Johnnie Sweatman
June 23, 2017
Coyote kill raises ire, but little action
June 24, 2017
Tommy Lasseigne received his walking orders well before the Lafourche Parish Council made them official.
Lasseigne, Lafourche Parish’s interim parish administrator, attended last week’s Lafourche Parish Council meeting. With Parish President Jimmy Cantrelle absent, Lasseigne was serving as the main go-through for questions council members had for the administration.
During a discussion between council members, Lasseigne offered up his own insight, and his input was shot down by Parish Council Chairman Corey Perrillioux. Perrillioux told Lasseigne, long a target of ire for a number of council members, to refrain from entering discussion unless asked to join. Crosstalk ensued, and Perrillioux took up Council Member Jerry LaFont’s suggestion that he could have Lasseigne removed from the meeting.
“Go ahead, please leave. Go find who your work for,” Perrillioux said.
More than an hour later, the parish council had voted for Lasseigne’s replacement. The council narrowly voted in Leif Haas, a Thibodaux resident, to serve as the new parish administrator in Lafourche Parish. The council split 5-4 on the vote, with Melvin Gros, Aaron Melvin, James Bourgeois, Armand Autin and Daniel Lorraine approving Cantrelle’s appointment.
Haas becomes the fourth administrator in a year-and-ahalf of Cantrelle’s leadership of the parish. Don Matherne resigned in August of last year, and his replacement, Reggie Bagala, was fired in January. Lasseigne, formerly Cantrelle’s head of finance and human resources before resigning amid a council vote to fire him, has been serving in an interim administrator role since then, with Cantrelle having to bring a full-time appointment before the council every 60 days. Cantrelle’s first choice, current Public Information Officer Caroline Eschette, was rejected by the council in April before Haas was approved this past week.
Haas has been a resident of Lafourche Parish since 2002. He is a United States Marine Corps veteran, having been deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He worked with the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office from 2009 until 2014. He currently works for Axion Logistics and said he would join Lafourche Parish in a few weeks after finishing a project and finding a replacement for his position.
In a written statement released after the hire, Cantrelle highlighted Haas’s resume.
“Mr. Haas is best qualified to bring sound reasoning and harmony back to Lafourche Parish Government. I have full confidence that with his diverse background, he can handle anything that comes his way.”
Haas said he welcomes a diversity of opinions as a way to find the best idea among many. He said he wants to facilitate that discussion by improving communication among the different council members and parish administration. Haas said he sees a lot of passion among council members for their districts, and he likes the passion, but he wants that passion to be channeled into effective communication and progress for the parish.
“What I hope to do is be able to look at and meet the council, get a feel for what they’re expecting, talk to Mr. Jimmy and be able to relay that in a way he can understand, and relay what Mr. Jimmy has to say to the council in a way they can understand. And calm a little bit of the tension, because tempers start to flare and nothing is accomplished,” Haas said.
However, multiple council members expressed reservations about Cantrelle’s hiring process as well as the task Haas has in front of him. LaFont said communication was never the issue with either Matherne or Bagala, instead laying blame on the discord at Lasseigne’s feet.
“I think the challenge comes in when you have to deal with the current interim or whatever they call him. No matter who gets the position, he’s going to be doing the talking,” LaFont said.
Council Member Luci Sposito expressed concern about Haas’s lack of government experience during discussion on the hire. LaFont and Melvin questioned whether the 40-minute interview Haas said had with Cantrelle was long enough to properly gauge his fitness for the position. They also questioned Cantrelle’s absence from a meeting when such a crucial hire was on the agenda.
“I think it’s an insult that he’s not here. Things happen, but I’m sorry, this is too much of an important position to not be here,” Melvin said.
Haas told the council he plans to bring a sense of integrity and air of trust back to a fractured parish government by providing strong, principled leadership as an administrator.
“I might be employed by a corporation, but I work for my family. In this position, the citizens of Lafourche, that’s my family, cause that’s who’ll come first,” Haas said. “That may not work out. It would not be the first time. Because I am very by the book. I don’t do shady things, I don’t do illegal things. That’s not how you get things done, that’s not how you operate.”
“MR. HAAS IS BEST QUALIFIED TO BRING SOUND REASONING AND HARMONY BACK TO LAFOURCHE PARISH GOVERNMENT. I HAVE FULL CONFIDENCE THAT WITH HIS DIVERSE BACKGROUND, HE CAN HANDLE ANY THING THAT COMES HIS WAY.”
Leif Haas is going to be the new Lafourche Parish Administrator after a heated meeting last Tuesday night. He won approval via a 5-4 council vote.
