Terrebonne parish president race short on specifics

With the Oct. 20 gubernatorial primary a week away, all five candidates for Terrebonne Parish president are promising their dedication to the job and to foster trust in parish government, if elected. The candidates are offering only a few specific new proposals, however.

Flood and hurricane protection are, naturally, components of all the candidate’s platforms.

Democrat Barry Bonvillain is running on his long experience in parish government. He served as parish president from 1996 to 2004. Prior to that, the former U.S. Marine spent eight years on the Terrebonne Parish Council, and five-and-a-half years on the now-defunct Houma City Council.

He currently manages the East Park Volunteer Fire Company.

“My platform is experience,” he said. “I’ll be a full-time parish president.”

“I care about Terrebonne Parish,” he said. “I bleed Terrebonne Parish. I’m not running for money. It’s an opportunity to serve.”

Bonvillain said all pump stations in Terrebonne need to be examined to see whether they are in working order.

“I do a lot of walking,” he said. “I hear a lot about drainage.”

Bonvillain complained that several public works projects, which originated during his presidency have not been completed. Those projects are:

• Extending Bayou Gardens Boulevard to U.S. Highway 90

• Extending Thompson Road to connect with state highways 56 and 57

• Constructing a bridge on Little Caillou Bayou

• Widening Hollywood Road and Country Drive

• Extending Valhi Boulevard to Savanne Road

He also wants to see resurrected the subcommittee overseeing the possible sale of the parish-owned City of Houma’s utility system.

“I use a common sense approach to solving problems,” Bonvillain said. “Every election I hear about change, a new way. Where has it gotten us?”

“My type of campaign is a grassroots campaign,” he said. “It’s just a good pair of walking shoes.”

Republican Michel Claudet’s approach is directly opposite that of Bonvillain.

Claudet has extensive experience as a lawyer and businessman. His “new way” campaign seeks to make parish government operate like a business, with politics purged from the system.

“Parish government is one of the largest businesses we have,” he wrote in his official candidate statement. “The parish has a budget of nearly $200 million and over 900 employees. It can no longer be run like it has been in the past.”

“Parish government should have the politics removed and the people’s confidence restored,” he wrote. “After all, it is the people’s government, and we should get about the business of managing it properly.”

Claudet owns and manages several businesses in Terrebonne Parish. In fact, he has 34 years of experience in the private sector.

He has been publicly recognized with Louisiana’s 1996 Volunteer of the Year Award and the Tri-Parish Hall of Fame/Humanitarian Award in 2006. He was also recently elected to the board of the Houma Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“I am, in a word, involved,” Claudet wrote. “I love this parish and its people, and I want the best for them.”

Claudet would address hurricane protection and traffic congestion issues, if elected. He would streamline the permitting process in Terrebonne Parish.

He would also look at quality-of-life factors like beautification, recreation, cultural enhancement and tourism development.

“While (a candidate) must go through the election process in order to serve the people as their parish president, he is really only being hired, through the vote of the people, for four years at a time to lead and to handle the affairs of parish government,” he wrote.

“A non-political experienced businessman leading the parish … it’s a simple philosophy,” he explained.

Republican Eulin Guidry, like Claudet, wants parish government run more business-like, though Guidry favors treating recipients of government services as customers.

His approach is no doubt a reflection of spending nearly a decade as a manager of three different local cable television companies.

Guidry is currently Terrebonne Parish’s solid waste administrator.

“I have seen citizens and government drifting apart,” he said. “There’s a lack of trust. After (government officials) get elected, they forget that they’re servants. They’re supposed to serve the people. It’s necessary to create an atmosphere of cooperation.”

Government needs to make doing business in the parish more efficient, particularly by easing the permit process, and it must maintain a close watch over how tax dollars are spent, he said.

Guidry wants more fresh water diverted into coastal wetlands, funding for hurricane protection levees, and a north-south corridor constructed as a quicker evacuation route.

But he has just as much passion for another venture he is advocating: two cable access channels, one dedicated to local education and the other to airing the public views of Terrebonne Parish residents.

