A New Generation of Leadership | Jeff Ard | Listen Up Livingston

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Hey everyone, and welcome back to
another edition of Local Leaders the podcast.

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This is our link up Livingston edition
and we have a man. You're an

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most of co host. You've been
here several times. Yeah, it's jeff

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Ard and long campaign road you're wrapping
up right now four weeks la. Right

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at four weeks. Wow. Man, you've been going and going. Every

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time I pull up Facebook, I
see you at another event. And one

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thing I want to credit you for
right off the bat is you are making

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yourself available. I saw you just
did, and I'd invite anyone to go

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check out the Coffee with the Candidates
podcasts that was done in conjunction with the

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Livingston Parish News. I thought you
did a great job answering questions at that

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one. And we're gonna cover some
of what you talked about there today and

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just cover some other other interesting information. And I think it was a couple

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of months ago you did one me
originally. It's got a ton of you,

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So thank you everyone out there for
watching. Mad. Let me ask

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you right off the bat, you're
running for parish president, which, uh,

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if you don't know that right by
now, you've been living under a

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rock and uh you've been a councilman
for eight years, m eighth year,

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right, now, Yeah, how's
that been? It? Very education to

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education. Yes, you know,
it definitely wasn't everything that I thought it

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was when I when I first ran, you know, because I had an

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uncle that was a police juryman,
and and I kind of still looked at

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it a little bit in a as
a police jury system once I got in

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there and realized a little bit more
about how it truly is ran with the

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parish president and the council and realizing
that, you know, the council is

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a legislative body. Yeah, you
know, we write the laws, but

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uh, you know, people do
not work under our direction. Yeah,

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they work under administration's direction, you
know. And I just you know,

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I can remember people calling my uncle
and say hey, I need my ditch,

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Doug, and he'd go walk inside
because we didn't have cell phones.

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Then he'd make a phone call and
say, hey, I need y'all to

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go clean that ditch tomorrow. Doesn't
work like that now, no, No,

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it's a lot more to it,
a lot more to it, to

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say the least. And and y'all
been working on a lot of things in

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the council and for those of you
that maybe follow it or watch on the

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YouTube channel. There's so many aspects
to being on that council and things that

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you that you do, from renaming
streets to h putting putting streets on overlay

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list, which is something but you
all the way up to like moratoriums and

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things of that nature, or you
know, controlling growth as much as you

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can from that from that aspect to
even uh, you know, widening a

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servitude or there's so many things you've
done in eight years. It's a lot

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of work, it is. I
mean, sometimes it's you know, we

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change laws and then we have a
couple of issues that might say, yeah,

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maybe we need to back off of
that a little bit, or maybe

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we didn't go quite far enough.
And you know, I mean, you

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you can't always get it right the
first time, that's right, you know,

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so you just kind of trial and
error type thing and you hope you

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get it right the first time.
But uh, and sometimes while you're doing

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this, you have some things that
slip in that you didn't really want to

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slip in, but you have to
do it the right way to stop them.

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Yeah, and you have to work
with other members of the council.

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And and that's something that's that's very
important to keep in mind, is you

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could have the perfect plan and the
best intentions for the parish, but there

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has to be a majority that sees
it that way in order to get anything

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done. Yeah. And look,
I've I've talked to a o of these

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candidates is running for these new council
seats. Yeah, and I was telling

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them to be very careful, but
you promise telling them what you're gonna do,

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because if you don't have four other
councilmen that agree with what you want

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to do, it's not happening.
That's right, that's right. It's a

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majority rules. And the biggest difference
being between a councilmen and the administrative side

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is just that they administrate what you
put into law. Obviously, from a

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parish president's standpoint, you have what
they call a veto power and you can

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veto that, but believe it or
not, that can then go back to

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the council and they can override that
veto with a certain amount of that.

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And look, that's one of the
things that I've been preaching on the campaign

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trail is you know, everybody asked
me, are you gonna stop development?

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Yeah? You know, well,
look, parish president doesn't have that authority.

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Yeah, no, he just does. He cannot stop development, you

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know, Paris president's job is to
make sure that they f all of the

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rules. You know, he does
have a power to veto something, but

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the council can override it. So
ultimately, your power is in your council.

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That's why you have nine people,
you need five votes. It's a

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checks and balance right there. And
he keeps the parish from having a dictator

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that dictates everything that happens in our
parish. That's right, you know.

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I mean, that's that's why a
council system was invented and put into play.

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Well. And one thing I will
say about you that I picked up

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just from you being on the campaign
trail and speaking at various places is you're

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not a dictator. As a matter
of fact, a lot of what you

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say is the total opposite of that. One of the things I know you're

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a big believer in is is finding
the right people and letting them do what

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they do. And you know,
you're coming into an administration should you be

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elected, where some people may stay, some people may go, but and

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then it becomes your job to make
sure that you have good people around you,

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and that's what you have to do. You have to surround yourself with

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good people and then you have to
let them do their job. Yeah.

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If I have to stand over their
shoulders and see what they're doing, then

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I didn't make a good hire.
Yeah, you know, I've got to

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go find them people that we need
in our parish that can help us do

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the right job. Bring the money, Go find us grant money that can

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help our parish, you know,
go go find new technology that can help

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our parish. You know, I
do think we have a great finance lady

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that does our finances for the parish. She does an awesome job. I

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believe me and ear can work together. I think she's done an awesome job

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to Jennifer, Yes, you know, done a good job. I mean,

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I think there's a lot of them
that I hope they stay. But

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I'm the type of guy that I'm
gonna walk in day one and say who's

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leaving? Yeah, And I'm not
going to talk people into staying because if

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you have doubt of working for me, you have doubt, that's right.

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Yeah, that's the last thing you
want, right, I want someone that

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believes in me. So I can
believe in them and we can work in

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a good team environment and work for
this parish. When you go in there,

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let's talk about that for a second. You go in there, it's

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day one and boom you your parish
president. What is what is kind of

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your first goal that you would like
to accomplish? Well, I mean the

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first thing is going to be employees. Yeah, I mean the hands down

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you you you got to make sure
that all the departments have the personnel they

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need to continue providing the services for
the constituents of this parish. Yeah,

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you know, so, I mean, hands down, that's first. Uh.

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And then it's you know, going
and working with each department individual.

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I've had always said that what I
would like to do is spend a week,

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two weeks in each department. Yeah, go work with them, Go

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see what they do on a daily
basis, Understand how each department works,

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what they're having to work with.
What can we come up with to make

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it better too, so they can
provide better services. So it's definitely going

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to be within the administration itself,
working in each of these departments. Sure,

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trying to figure all that out.
I mean, we gotta you know,

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is our equipment outdated, you know
that we need to look into that

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or you know, I mean one
of the things I would love to see

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in DPW is put iPads with our
supervisors. Yeah, so little technology,

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little technology, you know, and
when they go out there and do a

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work order, they can enter it. The moment they're finished, the constituent

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gets an email, the administration gets
an email, the counselman gets an email,

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and everybody that's involved knows, hey, this is completed, thank you

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cam. Yeah. You know,
look my bug guy has an iPad.

