Voters spurn 3 of 4 parish proposals

Three of the four St. Mary Parish Home-Rule Charter amendments failed in Tuesday’s election, according to the Secretary of State’s website.
St. Mary Registrar of Voters Jolene Holcombe said voter turnout in the parish, based on the U.S. Senate race, was 49.3 percent. There were 33,498 total voters registered to vote in St. Mary Parish for Tuesday's election.
Amendment No. 1 to change the term limits for the Parish Council was the only amendment to pass by a vote of 7,394 votes — 52.25 percent — to 47.75 percent, according to the website.
The amendment will allow any council member elected after the effective date of the provision, who has represented any council district for more than two and one-half terms, to serve three consecutive terms.
The amendment will change the current rules that limit council members to two terms in a single district or as an at-large member representing the entire parish. Under the current rules, council members could serve two terms representing a single district and then run for two terms as an at-large member or vice versa.
The passage of Amendment No. 1 is a good thing that will allow council members to serve three consecutive terms regardless of whether they are at-large or single-member council members, St. Mary Parish President Paul Naquin said.
Parish Councilman Glen Hidalgo said he was very happy that Amendment No. 1 passed, which was the one he was pushing harder for.
Naquin said if there is no change in the voting totals, Parish Amendment No. 4 to extend the term limit of the parish president from two terms to three terms will fail. According to the Secretary of State’s website, the vote ended in a tie with 7,010 “yes” votes and 7,010 “no” votes.
Naquin was not planning to run for another term anyway, but wanted the term-limit extension to be passed for the next parish president in 2016, he said. “I’m disappointed in the term limits for the parish president because I think it takes about eight years to really get comfortable in any one of these seats,” Naquin said. So much goes on in the parish with coastal erosion, flood insurance and other issues, he said.
“A parish president has got to spend a lot of time for a part-time president,” Naquin said. “I spend at least 50 hours a week as a part-time parish president.” Naquin knew what he was running for and was not complaining about his position, he said. “I enjoyed it. I can assure you that,” Naquin said.
Overall, Naquin was disappointed how voting on the parish amendments turned out with three of the four amendments appearing to have failed, he said.
Amendment No. 2 that would have increased the Parish Council members’ compensation failed 60.7 percent to 39.3 percent while Amendment No. 4 that would have increased the Parish President’s compensation failed 54.99 percent to 45.01 percent.
Regarding the rest of three amendments that failed, Hidalgo thinks this is a long time to go without changing the Parish Home-Rule Charter, he said. “The people spoke,” Hidalgo said. Many different factors went into the failure of three of the amendments, Hidalgo said.
Parish Councilman Kevin Voisin said he knew the pay raise amendments for the council and parish president were going to die. However, Voisin was surprised that the parish president term limit amendment was that close to passing, he said. “I thought all four (amendments) would fail,” Voisin said.