Thibodaux swears in mayor

Tommy Eschete stood on the stage at the Warren J. Harang Jr. Municipal Auditorium on Canal Street in Thibodaux on Monday, raised his right hand, repeated after City Court Judge David Richard and was inaugurated as the first new mayor of the city in 12 years.

After he was sworn in, the new mayor addressed the aura of change hovering over the switch from a stalwart in Charles Caillouet to the new administration he would lead.

“The election is over,” Eschete said. “I hold no ill feelings toward those who, for whatever reason, felt they needed to support the mayor. That’s certainly what an election is all about, but it’s time to bury the election and move on. So I invite you, at any time, please come see us. We are all in this together now.”

Before a larger-than -anticipated crowd, a large amount of which standing behind rows of chairs, Eschete kept his inaugural public address short. He spoke of maintaining a coordinated effort through the transition and later echoed his statements with action, announcing the return of four department heads under Caillouet’s administration.

Five city councilmen were also sworn in, including Constance Thompson-Johnson, the lone non-incumbent.

Eddie Hebert (District A), Gene Richard (District B), Thompson-Johnson (District C), Lloyd “Chip” Badeaux (District D) and Chad Mire (District E) announced their commitment to improving the city.

Following the ceremony, the city council held its first meeting and approved eight new department heads n as selected by Eschete n and their salaries: Deborah Daigle, Finance director ($70,000), Guy Fanguy, Information Technology director ($57,716), Donald Clause, Human Resources director ($57,113), Marilyn Benoit, Harang Auditorium director ($50,000), Kirk Chiasson, Parks director ($50,000), Kevin Clement, Recreation director ($67,000), Germaine Jackson, City Attorney ($35,000) and Luci Sposito, Grants director ($50,000).

Eschete said he hopes to submit his nominations for Chief of Police and Public Works director within the next 30-45 days. In the interim, Capt. Kyle Cressione and Miguel Maggio will hold the positions.

“We are still in the process of reviewing applicants for those positions and certainly we’ll have that to the council within the prescribed period as the charter states,” the mayor said.

Not all of the former administration’s department leaders were replaced, a fact Eschete used to illustrate that he was not biased when making the decisions.

“I can remember going through six administrations or so, and never once have I seen a department head retained by a mayor,” Eschete said. “Well, we’re retaining four and bringing back two (interim), so we’ve got six that are coming back to work [from] the old administration.

“So if you think I don’t want to work with everybody, you’re wrong. This is going to be something different. I hope it sets a standard for the future. It doesn’t mean you have to clean house. If you have good competent individuals there that you feel you can work with, this should be a way for us to show you that it can work.”

After he was elected in October, Eschete said his top priorities were assembling a staff n including the appointment of a new police chief n and revamping the gas distribution center in Schriever, Thibodaux’s gate to natural gas.

“Moving forward, we’re going to have the same goals and objectives that were always set forth by the mayors of the past,” he said. “We’re going to take a different approach.”