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Yeah, so yeah, they definitely
need to get that. And uh and

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I think that's something while you're on
that subject of technology, it's something that

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you really bring to the table.
Is is a new kind of like a

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new vision and a new technology side
to yourself that you can yes, and

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you can go back and look at
the council. We're in the process of

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rolling into that technology. You know, we're using iPads, we're using an

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electronic voting system that we're slowly working
towards. One of the things that I

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love about it is it does kind
of stop most of the councilmen from just

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speaking out when they shouldn't speak out. I can't say that it stops all

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of them, right, but you
know there's a request to speak, but

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you know it will help meetings run
like they're supposed to run. And it

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just shows the power of technology.
I grew and I've always said, you

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know, when I started out in
my business, we were handwriting stuff.

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He was probably doing the same thing. We would go order material, we

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had to handwrite all of it.
We did an estimate, we had to

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handwrite every bit of it. And
we slowly worked into technology, you know,

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from the more. I mean,
it was so new that when they

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set a computer on my desk,
I had to figure out how to turn

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it on. Yes, you know
where now I can't. I can't even

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function when out a computer. Yeah, I know, my computer goes down.

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I'm lost. Yeah, you know, and I'm that bridge. Yeah,

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I understill understand old school, but
I see the vision of new school

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and new technology, and I think
that's perfect. That's a that's a great

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marriage because uh, you know,
I if the new technology were to fail,

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you know what to do. And
but you definitely everything is leaning towards

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that. You really need someone in
that position that can handle that understands that

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grasp the advantages of that, Yeah, because at the end of the day,

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it's gonna save you a lot of
money, a lot of time.

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Yes, there's no doubt you're at
MMR MMR. What do you do for

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them? I'm a site manager farm. I've been at the same chemical plant

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for twenty seven years for most of
classics. Yeah, I run all of

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their major projects of electrical and instrumentation
projects. We have their instrument maintenance.

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We actually have a huge project expansion
going on right now. We have a

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little over two hundred employees in the
plant, so I get phone calls all

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day long. You still can imagine
it, Yes, you know, I

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mean, and you know I've deal
with project management. I deal with planning

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and scheduling, Yeah, estimating material
ordering, writing contracts, negotiating contracts,

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policies and procedures. I mean,
everything you deal with as a parent,

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as a paris president, I do
it on that at that scale. I

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mean, I've run from two thousand
dollar jobs to twenty million dollar jobs.

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Yeah. I sometimes will have twenty
jobs at one time going on. Yeah,

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you know, I have a board
at my office, and I mean

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my supervisors will walk in and when
that board's full, they just dropped their

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head and walk out, you know, because it's like, well we can

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we never can catch up. Well, look, we're in the business of

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making money. So if that board's
full, we're making money. If that

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board's empty, people are going home
right. Well, and look, it's

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a skill that that from a parish
president's standpoint, will do nothing but benefit

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you, especially with the planning and
scheduling aspect of that and the ability to

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multitask, which is extremely important in
a role as a parish president. I

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would imagine you've seen things from a
councilman's side, and I'm sure as in

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councilman you've sat back and sat in
that chair and you've thought, I wish

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ministration would do this, or you
know, they could do this, Betterer,

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or if I were in that role, maybe I could bring this to

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the table. What would you say, is something U that you're going to

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bring to the administrative side that maybe
currently not necessarily missing, but that you

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have some experiencing you would like to
see change. Teamwork. Yeah, teamwork

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with parish president and the council makes
the dream work it, I mean,

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that's how it should work. You
know. As a parish president, I'm

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going I plan on being very very
accessible. Yeah, I will be at

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council meetings. They are the most
important meeting for our parish. I will

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be there. If I cannot attend, it won't be just somebody named to

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be there. It will be someone
with authority. Yeah, that can make

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a decision just like me if it's
asked of them, right, you know,

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and we we're we've just lost that
teamwork environment in our parish from not

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just between the parish president and the
council, the state reps working with each

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other, the state reps working with
the administration, administration working with the council,

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the council working with state reps that's
working with the senator. Like,

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we just don't have that teamwork environment
that we're all working for one goal to

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make live Exton Parish better. You
just nailed it. And and you know,

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uh, your state reps and senators
and all that they all play a

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role in parish and very important that
you have a working relationship. But you

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don't have to play golf with them
on the weekends or whatever, but have

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a working relationship and a dialogue that
that is professional and and uh, you'd

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be amazing once you can accomplish and
they're they're working. It's not like they're

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not doing their job. It's just
what's the old saying, You don't one

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hand doesn't know what the other hand
is doing. And it's kind of that

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field in our government that you know, we could be at the council fighting

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for school impact fees. You know, that's something that's kind of on the

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table right now. And you could
have some state reps that know about two

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million dollars grand out there for schools. Yes, and it's not communicated to

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us, that's right, you know. Are we don't have someone going to

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their office and saying, hey,
right now we're talking about schools, is

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there any money here that we might
be able to get? Yeah, And

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you know that's something that I have
said, you know, I definitely will

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have liaison with state reps to work
with them on a day to day basis

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be able to bring us back any
grant money, any information, anything that

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can help the parish. That's huge
and and something that we've talked about early

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early on in your in your candidacy
was something that I don't know if I

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call it. I saw a hole
in it, but I would have loved

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to have seen more access to grants
because the problem is grants are out there,

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but you got to dig them up. They don't just pop in your

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lap most of the time. And
and you know, there are some some

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ways of paying for things, and
yes, you have to have matches,

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and a twenty million dollar grant is
great, but if you don't have the

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ten million dollars to get the twenty
million dollar grant, it's worthless. But

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there's some out there that you may
get your hands on if you have someone

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like you say, a liaison talking
with these reps and finding these things.

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So shout shout out for a good
job in thinking about that. Now.

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One of the concerns that a lot
of residents have as of late is,

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uh, animal shelters expensive, very
expensive. I mean, look to do

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a true animal shelter right now,
we would need about two million dollars to

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get it rolling in the right direction. Is that money there possible? Yeah?

