Parish Council kills attempt to end term limits

An effort to do away with term limits for members of the parish council was voted down in the council’s April 4 meeting.
Proponents wanted to ask parish voters to repeal the limits in a referendum to be held in conjunction with the October general election.
A proposal by Dist. 3 representative Jason Willis would have put before the voters an amendment to the parish’s home rule charter doing away with the existing three-term limit. Willis and the other proponents of the ballot initiative made the case for ending term limits based on a number of factors.
•Council members are term limited every four years when they face reelection. Willis pointed out that two members were replaced in the last election after just one term.
•Very few other governing bodies in the area have limits. Dist. 2 member Lisa Nelson said she did a survey and found that about 75 percent of parishes have no term limits.
•Very little money is involved in their campaigns for reelection, so campaign contributions are not a factor.
•Members do not have the power to spend parish funds in their districts without a vote of the whole council, so they do not gain undue influence with powerful constituents.
•The council is not ruling on the issue, just giving voters the opportunity to approve the change or not.
Opponents of the measure, such as Dist. 1 member Byron Fuselier, said his constituents have made it very clear to him that they support term limits. Public support for term limits has been high in recent years, and it does appear that the proposal bucks recent trends that have placed term limits on members of the state legislature and school boards.
Parish resident, Ricky Garrett, who was attending the meeting, said term limits are important, saying “Incumbents have an unfair leg up on opponents.” He added that the voters settled the question once, when they voted to institute term limits.
Other audience members said “power corrupts” and “government needs new blood from time to time,” and “the job is not supposed to be a career.”
When the vote was tallied, Willis, Lisa Nelson, of District 2, Jill Hebert (6) and Albert “Dada” Menard (7) voted to place the issue on the ballot. Opposed were Fuselier (1), Chris Tauzin (5), Daniel Richard (9), Neil Thibodeaux (4), and Dean LeBlanc (8).