of his own as he seeks a seat in the state House of Representatives.

As incumbent District 4 Councilwoman Teri Cavalier bowed out of seeking another term, Republican contender Beryl Adams Amedee sought the District 4 seat and claimed a win over challenger Lucretia McBride with a 1,795 to 260 vote and 87.35 percent of the ballots cast in Saturday’s primary election.

“I’ve already been speaking with Michel Claudet and Teri Cavalier at length about what has been finished, what’s still in the works and what hasn’t been started yet,” Amedee said. “I’ll be ready to jump right in and get to work as soon as everything is official.”

The race for the seat of District 5 will extend to a Nov. 19 runoff between former Councilwoman Christa Duplantis and incumbent Johnny Pizzolatto.

During Saturday’s primary election, Pizzolatto finished first in a field of three candidates, but only had 38.89 percent of the ballots cast with 1,036 votes, more than 11 percentage points short of claiming an automatic win.

“I guess we are going to have to get out there and work a little harder,” Pizzolatto said after the numbers were tallied.

Duplantis secured the second spot in a first round of this race with 935 votes, or 35.1 percent of the ballots.

Duplantis said going into the election that her concerns focus in part on traffic flow and illegal activity. “Roads and sewers will always be a priority,” she said. “But there is drug trafficking going on in this parish [that needs attention].”

Chris Domangue was the third contender in the primary, but was eliminated when her secured only 693 votes for 26.01 percent of the ballots cast.

Realignment of parish districts prompted incumbent Councilman Kevin Voisin to not seek re-election to the District 6 seat.

Following Saturday’s primary election, political newcomer Russell “Red” Hornsby secured that seat with 1,753 votes as 55.26 percent of the ballots cast.

Hornsby’s challenger, and political newcomer, Mike Holcomb, was knocked out of contention as he finished with 1,419 votes and 44.74 percent of the qualified ballots in that race.

“I can’t wait to get started,” Hornsby said. “I think I’d like to bring up the idea of extending Valhi Boulevard all the way to the I-49 corridor. It would be another evacuation route in case of hurricanes and it would relieve a lot of traffic on [La.] Highway 311, which is a nightmare in the morning and afternoon.”

On Sunday, Hornsby joked that he had already achieved his first accomplishment by picking up all his campaign signs.

Meeting with term limits, incumbent District 7 Councilman Clayton Voisin will complete his political career at the end of this year.

The District 7 primary saw a race of five contenders and will advance to runoff competition between Danny Babin and Tim Fanguy.

Babin finished first in the primary round with 1,222 votes for 47.62 percent of the ballots cast. Fanguy picked up 668 votes for 26.03 percent of the ballots. Babin was 62 votes short of clenching an outright win.

Third place in the primary went to Willis Trosclair Jr. who had 350 votes as 13.64 percent of the ballots. Nathan Trosclair held 256 votes for 9.98 percent of the ballots. And Jimmie Fedele finished with 70 votes for 2.73 percent of the ballots in this race.

“I’m trying to map out strategy right now,” Babin said. “My concern in the next [election] is low voter turnout.”

Babin said he learned during the primary round the importance of constantly selling oneself. “I ran my campaign on my education, experience and community service and that is the same message I’m going to send out in [the runoff]. You never take anything for granted.”

“I’m going to do what I can to get in,’ Fanguy said of approaching his runoff with Babin.

Fanguy said that his focus is to reduce the level of planning and zoning in Terrebonne Parish. “That hurts us as far as jobs,” he said “Whenever you dictate what you got to do with planning and zoning it discourages businesses. Down in the bayou, you can sell drugs, you can rob your neighbor, or you can just do what you want, but you can’t get a job because of the committee that doesn’t know nothing about a job.”

A third runoff for a seat on the Terrebonne Parish Council will come in District 8, where incumbent Joey Cehan was defeated in a three-man primary race on Saturday.

This race brought back the same three contenders that met one another in an election battle in 2007. At that time, Peter Rhodes was the incumbent councilman who was knocked out of office eventually by Cehan.

This time around, Rhodes took 998 votes for 35.78 percent of the votes cast. Dirk Guidry secured 932 votes for 33.42 percent of the field. Cehan will complete his term in office at the end of this year after finishing the primary election with 859 votes as 30.80 percent of the ballots cast.

Following the primary count, Cehan was critical of how Rhodes ran his campaign and gave his endorsement to Guidry. “We can’t let Rhodes get back into office,” Cehan said.

Neither Rhodes nor Guidry returned telephone calls by press time.

Running on his quiet approach of getting work accomplished with little fanfare, Pete Lambert held his position to represent District 9 for another four years on Saturday when he won the primary election with 61.63 percent of the ballots to defeat challenger Donald Montgomery 1,547 to 963.

“We want to stay on course and keep our goals continuing until they are completed,” Lambert said. “We need to work with the levee board to get the Morganza to the Gulf complete. We need to get our infrastructure projects like the Prospect Bridge and St. Ann Bridge complete. We are going to do the widening of Country Drive and we want to get the Corps of Engineers to dredge to Intracoastal Waterway.”

Lambert said that voters recognized what he has been able to accomplish in office and that he intends to protect people of lower Terrebonne Parish.

As a re-elected member of the Parish Council, Lambert offered his thoughts on the new and returning faces and names. “I think they are going to be alright,” he said. “We got some great people that have been elected. We ain’t going to have no problem at all. We ain’t going to miss a beat.”