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Can we get it every year?
I don't know. Yeah, you

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know, I mean sometimes it's easy
to go squeeze and cut this out,

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cut that out, and yeah,
we could come up with it the first

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year, but then the following years
might be hard. I have a couple

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of ideas that I've met with the
Humane Society with. I pitched it to

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them. They liked it. It's
ways to generate money for an animal shelter,

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yeah, without raising taxes. You
know, it's basically like fundraisers,

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you know, to to help our
animal shelter. You know, one of

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my ideas would be to raise money
to just do spade and neutering clinics with

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free spade and neutering. Yeah,
you know, there's another idea that would

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help fun animal control. The money
would go to it. You know,

238
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we actually have some new money that's
still a little hush hush because we haven't

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gotten kind of our first round that
we possibly could use that money to help

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go into animal shelter. Yeah.
Really, we have two new sources that's

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probably fixing us start hitting the budget
and we'll help us out. And I'm

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sure all that will be released next
year and you know, when we finally

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get that first round of it,
very good. And so it's something that's

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on your radar, and yeah,
definitely something that that you're looking into and

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trying to get a resolution on.
And you know, there's a lot of

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other issues out there. One of
them and I want to kind of get

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into this a little bit. Is
the moratorium that's kind of been to talk

248
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as of late and initially this there
was a moratorium introduced by several councilmen.

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That was a year long deal.
Yeah, that other councilmen didn't think it

250
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was necessarily fair. There was some
issues with that. Let's talk about it

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a little bit, all right,
Well, let's let's do a little timeline

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on it. So, uh,
last year we had a moratorium while we

253
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were rewriting the Section one twenty five
was our building Ordinance. So I think

254
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we were shut down for about sixty
days for that one yea Ordnance committee was

255
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working once twice a week. I
mean, we were We're not gonna let

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it drag around. We got after
it, we went to work. We

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changed everything we could. You know, we didn't want to shut our business

258
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down too long. Right, we
opened it back up. We do have

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a few things that we, like
I said earlier, we have to go

260
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back and tweak it, you know, necessarily get it right the first time.

261
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We actually we need a development built
under the new code so we can

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see if it works. Yeah,
you know, but in the meantime of

263
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that happening, right after we finished
that, we get hit with carbon capture.

264
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We start dealing with carbon capture the
whole time we're trying to implement zoning.

265
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Yeah, you know, we're doing
what we can to implement zoning.

266
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We're trying to hurry up and get
zoning because this will help us with all

267
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of this stuff. It would have
helped us with carbon capture, it would

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have helped us with development. I
mean, it wouldn't have stopped it.

269
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It had just been another tool for
us. You know. Well, there

270
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were four of us. We just
as soon as we got our maps,

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we went through there. We we
did what we thought was the right thing

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to procedure to make it low.
We put it in place, and then

273
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deer run comes along. Deer Run
gets in right before we kind of enacted

274
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the moratorium last time, and it
become a legal issue. Yeah, well

275
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we thought, you know, I
mean, I voted for District fives owning

276
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maps. I knew that it was
on our one where dear Rum was going,

277
00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:07.680
which is one acre lots. Yeah. The problem is is when they

278
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went to federal district judge, they
said Matt wasn't brought in the law properly

279
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following state statue. So it's unenforceable. Yeah, no and void. Well,

280
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to me, we can't win a
lawsuit, right, there's no way

281
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we can win a lawsuit, you
know. So, I mean, you

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got a judge signing us, signing
something telling us that which I haven't sitting

283
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right here. You know. So
we are offered a settlement. The first

284
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settlement they give to us, we
denied it. We asked for more time

285
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so we could study it. Well
I did that. Yeah, you know,

286
00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:56.359
we're gonna study it. Okay,
Well I'm gonna take it home and

287
00:21:56.359 --> 00:21:57.319
I'm gonna study it. Yeah,
you're gonna read it. You know.

288
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So when we were offered the next
settlement, because there was a few more

289
00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:08.559
it's shoes that happened with judge and
follow another motion, and uh, the

290
00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:14.200
judge finally just come out and said, uh, we don't have a dog

291
00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:18.000
in the hunt, and they were
not going to allow their courtroom to be

292
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used for political grand standing. Yeah, so just finally said we had enough

293
00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:26.240
of it. Yeah, you know, well, when the settlement comes to

294
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us, there was a lot of
good things that come out of the settlement.

295
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Everybody preaches about the fourth entrance.
I mean, look, it's just

296
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a fourth entrance. To me,
I don't see where that's that big of

297
00:22:36.519 --> 00:22:38.680
a deal. But you know,
if it was going out on another road,

298
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you know, and you could make
the traffic go in different directions,

299
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I would say it being a big
deal. But I mean, fourth Entrance

300
00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:51.039
is one of them six hundred acres
along the river. I'm sorry, twelve

301
00:22:51.160 --> 00:22:55.079
hundred acres along the river. Two
six hundred acre tracks cannot be touched.

302
00:22:55.359 --> 00:22:59.680
Yeah, that's that's gonna be stay
just like it is. They originally had

303
00:22:59.720 --> 00:23:03.160
a b of apartments in the in
the center of it. They changed that

304
00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:07.319
to town homes. I think I
don't remember what the number, but it

305
00:23:07.400 --> 00:23:11.079
was all I know it was less
than half. It dropped from apartments to

306
00:23:11.079 --> 00:23:14.279
town homes, and the town homes
are going to be sold, not rented.

307
00:23:14.519 --> 00:23:17.559
They also had to follow our new
ordinances, so they were going to

308
00:23:17.640 --> 00:23:22.519
do the twenty percent reduction on the
drainage, you know, all of that

309
00:23:22.599 --> 00:23:26.319
stuff. So I'm so they're not
only not only are they not changing it,

310
00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:30.920
they're improving, improving it, Yeah, improving it. So and then

311
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there was the same developer is also
the one doing their subdivision that was down

312
00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:41.839
in the French selimentary well, part
of the settlement. And I'll give credit

313
00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:47.440
to mister Gerald mc morris. It
was approved for like six over six hundred

314
00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:52.599
homes. Yeah, approved, They
were ready to start building. Yeah.

315
00:23:52.920 --> 00:23:59.160
Mister McMorris went to the table forum
said hey, I want you to cut

316
00:23:59.160 --> 00:24:03.680
this down one hundred twenty five.
I want two acre lots yea minimum.

