Ten days of Lloyd Rochon’s departure from his job as Carencro city manager, Lafayette District 2 City-Parish Councilman Jay Castille was hired for the job. Rochon was making almost $64,000 a year when he left the post, Mayor Glenn Brasseaux confirms, and Castille was hired by a vote of the Carencro City Council at a salary of $50,000.
Brasseaux says Rochon notified him Oct. 26 that he would be leaving the job he had held since 2002; Rochon’s last day of work was Nov. 11. “Lloyd was the first city manager hired by the city,” Brasseaux says. “He did an outstanding job for us.”
Rochon says among his proudest achievements was organizing all areas of city government to increase efficiency in the delivery of services to residents, and developing a motivated and knowledgeable staff that is cross-trained to step up and assume additional duties when necessary. “Our staff is the best at what they do,” he says.
Among his biggest accomplishments, the former city manager cites his work to help obtain $1 million in state capital fund monies to build a new fire station and renovate city hall. Rochon says he also wrote a grant application for $400,000 for the Richard Street erosion control project, which is in the design phase, and consistently obtained grants form the Louisiana Governmental Assistance Program for sewer improvements and other city projects. “The grant application is currently pending to continue renovations to city hall,” Rochon says, noting that the maximum amount of the available funds is $50,000.
In citing other unfinished business he hopes his successor continues to pursue, Rochon says he coordinated with the Corps of Engineers for a $2.6 million grant to make improvements to the Beau Basin Coulee. While the funds were earmarked for this project, they were withdrawn when the debt crisis occurred, he maintains. “Efforts must be continued to keep this project alive and on the front burner for the Corp,” Rochon says.
Neither Brasseaux nor Rochon would say why he left the post. “It was time to go,” Rochon told The Independent Monday. He is unsure what path his career will take next but is not ready for full retirement. “I like to keep busy,” says Rochon, who is also caring for his ailing wife, Eva Dell.
On Oct. 22, four days before he resigned, Rochon ran unsuccessfully for the C-P District 3 seat held by Brandon Shelvin. He also sought the seat in 2007, at the time being cleared by the Louisiana Attorney General to keep his job if he were elected to the council.
Rochon retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1977 after 22 years and worked as a communications consultant for South Central Bell for a short time. He was director of federal programs for the Lafayette Parish Police Jury from 1979 until 1984, when parish government was formed and he became the first and only person to serve as clerk of the Lafayette Parish Council. After consolidation of city and parish governments in 1996, he took over as clerk of the Lafayette City-Parish Council, retiring in 2001.
Castille, who begins his second term as a C-P councilman in January (he was unopposed this year), is the owner of Jay Castille Construction Inc. and is also a land developer, according to his bio on Lafayette Consolidated Government’s website. He retired from the Lafayette Fire Department after 20 years of service.
MAY 20 This post by blogger CB Forgotston draws parallels between Gov. Bobby Jindal and two individuals he probably doesn't want to be aligned with: President Obama and former governor Edwin Edwards. CB says Jindal's trying to jack up the debt ceiling (an Obama play, according to CB) and buy votes from GOP leges who normally wouldn't go for that (an Edwards play, CB says).
MAY 20 Here's a post in the Baptist Message from an alumnus of Louisiana College. The author, Larry Burgess, calls on the leadership of the private school to take care of some pressing problems. Physical plant issues are critical and unaddressed, some faculty make so little they need government health care, and there is an atmosphere that does not encourage honest discussion, he writes. It's time to get things back in order, he says.
MAY 20 This post in Gambit tells of a benefit concert scheduled to raise money for the 19 people shot during a Mother's Day second line on Frenchmen Street in NOLA. Among them was Gambit blogger Deb Cotton, who spoke frequently about violence in the city and reported on the city's second line culture. Gambit's foundation, along with other NOLA non-profits, also is selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims.
MAY 20 Blogger Robert Mann is critical of the personal interest some legislators take in their work here, sharing the comments one NOLA solon made in explaining his decision to vote against a bill that would require people to stop discriminating against female workers. His wife might lose some salary, so he was going to have to vote against the equal pay bill, Conrad Appel said. Appel and everyone who heard him should have been ashamed, but they weren't, and that's what is wrong in that building, Mann argues.
MAY 20 American Press columnist Jim Beam writes about the budget again here, urging kudos for the House and its efforts to try to fix the budget as opposed to passing on a flawed and messy rubber-stamped document as it usually does. The Senate already is poo-pooing the effort, but instead Senators should be trying to find a way to improve it as well, Beam argues. He also has some predictions in here from LABI and CABL.
MAY 20 Here's a link to the photo gallery from Tulane's graduation this past weekend. Dr. John and Allen Toussaint played together and received honorary degrees. The Dalai Lama was so entranced by their performance he got up from his seat and walked across the stage to stand next to them. He even participated in a second line with his own personal, saffron-colored umbrella. To the graduates, he urged them to think about creating a peaceful, hopeful life and society.
MAY 20 This Picayune story questions the rhetoric of NOLA officials who say the city, aside from having a "murder problem," is safe. The talking points generally are that the criminals are killing each other, but everything else is OK. The police chief there says that even Lafayette is more dangerous than NOLA. But crime experts interviewed here say that NOLA's numbers indicate one of two things: either people are so used to violence they don't report it, or somebody's "fudging the numbers."
MAY 20 The Advocate's Mark Ballard writes about some of the background maneuvering that took place during the development of budget alternatives in the Legislature. From Rep. Joel Robideaux being called a "tax and spend liberal" to robo-call influence, Ballard lets us in on some of the work that happens behind the scenes but usually doesn't make it into the Advocate's daily coverage of the session.
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