“The five minutes allowed by the council (to air citizens’ views) is totally ridiculous,” he wrote in his candidate statement. “An education channel would provide limitless benefits for our educators and our children and parents.”

Guidry was on the Terrebonne Parish Police Jury from 1976 to 1980 and is a former legislative assistant to the late state Sen. Leonard Chabert.

“I want to make government more user-friendly,” he said. “Without customers, a business would not exist. Each department should cater to the public as a customer.”

“We should ask, ‘What have you done to help a citizen today?’ he said. “If you have the right attitude, the people you lead will have the right attitude. Customer service is important for the people of the parish.”

Guidry emphasized that his twin concerns for government in Terrebonne Parish are efficiency and trust.

“There’s frustration,” he said. “Permits should be so easy. People don’t like to be restricted. If you make it as easy as possible, people will get back to trusting government more.”

“We need to show people how we spend tax dollars before we ask for more taxes,” he said.

Like Bonvillain, the other Democrat in the parish president race, Jerry Larpenter, the current sheriff of Terrebonne Parish, promotes his long experience with local government (30 years with the sheriff’s office), and his accomplishments in office as his calling card.

Also like Bonvillain, Larpenter is an armed forces veteran, having served as a law enforcement specialist with the U.S. Air Force and with Special Forces.

“I’m a true American – red, white and blue,” Larpenter said. “I believe in the country, the parish. I’ve always had the support of the people of the parish. Power is in the hands of the people.”

He listed numerous actions he has taken, and projects he has overseen, while in office to aid the parish:

• Directing disaster relief

• Building a new prison system and detention center

• Cooking a thousand meals a day for the Council on Aging

• Building parks, pools and bridges

• Painting every school in the parish at least three times

• Cleaning Bayou Black

“I didn’t have to do all that,” Larpenter said. “My key element is strong vision, strong leadership. Government could be improved. We’ll move people forward with more accountability, get back to the basic needs for the people of the parish.”

Larpenter puts the accent on toughness, taking a few jabs at the other parish president contenders. He said, however, he is accessible and will have an open-door policy.

“I’m a guy who has no private interests,” he said. “There are no conflicts of interest affiliated with me. I have no involvement with issues regulating parish government.”

“Look at what (his opponents) are affiliated with – gaming, bar rooms,” he said. “What do they have on their plates? It’s important to know what their private interests are.”

“I have the backbone to make decisions,” Larpenter said. “Parish government has fine people, but it needs to be fine-tuned. I’m a hands-on person. I’ll make sure it’s done properly. You’re gonna see me wearing Dickies and rubber boots. You have to gain respect from employees.”

Republican Mike Fesi is also hard-driving, but he is equally concerned that Terrebonne Parish look to the future.

“I’m an expert at putting people and resources together to reach a common goal, to make something happen,” he said. “I’m offering my blood, sweat and tears for you.”

Fesi wants dynamism in parish government. The principal idea he is proposing is town hall meetings held monthly in every parish council district.

“We need to take care of the issues which each district faces,” he said. “Then the bigger things will be covered. I’m looking at 20 to 30 years down the road from Oct. 20.”

“Terrebonne Parish is in a transitional stage,” he said. “We need to go from reactive to proactive.”

Fesi is employed as vice president of business development at Pipeline Construction and Maintenance in Houma, but he is also an entrepreneur who has real estate and insurance licenses.

He will to work with local builders and developers to come up with a solution to parish housing and permit issues, according to his official candidate statement. Fesi will also consult with businesses to provide educational programs to prepare the local workforce for the demands of the economy.

Keeping with his theme of dynamism, Fesi said he will take action on the findings from studies he will implement.

“I see opportunity for change, a new approach,” he said. “We’ve been doing the same thing for the past 20 years.”

“I’m committed, innovative, open-minded, a risk-taker,” he said. “I’m willing to work with people, communities. I want to improve our parish for future generations. I want future generations to thank us as we move forward with a new approach.”