317
00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:08.519
They agreed to it. Wow.
So I feel like he stepped up for

318
00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:11.680
his people and said, you know, hey, I'm gonna get the best

319
00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:15.559
deal I can for the people that
I represent. And he and he did

320
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that, you know, and there's
some people don't agree with it, you

321
00:24:18.440 --> 00:24:22.599
know, but I'm looking at it
as a whole. Yeah. You know,

322
00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:26.480
with what all we got from dear
run, you knocked Hilaire down,

323
00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:30.519
which is gonna that helps the school
system. It's not in many homes,

324
00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:36.319
you know, that helps everything that
it would have impacted. You know,

325
00:24:36.440 --> 00:24:40.720
it helps traffic. That's last cars
on the road. So to me,

326
00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:45.599
that French Settlement area and it we'll
bring some industry out there, just with

327
00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:48.880
right people that are coming, people
that's coming. So I felt like Council

328
00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:55.559
McMorris. McMorris made a good deal
for the people down there, you know,

329
00:24:55.799 --> 00:25:00.200
dear Run seemed to be. It
could have been way worse. I

330
00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:04.039
mean, there's twelve hundred acres that
could have possibly been developed, right,

331
00:25:04.359 --> 00:25:07.559
that's not being developed, right.
You know, they didn't have to do

332
00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:12.839
twenty percent reduction, you know,
so the people below it would have flooded

333
00:25:12.920 --> 00:25:15.519
worse than what they are. You
know. There there's a lot of things

334
00:25:15.640 --> 00:25:19.079
that came of it that was good. So we agree. Five of us

335
00:25:19.279 --> 00:25:23.960
voted on that settlement, right,
we vote on it. The same night

336
00:25:26.039 --> 00:25:30.839
the moratorium that the that four councilmen
were proposing was on the table. It

337
00:25:30.839 --> 00:25:37.079
originally started off as a two year
moratorium that got dropped down to a one

338
00:25:37.160 --> 00:25:44.599
year moratorium. Yeah, and it
was on everything. Fifty lots and above.

339
00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:48.519
Our hundred acres are bigger. Yeah. The problem is is in the

340
00:25:48.519 --> 00:25:55.720
settlement there's a clause that reads,
if you vote to accept the settlement,

341
00:25:56.559 --> 00:26:02.160
you could not vote for a moratorium
that could be imposed on Deer Run,

342
00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:11.960
or you would personally be a breach
of contract. Well, mister McMorris didn't

343
00:26:11.960 --> 00:26:18.079
know about it. He voted for
the moratorium, yeah, and it got

344
00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:22.000
him in some trouble. Yeah,
you know, now he's gotten out of

345
00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:25.039
it. He's done the right thing. He handled it. That's a discussion

346
00:26:25.079 --> 00:26:27.000
for him. I don't want to
get in his business, but that's where

347
00:26:27.039 --> 00:26:30.319
we're at. Yeah, you know, that's what got us kind of back

348
00:26:30.359 --> 00:26:36.160
and forth on it. I knew
it was there, you know, because

349
00:26:36.279 --> 00:26:40.039
I had read the original agreement.
So when they brought the new proposal to

350
00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:42.160
us, I only had to read
like a page right because I already knew

351
00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:45.720
what the other the rest of it
said. I just wanted to know what

352
00:26:45.799 --> 00:26:48.599
all the new stuff was, so
I knew that was in there. And

353
00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:53.759
I went to mister villa Vasso,
which is the professional that we hired.

354
00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:57.039
Yeah, and I say, hey, we need we need another moratorium.

355
00:26:57.079 --> 00:27:03.319
We need one that can opt this
development. But it won't. It won't

356
00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:07.160
it can be imposed on Dear Run
because of this contract. But we can

357
00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:11.440
still stop all the new stuff.
Let's let's do something to stop that.

358
00:27:12.680 --> 00:27:17.480
The one year was a problem.
I said, let's go to the second

359
00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:21.720
meeting of the new council. Let
them get in there and get their feet

360
00:27:21.759 --> 00:27:26.119
wet, and then at the second
meeting they can then make the decision do

361
00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:30.680
they want to extend the moratorium o
our zoning implemented. We don't need it

362
00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:37.400
any longer because it simply says one
hundred and sixty days are until zoning is

363
00:27:37.480 --> 00:27:41.319
implemented. Right, So if they
get zoning done next month, moratorium is

364
00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:45.160
over with, right, you know. But that's what we're doing. That's

365
00:27:45.160 --> 00:27:48.880
how moratorium works. You have to
have a reason. Our reasoning is zoning.

366
00:27:49.359 --> 00:27:53.799
We need it fixed, we need
it implemented. So they might come

367
00:27:53.880 --> 00:27:59.039
up the next meeting and say we
need Balabasso might tell me needs sixty more

368
00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:03.400
days. They extended for sixty days. Yeah, but he has told me

369
00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:08.559
that he feels like at that meaning
he will be able to give them an

370
00:28:08.599 --> 00:28:14.839
exact time. Yeah. Yea hey
I need sixty days. I need thirty

371
00:28:14.920 --> 00:28:19.279
days. Yeah. And and from
my standpoint, and following this closely,

372
00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:26.799
I think your your your plan was
perfect. The issues I have with the

373
00:28:26.839 --> 00:28:33.839
original moratorium or the length number one
I didn't look. If you need a

374
00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:38.720
year to get that stuff straight to
me, that's that that's an issue with

375
00:28:38.759 --> 00:28:44.279
the council. If it takes you
a year, okay, So I hope

376
00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:47.200
that didn't insult anybody out there.
But if it takes you a year to

377
00:28:47.240 --> 00:28:49.000
get that stuff resolve, you probably
don't need to be on the council,

378
00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:56.480
that's my opinion. One hundred and
sixty days also fit because you have a

379
00:28:56.519 --> 00:29:00.960
new council coming in and that new
council, for example, your seat will

380
00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:07.000
be empty. Whoever fills your seat, they may or may not want to

381
00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:11.680
proceed the same way you did.
Well, you're forcing that on them if

382
00:29:11.720 --> 00:29:15.720
you if you do it the other
way. So I commend you for coming

383
00:29:15.799 --> 00:29:19.119
up with that, working with the
planner, which is the person who's the

384
00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:26.519
professional in that, and making it
happen. You know, it's important.

385
00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:32.200
That is the hardest thing from a
council standpoint, in my opinion you probably

386
00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:37.680
agree, is how do you control
growth without overgrowing to the point that uh,

387
00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:41.079
it's just heywire out there with with
this traffic, you're always probably going

388
00:29:41.160 --> 00:29:48.640
to be a little behind on infrastructure
versus growth. And we've already been behind

389
00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:52.200
on infrastructure for thirty years yeah way
before, you know, I mean way

390
00:29:52.319 --> 00:29:56.559
before. I might have been the
only one that was in politics back now

391
00:29:56.000 --> 00:30:00.480
as cars on the council right now, Yes, here's the bubble us too,

392
00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:03.119
Yeah you know, but he's no
longer with us. But I mean,

393
00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:07.279
look, the subdivisions that we're having
problems with right now. There were

394
00:30:07.279 --> 00:30:11.200
no rules when they were built.
Yeah, they are the ones that were

395
00:30:11.240 --> 00:30:15.480
built thirty years ago, twenty five
years ago, twenty years ago. We

396
00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:21.839
have rules now, they're following rules
now. It's these older subdivisions that are

397
00:30:21.880 --> 00:30:26.599
the problems. That's right. I
didn't approve one of them. Yeah,

398
00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:30.880
I wasn't a council I was not
there when I came in. It was

399
00:30:30.039 --> 00:30:33.200
right away. We need rules,
we need rules, And I'll tell you

400
00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:37.519
why. I lived on Buddy Ellis
yea, and when I lived there,

401
00:30:37.640 --> 00:30:44.559
they started building woodland crossing in my
backyard. I have been through it.

