Early turnover in Cantrelle’s administration

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October 4, 2016
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October 4, 2016
First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
October 4, 2016
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October 4, 2016

Last Tuesday, Richard Barber’s career in Lafourche Parish Government took a step up.

The Lafourche Parish Council approved Parish President Jimmy Cantrelle’s appointment of Barber as the parish’s new Director of Grants and Economic Development at its last meeting. Barber, previously a grant writer for the parish, replaces Grayling Hadnott, who was removed as director last month.


Barber’s subsequent promotion was the latest shakeup in Cantrelle’s young administration. In the nine months since becoming the lead man in Lafourche, Cantrelle has also had to replace his top administrator, while another administrator overseeing two departments is having his responsibilities lessened. The early turnover in leadership under Cantrelle’s administration has outpaced that of other recent Bayou Region leaders.

Council members questioned Cantrelle on the motivations behind Hadnott’s removal last week. Hadnott, a holdover from then-Parish President Charlotte Randolph’s administration, was let go due to the parish’s struggling finances, according to Cantrelle. However, Barber’s promotion mitigated most of Lafourche’s savings from removing Hadnott. When pressed by the council, Cantrelle admitted he removed Hadnott for unsatisfactory performance, but said it was for financial reasons to not harm Hadnott’s future job searches.

The parish president also lost his second-highest executive in August when Parish Administrator Don Matherne resigned. Cantrelle tapped then-Community Services Director Reggie Bagala as Matherne’s replacement, and the council approved his appointment during the Sept. 13 meeting. Multiple council members effusively praised Matherne’s dedication and work ethic, noting the many weekends he would spend with different members addressing problems. According to the press release at the time, Matherne resigned to spend more time with his family. Talking about the demands of both his own position and Matherne’s old post, Cantrelle said some workweeks can eclipse 80 hours.


“It’s not a part-time job. It’s a really full-time job. And parish administrator is even probably just as much if not more work,” Cantrelle said. “So Don did a great job. I just can’t say anything bad about him. You heard what they said. He’s such a great guy. But that was his decision, not mine. I hated to lose him.”

However, other statements by the parish president highlight hints of early turnover he could have prepared for. According to Cantrelle, Matherne expressed some reluctance to taking the head position, saying he would give the job six months before making a decision on committing to the post. When asked why he would hire Matherne when he knew there was a possibility of an early resignation, Cantrelle said he was optimistic in keeping Matherne on board for good.

“Honestly? No, because I didn’t think [Matherne] would quit. Because he’s such a good guy, and I thought he’d like the job,” Cantrelle said.


Other department heads in Cantrelle’s administration have come under fire, although they have survived and come out, sometimes not fully unscathed. Freddia Ruffin-Roberson, director of Community Action, had her removal up to a council vote on Aug. 9, but Councilman Jerry LaFont delayed the vote. Though he cited underperformance from Ruffin-Roberson’s department as a reason for presenting the motion to remove her at the time, LaFont ultimately removed the measure from the council agenda.

Lafourche is also advertising for a new director of human resources to replace Tommy Lasseigne, who was heading both the finance and human resources departments. Councilman Jerry Jones was going to introduce a measure at the Sept. 13 meeting to fire Lasseigne from his HR position, leaving him over the finance department, but pulled the measure when Cantrelle said the parish would advertise for his replacement. Cantrelle said he knows Lasseigne, whom the council grilled with questions during his appointment in January, was capable of doing both jobs, and he wanted to save the parish money on salary by consolidating leadership of the two departments.

“I had Mr. Lasseigne doing two jobs and paying one salary. In their wisdom they wanted to have somebody else in human resources, and they want to spend more money, so let them spend more money,” Cantrelle said.


Until a replacement is found, Lasseigne will continue to lead both departments. The Parish President said Lafourche Parish District Attorney Cam Morvant told him it was legal to advertise the position opening while it is still occupied. When asked by Jones how long it would take to find a replacement, Cantrelle said the parish would look until it found someone he was comfortable with.

“As soon as we come up with somebody – maybe two days, maybe two months, maybe a week, I don’t know,” Cantrelle said.

In comparison to other recent Bayou Region parish presidents’ early months, Cantrelle has seen more shifts at the top of his administration. Cantrelle’s counterpart in Terrebonne Parish, Gordon Dove, also took office in January. Dove, who kept many of his predecessor Michel Claudet’s department heads, has not yet seen any administrative departures during his tenure. Pat Gordon, former Terrebonne Parish Planning Director, moved to head the Terrebonne Economic Development Authority shortly before Claudet’s term ended. Gordon resigned from the post this spring, citing health concerns. However, Claudet also moved TEDA from under Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government purview, meaning Dove was not involved in finding Gordon’s replacement.


Even in combative Lafourche Parish, where parish council members lock horns with administration more than in Terrebonne, Cantrelle’s predecessor Randolph did not face the same administrative tumult. It should be noted when Randolph assumed office in 2004, Lafourche government had less departments. However, none of her core group of administrators was off the job before her first year in office ended. Both Parish Adminstrator Cullen Curole and Public Works Director Ray Cheramie worked through the entirety of Randolph’s first four-year term before the council voted down their re-appointments at the beginning of Randolph’s second term in 2008. Finance Director Shannon Chaisson, who started working for the parish in 2004 and survived a firing vote in 2006, resigned in June 2007. Randolph chose not to re-appoint Community Action Director Philip Malcolm Jr. when her second term started.

The closest administration to Cantrelle’s in terms of early turbulence may be that of Claudet, whose terms have ultimately received wide praise from the public and parish officials. While many of Claudet’s original department heads stayed through both of his four-year terms, he did have to replace a couple of leaders within his first year.

Within his first month as Terrebonne’s top man, Claudet had to replace his original choice for Parish Manager, Natalie Robottom. Shortly after her appointment to Terrebonne’s second-highest position, Robottom was chosen by then-Gov. Bobby Jindal to direct the Governor’s Office of Community Programs. Gordon then served as the interim parish manager until May 2009, when Al Levron took over the post full-time. Levron stayed through Claudet’s tenure and has retained his position in Dove’s administration.


Claudet also faced issues in the Department of Emergency Preparedness early on in his tenure. He originally nominated incumbent director Michael Deroche for re-appointment but pulled the nomination in Feb. 2008. Claudet then appointed Jerry Richard in March 2008, who lasted all of six months in his position. Claudet fired Richard in September of that year after an investigation found Richard used a government vehicle to travel to Baton Rouge for an LSU game as Hurricane Ike battered the southern portion of the parish. In the wake of the firing, Claudet hired Earl Eues to manage the department on a contractual basis before ultimately giving him the position fulltime, which Eues continues to man to this day.

Cantrelle said settling into the parish presidency has presented unforeseen challenges, but he plans on finding the right people to assist him in leading Lafourche Parish.

“Listen: I’m just handling difficult things, and we’re going to work hard to make sure everything runs smoothly. It’s a big transition for me, too, to go from private sector to government, but we’re getting there,” Cantrelle said. “I’m hoping that we can put it all together — we’re going to put it all together. It’s going to be a little bit of trial and error, but we have some good people working for us.”


Lafourche Parish President Jimmy Cantrelle (center) stands with the parish council after being elected this past winter. Cantrelle has seen a lot of turnover in his cabinet so far, which he said was unexpected, but isn’t overly harmful to his plans for the parish’s future.

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