402
00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:49.880
I moved and I ran for a
council seat to try and make a difference.

403
00:30:52.279 --> 00:30:56.400
I have been where other people are. I know what it's like to

404
00:30:56.480 --> 00:30:59.759
feel like this is my forever home
and then all of a sudden, you

405
00:30:59.799 --> 00:31:04.839
have a subdivision built around you.
But if we don't do it legally and

406
00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:10.599
do it the proper way, we're
gonna get sued all the time and we

407
00:31:10.720 --> 00:31:15.240
cannot win. Yeah. I'm trying
to make it to where we do have

408
00:31:15.400 --> 00:31:21.400
something to stand on. Yeah.
Unfortunately, there's a couple of subdivisions that

409
00:31:21.519 --> 00:31:27.200
got through. Yeah, there's always
gonna be that last one. That's right,

410
00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:32.599
that last one that got through.
And I you know, and I

411
00:31:32.680 --> 00:31:34.759
know you don't want it to be
in your backyard. You would rather it

412
00:31:34.839 --> 00:31:40.839
in someone else's backyard. We don't, we don't control that. It just

413
00:31:40.920 --> 00:31:45.200
happens to be. That's the ones
that got through. You know. I

414
00:31:45.240 --> 00:31:49.920
wish we could stop them. I
wish we could do more, but what

415
00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:56.039
it would cost us in legal fees
and fighting it, and it's we just

416
00:31:56.160 --> 00:32:00.240
we can't win. Yeah, we
can't win. That's right. And uh,

417
00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:05.200
you know you've said it many times
and you know throughout your campaign,

418
00:32:05.240 --> 00:32:08.400
and that is you're going to follow
the rules. And uh and if you

419
00:32:08.480 --> 00:32:13.319
follow the rules and you're on the
right side of the law, you know,

420
00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:16.000
you're okay, okay, and you're
a rule follower. And that's it.

421
00:32:16.079 --> 00:32:19.319
I mean, I've always been like
that, you know. I mean,

422
00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:21.839
and it's like I said, in
my world, you know, we're

423
00:32:21.880 --> 00:32:25.160
in the electrical business. There are
rules there to keep people alive so they

424
00:32:25.160 --> 00:32:29.880
can go home to their families.
That's right. One one mistake by not

425
00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:31.799
following the rules commnial life, I
mean your life, you know, and

426
00:32:32.119 --> 00:32:37.359
and that's what's trained me of how
to think. You know, I'm responsible

427
00:32:37.559 --> 00:32:43.759
for every person that walks through them
gates under my direction. Yeah, and

428
00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:47.079
if somebody doesn't go home to their
family that night, I'm at fault.

429
00:32:47.400 --> 00:32:53.480
Yeah. So I preach follow the
rules. Yeah, I don't care whether

430
00:32:53.519 --> 00:32:58.759
you agree with them or you don't. You follow the rules, and I'm

431
00:32:58.799 --> 00:33:02.240
the same way. That's lucky,
can't fault. That's exactly what you want

432
00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:07.039
out of your elected officials. And
I want to ask you. You mentioned

433
00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:12.960
also in your time here in your
campaign about a super board and and UH

434
00:33:13.160 --> 00:33:16.039
kind of tell us about that.
Yeah. So once I, like I

435
00:33:16.079 --> 00:33:20.119
said earlier, I didn't know everything
when I took office. Uh, and

436
00:33:20.160 --> 00:33:23.640
I started realizing all these different boards
and committees were over and you appoint to

437
00:33:23.680 --> 00:33:29.680
this board and that board. And
UH realized that at the time we had

438
00:33:30.400 --> 00:33:37.000
five drainage districts and we have since
combined combined two of them over on the

439
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:42.680
east side in southeast southwestern part of
the parish all into one, right you

440
00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:45.200
know, So that's called US District
eight. And then we have the one

441
00:33:45.240 --> 00:33:49.640
in Watson one and Walker and one
in Diental right to them three are funded.

442
00:33:49.880 --> 00:33:52.599
Yeah, they have funds, which
means two thirds of our parish is

443
00:33:52.720 --> 00:33:57.880
unfunded. Right, let's say that
again, two thirds of our paris is

444
00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:00.480
unfunded. Uh, And we got
to fix that, you know. We

445
00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:06.160
to do that, we need to
go talk to the people over there and

446
00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:12.480
figure out what do they believe is
affordable, what do they believe is the

447
00:34:12.599 --> 00:34:15.880
right thing to do, And we
do that by showing them a plan.

448
00:34:15.320 --> 00:34:20.679
Yeah, this is what we're going
to do. This is how we will

449
00:34:20.679 --> 00:34:23.760
fix it with you helping us,
you know, because I look, I've

450
00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:28.320
seen where they go out and try
to clean a canal out, and they

451
00:34:28.320 --> 00:34:30.599
could have fixed it easily by just
talking to the guy that lives there,

452
00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:35.920
right, you know, And and
we need to have that communication with our

453
00:34:35.960 --> 00:34:39.800
constituents. Yeah. But what I
noticed is, you know, I have

454
00:34:39.960 --> 00:34:45.559
somebody on the Walker district, you
know, I point to people on that

455
00:34:45.599 --> 00:34:52.400
one, and then I have the
District eight, and I'm realizing neither one

456
00:34:52.440 --> 00:34:57.599
of them knows much at all about
the other one. And I actually have

457
00:34:57.719 --> 00:35:00.239
one on the Watson board too,
you know, So with me dealing with

458
00:35:00.320 --> 00:35:07.000
three different districts, there's no communication. Yeah, they don't have a clue

459
00:35:07.400 --> 00:35:10.800
what each ones are doing right.
So you might have a canal that starts

460
00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:15.039
in Watson, goes through Walker and
then ends up in the district eight.

461
00:35:15.440 --> 00:35:20.480
Yeah, well Walker decides to clean
their portion out, which is in the

462
00:35:20.519 --> 00:35:28.000
center and twenty twenty four and it's
twenty twenty six before Watson decides to clean

463
00:35:28.039 --> 00:35:30.639
the northern part of it out.
Yeah. Where if we created this super

464
00:35:30.679 --> 00:35:35.800
board, Well, we have one
guy from each district this on this board,

465
00:35:36.519 --> 00:35:39.159
they can have a quarterly meeting just
to let each one know what they're

466
00:35:39.199 --> 00:35:44.199
working on, what they're fixing to
work on. Well, they might realize

467
00:35:44.199 --> 00:35:46.519
when you know what, since you're
working on Beaver Creek. It starts in

468
00:35:46.599 --> 00:35:51.639
Watson and comes through Walker, and
then it wounds up into Koyel that goes

469
00:35:51.679 --> 00:35:54.239
down into eight. How about we
all work on that canal at the same

470
00:35:54.280 --> 00:35:59.920
time and we clean it from top
to bottom. Sounds like a great unde.

471
00:36:00.079 --> 00:36:04.400
Yeah, it's just about communication.
Yeah, that's all it is.

472
00:36:04.440 --> 00:36:09.760
It's communication. I think it's a
I think it's a great idea in communication

473
00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:14.599
going a long way towards solving problems. Yes, and what would you say,

474
00:36:15.400 --> 00:36:17.800
Uh, was some of the best
advice you've ever got on leadership.

475
00:36:19.000 --> 00:36:23.039
I probably would say just being accessible, yeah, you know, being accessible

476
00:36:23.079 --> 00:36:28.519
to the people that work under your
direction and to the people you're working far

477
00:36:28.880 --> 00:36:32.400
Yeah. You know, as a
leader, you're you're that bridge. You

478
00:36:32.599 --> 00:36:37.679
are You're that bridge between the workers
and the people you're doing the work far

479
00:36:38.039 --> 00:36:42.280
right. And and I've kind of
always I mean, look, you can

480
00:36:42.320 --> 00:36:45.599
ask the guys that work for me
at the plant. Very seldom do you

481
00:36:45.639 --> 00:36:50.039
see my door shut? Yeah,
yeah, they come in. I have

482
00:36:50.079 --> 00:36:53.280
a big open area where they come
in right outside my office and they have

483
00:36:53.360 --> 00:36:59.199
their lunch breaks, and you know, and my door's always open. I

484
00:36:59.239 --> 00:37:01.440
can be said then my desk and
talking to them while they're out there.

485
00:37:01.559 --> 00:37:05.039
If they you know, they could
just walk up there and ask me a

486
00:37:05.119 --> 00:37:08.719
question, you know, And I'm
I'm like that. I just make sure

487
00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:15.679
I'm accessible to everybody that that I'm
in that leadership role far yeah, you

488
00:37:15.719 --> 00:37:22.320
know, so I try to make
sure that you know you and you need

489
00:37:22.360 --> 00:37:24.599
to see that in me. Yeah, that I am that guy that you

490
00:37:24.639 --> 00:37:28.559
can just come up and talk to. I would agree with that. And

491
00:37:28.559 --> 00:37:32.280
and something that you know, you've
made a commitment several times in your campaign

492
00:37:32.320 --> 00:37:37.440
about you're gonna be at council meetings
and you're gonna be involved. And if

493
00:37:37.440 --> 00:37:39.960
you can't personally be there, you're
gonna have someone who can make a decision

494
00:37:40.039 --> 00:37:45.360
be there. And that is also
a form of leadership. It's you know,

495
00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:49.960
and it's also you need to be
informed of what those guys are doing

496
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:52.360
at all times. And yeah,
and I even say, you know,

497
00:37:52.840 --> 00:37:57.960
being you The last podcast talked about
this that you know, Look, I'm

498
00:37:58.000 --> 00:38:01.719
the type of guy I want to
be the best whatever I do. My

499
00:38:01.880 --> 00:38:06.840
goal is be better than whoever was
there before me. Yep, you know,

500
00:38:06.960 --> 00:38:10.320
So whatever the standards are, the
people think is was the best parish

501
00:38:10.360 --> 00:38:14.880
president we had, I'm going to
leave office being better. You go,

502
00:38:15.199 --> 00:38:17.000
you know, they set the bar. I know where I need to go,

503
00:38:17.559 --> 00:38:21.960
and I'm gonna make sure i'm better, you know. And I've always

504
00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:25.039
been like that in life, you
know, from sports and high school to

505
00:38:25.159 --> 00:38:29.920
wanting to be the best athlete on
the field, you know, to when

506
00:38:29.960 --> 00:38:32.159
I started coaching, you know,
I got into baseball. I wasn't a

507
00:38:32.159 --> 00:38:36.239
big baseball player as a kid,
but my son liked baseball, and I

508
00:38:36.280 --> 00:38:38.760
went and learned everything I could about
baseball so I could coach him. Yeah,

509
00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:42.760
you know, we did tournament ball, we won state titles, we

510
00:38:42.800 --> 00:38:45.599
won a world series. I mean, anything that somebody told me I could

511
00:38:45.599 --> 00:38:50.480
not do because I was from Livingston
Parish, I proved them wrong. Yeah,

512
00:38:50.559 --> 00:38:52.480
so oh yes I can, and
I'm gonna do it with Livingston Parish

513
00:38:52.559 --> 00:38:57.960
kids love that. And that's what
I did. Yeah, it's huge.

514
00:38:58.039 --> 00:39:01.760
And and uh, you know,
let's let's talk for a second about because

515
00:39:01.800 --> 00:39:06.960
you didn't always We said this a
little bit in the last podcast, but

516
00:39:07.480 --> 00:39:12.719
you didn't always want to be in
politics, Like that's something that you kind

517
00:39:12.719 --> 00:39:15.599
of morphed into. And and and
here you said, who would have thought?

518
00:39:15.679 --> 00:39:21.920
And uh, you know, your
opponent, just to bring your opponent

519
00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:24.719
up for a second, is has
been in politics a long time, and

520
00:39:24.760 --> 00:39:30.559
you represent a change. You're you're
a change from from that. And I

521
00:39:30.599 --> 00:39:35.400
think that's it's important to mention that
you are not in this just for four

522
00:39:35.480 --> 00:39:37.480
years. You're in this for the
long haul. A matter of fact,

523
00:39:38.519 --> 00:39:42.079
when you and I talked last time, you said, I fully intend to

524
00:39:42.119 --> 00:39:44.840
serve as long as people will let
me. I mean, you know we

525
00:39:44.880 --> 00:39:47.039
have term limits the learners. I
could go as three terms, twelve years.

526
00:39:47.400 --> 00:39:51.039
Uh you know, I mean and
if I was here for twelve years,

527
00:39:51.079 --> 00:39:52.719
i'd only be sixty five years old. Yeah still, you know,

528
00:39:53.000 --> 00:39:58.320
I mean, I'm I'm kind of
what I consider the prime of my career,

529
00:39:58.480 --> 00:40:00.519
which kind of is the backside.
But that's when you really get the

530
00:40:00.559 --> 00:40:07.159
most out of people because they have
the knowledge at that point to really give

531
00:40:07.199 --> 00:40:09.320
you what you're paying for. Yeah, you know, and that's where I'm

532
00:40:09.360 --> 00:40:15.280
at. With what I've learned in
my industry and my years of just going

533
00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:19.199
out there and hustling, I can
bring that to the parish. Well,

534
00:40:19.239 --> 00:40:23.199
it's and it's hard, Jeff,
to implement a vision in four years,

535
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:28.239
very hard. I don't even know
if it's as possible. I've even told

536
00:40:28.239 --> 00:40:32.239
people this, you know. I
feel like getting reelected the first time should

537
00:40:32.239 --> 00:40:37.760
be easy for anyone. Yeah,
because you've had four years to start making

538
00:40:37.920 --> 00:40:44.559
changes, showing people that you're trying, You're trying to make the difference and

539
00:40:44.599 --> 00:40:49.199
they see it. It's that third
term that's the hard one, because that

540
00:40:49.360 --> 00:40:53.599
third term you better have proven that
the changes you made are working. Yes,

541
00:40:54.360 --> 00:40:59.639
you know, That's That's how I've
looked at term limits. You know,

542
00:41:00.280 --> 00:41:04.639
you know, your first term you
show the changes, the second term

543
00:41:04.719 --> 00:41:07.760
you make them work. Yeah,
if you're gonna get that third one,

544
00:41:07.039 --> 00:41:09.719
it better be working, that's right. If you get that third one,

545
00:41:09.760 --> 00:41:15.920
that means the people are happy and
they approve of the job you've done because

546
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:21.119
they know that you know that third
term is is it for you? So

547
00:41:21.639 --> 00:41:23.920
the gloves are kind of off,
and you know, you the last thing

548
00:41:23.920 --> 00:41:29.119
you wanted someone in the office that
can just go haywire and do whatever they

549
00:41:29.119 --> 00:41:31.760
want because they have no they have
no plans to run again, right,

550
00:41:31.840 --> 00:41:36.000
So what does it matter if you
don't like what I'm doing? Uh?

551
00:41:36.400 --> 00:41:37.760
You know, short of impeaching me, there's not a whole lot you can

552
00:41:37.800 --> 00:41:39.960
do about it. No, you
can't know what I mean. Look,

553
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.960
and that was kind of one of
the things that I kind of didn't like

554
00:41:45.119 --> 00:41:49.559
about term limits because you run into
that, you get to where a guy

555
00:41:49.719 --> 00:41:54.800
gets elected for his last term,
he can't run anymore. Yeah he's done.

556
00:41:55.440 --> 00:42:00.159
You can't get rid of him.
Yeah, I'm gonna ride out these

557
00:42:00.280 --> 00:42:05.000
last four years and I'm gone,
Yeah I'm done. Where if we didn't

558
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:07.639
have term limits, they would still
have to work for you because they want

559
00:42:07.679 --> 00:42:12.880
it again. Yeah, you know, but we have term limits. You

560
00:42:12.920 --> 00:42:15.400
know, I voted to put it
on the ballot because I think the people

561
00:42:15.440 --> 00:42:20.519
had the right to decide that well. And and and I will say that

562
00:42:20.719 --> 00:42:23.400
you know, by the time you
get around of that third term, in

563
00:42:23.440 --> 00:42:28.440
my opinion, if you're someone that
for eight years have been doing the right

564
00:42:28.480 --> 00:42:31.960
thing and pushing yourself, you're probably
gonna push through that last term regardless.

565
00:42:32.480 --> 00:42:36.840
And uh, you know, there's
the sad thing for me about term limits

566
00:42:36.880 --> 00:42:38.679
is sometimes you lose people you don't
want to lose, Yeah, and you

567
00:42:38.719 --> 00:42:43.199
can't do anything about it. And
I hate that. We're fortunate here in

568
00:42:43.280 --> 00:42:45.840
Livingston Parish, right, so we
have a lot of people here. We

569
00:42:45.920 --> 00:42:47.119
have a lot of knowledge in our
parish. Yeah, you know, we

570
00:42:47.159 --> 00:42:50.880
have a lot of businessmen in our
parish. There's a lot of people that

571
00:42:51.079 --> 00:42:53.280
stand up. The issue is there's
a lot of them that don't want to

572
00:42:53.280 --> 00:42:55.920
deal with it. Yes, you
know, a lot of it has to

573
00:42:55.960 --> 00:42:59.400
do with social media. Yes,
you know, they don't want to put

574
00:42:59.440 --> 00:43:01.559
their family through that. They just
don't want to have to. You know,

575
00:43:01.559 --> 00:43:07.800
they're worried about it hurting their business
and it's causing good people to not

576
00:43:07.039 --> 00:43:12.679
stand up and run. It can
help our parish. That's right, and

577
00:43:12.719 --> 00:43:16.159
then you get these smaller parishes,
which I look back to when I was

578
00:43:16.199 --> 00:43:20.840
a kid, how Livingston Parish was
and you didn't have many people to choose

579
00:43:20.880 --> 00:43:22.360
from. Yeah, you know,
and it's been said, you know,

580
00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:27.840
we've kind of had the same people
running our parish for the past thirty forty

581
00:43:27.920 --> 00:43:31.360
years. You know, this,
this transition that is going on now to

582
00:43:31.440 --> 00:43:37.960
the next generation, should have happened
fifteen years ago, but we just we

583
00:43:37.039 --> 00:43:43.280
got so used to the same names, the same people. Oh well they

584
00:43:43.320 --> 00:43:47.840
got it, well, they got
it, and our generation didn't step up

585
00:43:47.880 --> 00:43:53.199
fast enough. And now we are
and we're getting there and we're trying to

586
00:43:53.239 --> 00:44:01.239
take over. And really I think
my raceist probably the only one that the

587
00:44:01.320 --> 00:44:07.119
old generation could still hold on.
Yeah, you know, other than that

588
00:44:07.280 --> 00:44:09.000
all, you know, I mean, look, I love mister Rogers Pope

589
00:44:09.039 --> 00:44:13.440
to death. He has done unbelievable
work for our parish, you know,

590
00:44:13.719 --> 00:44:16.559
but you know, he's he's gone, he's he's retiring, he's out,

591
00:44:16.840 --> 00:44:20.679
you know. So that's one of
the older guys that's been doing it forever

592
00:44:20.880 --> 00:44:23.719
that you know, we just we
trust him. He's been here forever,

593
00:44:23.840 --> 00:44:29.599
He's always done what the people wanted. A great guy, mister Bubba Harris.

594
00:44:29.840 --> 00:44:31.639
You know, I mean he's out, he's done, he's been doing

595
00:44:31.679 --> 00:44:36.880
it forever. Yeah, you know, just these last few older guys are

596
00:44:36.920 --> 00:44:40.360
still they're just now kind of giving
it up, right, and it's it's

597
00:44:40.400 --> 00:44:45.280
time for us to take over.
I agree, I agree, and and

598
00:44:45.519 --> 00:44:49.360
uh and you're doing it and out
there working every day, working hard.

599
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:53.199
And that's why we like to put
these podcasts out is because we want people

600
00:44:53.199 --> 00:44:58.800
to be able to see who who
these guys are. Outside of ten minutes

601
00:44:58.840 --> 00:45:02.119
they get to speak somewhere uh that
you know, that's great for the fast

602
00:45:02.559 --> 00:45:06.519
you know, answers to questions,
but it's hard to learn who they are.

603
00:45:06.559 --> 00:45:09.360
And speaking of that, you know, you don't have a lot of

604
00:45:09.400 --> 00:45:14.320
spare time, but you have some
Uh what do you like to do outside

605
00:45:14.360 --> 00:45:19.079
of you know, mmr and and
uh sitting on the council and doing all

606
00:45:19.079 --> 00:45:22.960
this work for the parish. Well, I love the hunting fish. Yeah,

607
00:45:23.039 --> 00:45:27.760
you know, when I can find
the time, I love the hunting

608
00:45:27.840 --> 00:45:31.480
fish. I have a granddaughter that
you know, sometimes I'm in a swimming

609
00:45:31.480 --> 00:45:35.880
pool with her. You know,
I'm fortunate that my son has the house

610
00:45:35.960 --> 00:45:37.519
next to me. Yeah, and
you know, I get to see my

611
00:45:37.559 --> 00:45:42.599
granddaughter a lot, so I do
that a lot. I mean, look,

612
00:45:43.320 --> 00:45:45.400
when you see jeff Ard, if
he's got a drink in his hand,

613
00:45:45.440 --> 00:45:47.960
it's gonna be a water or a
diet coat. It's not gonna be

614
00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:52.079
a beer or whiskey. Yeah.
You know, Uh, you're not gonna

615
00:45:52.079 --> 00:45:54.119
see him in a ballroom on Saturday
night because he gets something, goes to

616
00:45:54.199 --> 00:46:00.280
church on Sunday mornings at Revival Temple. Yeah. You know. I've tell

617
00:46:00.320 --> 00:46:04.039
this to people all the time.
I'm gonna work for the people, but

618
00:46:04.159 --> 00:46:07.159
I serve my Lord and Savior.
Love it, love it. And uh

619
00:46:07.440 --> 00:46:10.960
and say what do you like to
hunt? What's your favorite? There's my

620
00:46:12.079 --> 00:46:16.599
favorite. And it's mainly because it's
an opportunity to me for sit in peace

621
00:46:16.679 --> 00:46:21.719
and quiet. As my wife says, I love to find the hunting camp.

622
00:46:21.719 --> 00:46:25.239
Water sales service doesn't work. Yeah, you know, and just just

623
00:46:25.519 --> 00:46:30.760
be with nature and just sit there
and have my time to really just reflect.

624
00:46:31.039 --> 00:46:36.400
I'm good at fishing, yeah,
but I get too competitive fishing.

625
00:46:37.039 --> 00:46:38.639
You know. When I start fishing, next thing, you know, I'm

626
00:46:38.639 --> 00:46:43.400
looking for a tournament to get in. Uh, you know, I want

627
00:46:43.519 --> 00:46:46.599
people on the boat with me and
start talking smack back and forth to each

628
00:46:46.599 --> 00:46:51.960
other. You know, but hunting
is definitely my peaceful time. I love

629
00:46:51.960 --> 00:46:54.960
it, man, I love it. And look appreciate you coming on and

630
00:46:54.960 --> 00:47:00.119
and uh, you know, get
in office and win this race, and

631
00:47:00.639 --> 00:47:04.960
you'd come back anytime, and just
give the people an update on what's going

632
00:47:05.039 --> 00:47:08.519
on and in Livingston Parish from your
office. Yeah, and just make sure

633
00:47:08.599 --> 00:47:14.480
everybody knows. September thirtieth, Yes, early voting starts. It runs for

634
00:47:14.519 --> 00:47:17.239
a week. You can go to
the down Springs Walker branch right there at

635
00:47:17.360 --> 00:47:21.840
Eden Church and vote, or you
can go to the tax accessor building by

636
00:47:21.840 --> 00:47:25.800
the courthouse and vote yea. And
then elections October fourteenth. And look October

637
00:47:25.840 --> 00:47:29.519
fourteenth, it's a busy day for
our parish. We have an election.

638
00:47:30.079 --> 00:47:34.280
It's gonna be the Saturday of the
Fair. Yes, I think there's a

639
00:47:34.280 --> 00:47:37.519
trade show going on at v Watts
that day. Oh, so there's a

640
00:47:37.559 --> 00:47:43.159
lot of stuff gonna be happening in
our parish on October fourteenth. So if

641
00:47:43.199 --> 00:47:46.880
you can early vote, early vote, I agree, I agree, And

642
00:47:46.880 --> 00:47:50.519
I know some people out there they
have that tradition. May you know,

643
00:47:50.559 --> 00:47:52.920
we vote on election day and that
and that's fine because those people typically going

644
00:47:52.960 --> 00:47:57.960
to vote no matter what. But
if you have any any sort of hesitation,

645
00:47:58.119 --> 00:48:00.239
just just vote early. Look,
there's no pressure. You get a

646
00:48:00.280 --> 00:48:05.639
library whenever you want during opening hours
and they'll let you vote. And uh,

647
00:48:05.840 --> 00:48:08.880
and there's rarely any line because it's
gonna be a big election, big

648
00:48:09.000 --> 00:48:14.639
leagon this year and winding down,
we wish you all the luck. Uh,

649
00:48:15.039 --> 00:48:17.760
please comment if if you got any
questions, and I'll make sure I

650
00:48:17.840 --> 00:48:22.400
get him to Jeff, so just
comment on the podcast and and uh maybe

651
00:48:22.440 --> 00:48:25.559
we'll get him to answer some of
those questions. And I appreciate you coming

652
00:48:25.599 --> 00:48:30.280
on as always, Thank you for
having Until next time, I'm Jim Chapman

653
00:48:30.360 --> 00:48:35.320
reminding you love your community, support
local business, keep leading. Thank you very much