Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, guys, here we are for another episode of the Paris Circuit. Today we're talking mayors.
Listen to this.
Absolute transparency in government.
A safer, stronger community where no family is left behind.
Transparent leadership. Economic growth. Improved public services.
Safer, cleaner, and more prosperous.
Transparent, accountable and responsive city government.
Did you like the things that I just said?
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Oh, wait, was that rhetorical? You want me to answer? Because it made me feel warm and fuzzy.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: Didn't it make you feel warm and fuzzy? Guess how many candidates in Opelousis I just quoted.
That was like, four.
And honestly, we could have kept going. All four.
Everything I just said is pulled straight from platform. Straight from platform.
And what we want to do today is say, hey, we love the platitudes.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Do we?
[00:01:01] Speaker A: As long as they're connected to things that actually happen.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Yeah, okay.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Yeah, we love the platitudes. Where's the plan? That's what we're chasing. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Parish Circuit. I'm Stuart Ammonon. With me is David Riley. Hi, David.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Hello.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: We're marathon recording episodes right now, just in case you guys didn't know this. We record several at a time, you know. And so David and I, we're warmed up now.
We've gone from cold to warm. We're feeling good, and we're gonna see how this goes. Qualifying just closed in St. Landry parish, and the election's coming up. I think it's November 3rd. I think that's the right date. November. Somebody helped me think through this. At one point, I thought it was October, but I think it's November 3rd. And we've got six, potentially six or seven candidates. It depends on if one of them actually qualified or not. We're having difficulties determining whether or not they qualified for the election, but we've got Julius Alcindor, who is the incumbent.
He's been mayor. This would be his third term, I believe. Is that right? He's already done two terms. Yeah. So the third term we got Donald Broussard, Sona Anderson, elbert Guillory, Devin McKnight, Rod Sias. And then the seventh, that we're not sure if they're qualified or not, is Keenan Lamb, or Keenan Lamb, I'm not sure how you pronounce it.
Today we're going to go through and give you summaries of these candidates and their platforms. And as we were preparing for this episode, that's when we realized there's a lot of platitudes, but there's not a lot of plans. There's a Lot of platitudes. There's a lot of general statements. There's a lot of feel good, warm fuzzies out there right now. But we haven't gotten plans, so let's do a quick rundown, you know, just real fast, and we'll kind of see. See where these things actually land. So let's start with Julius, Julius Alcindor.
Now, his. His argument is that projects that he's been working on for the last eight years, they're starting. They're finally coming around. The city's starting to be awarded for different projects that have been filed for.
But part of the thing is that we're not sure which projects he's actually talking about.
There's the water system award that we got. The water system project. I think they got about what, like $2 million for that project. Is that right? $2 million.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Wait, the water. Like the major updates to the water system.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: How much was that?
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Oh, no, that was bigger.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: That was much bigger.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: Yeah, that's in the teens. Millions.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: Now, like, you know, do you remember the episode we talked about?
About half of it is a grant.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: It's gonna need to get paid back, so it's forgivable.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. That's like 14 million.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Something like. 14.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: That's right. Yeah, 14 million. I'm sorry, I got my numbers mixed up. So there's that project. Then there's the projects with Donald Garter Stadium and the new basketball court gymnasium thing that they're building in South Park.
Those things are all coming through, I think. And so maybe that's what he's referring to.
I would love to see him specifically cite exactly which projects it is that he's talking about being completed because he's the candidate with receipts.
He's the guy who's been in office for eight years. He's the guy who's basic. His re election is contingent upon the work that he's done up to this point. Now, I can just tell you, by having a field of this many candidates coming in, a lot of people think. My intuition says that a lot of people think he doesn't have a shot at getting reelected. And that's why there's so such a big field right now. Like, if he was solidly in the seat, I don't think this many people would enter the field to be elected. You know, just speaking intuitively here, but we'll see what happens. We'll see how it actually winds up playing out.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It'll be interesting to See, Yeah.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: So then we got Donald Broussard.
If you don't know Donald, I've seen Donald at some city council meetings. He generally is spicy.
When he's in the city council meetings, he's generally kind of like a spicy guy. He and I have had some crosses a couple of different times in our life. Once over the abortion doctor who moved into Opelousis, again, another time over something else that I can't quite remember.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: So he was speaking out in favor of the abortion doctor.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Well, what he said specifically to me at the time was, hey, man, don't worry. She's not going to do abortions in the city of Opelousis.
And I know how abortion providers actually work, and I don't believe that.
I just don't believe that.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: Strange.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: I understand what he's saying. He's saying she's not licensed. She's not licensed to do that. Also, her entire system was built on referrals. She would refer to other clinics. Now, this is all a moot point at this point, because inside of the state of Louisiana, it's a legal period now. We do abortion by pills. This is another different episode. But I've had a few interactions with him in the past. He's a spicy guy.
I would call them, you know, a typical, more progressive Democrat.
So, yeah, Julius Alcindor is also a Democrat. Forgot to say that earlier.
We're not told. I'm assuming that Bruce Art is also going to be running as a Democrat again in 2026. He did in 2022.
We're not totally sure of his filing as of right now, but he says specifically he's got some goals. Okay. And he's asked his voters, he said, hold me accountable to these goals. He's saying that. And I mean, that's worth some credit. This is Donald Brewster we're talking about here.
But the only mechanism to accomplish the goals that he's trying to cross. This is the same issue that we've run into on other parts of the episode is he wants to appeal to state and federal funding.
He's saying, like, let's get. But the state and federal funding comes from somewhere. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's.
It is tax dollars, okay? So we're saying, let's get some more tax dollars before we raise taxes here.
We got to figure out something else. My thing would be, what line on the budget are you going to cut?
Show me where you're going to reduce spending. Show me where you're going to cut budget lineup appaloosa's. Budget, at least for several budget sessions, was public.
Like, I think it's still even posted on the opelousis LA website. You can go pull the budget and see where the line items are. Tell me where you would cut and how would you cut and what would you do different?
I would want to know those things. And there's Sona Anderson. We don't know the party affiliated with this one. I'm not sure she's got 40 years of public service.
I'm not sure exactly inside of what space, but she says she's got 40 years of public service total in her life.
And then her platform is really just, I think the same thing that everybody says. Transparency, fiscal responsibility. She's going to try to grow things. And then there's safety references, like references to trying to like keep the town a safer place.
I mean, I appreciate all those things, but again, we go back to what's the plan? How are we going to do that? How are we going to execute those things? And I would go back to the budget too.
Elbert Guillory is also on the docket. Elbert's the only Republican.
Well, he's the only stated Republican. Maybe I should say it that way.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Why do you say it that way?
[00:08:11] Speaker A: Stuart, go see previous episodes.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: Wait, did we talk about that in previous episodes?
[00:08:17] Speaker A: We just talked about it.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Well, no, what you're.
You could be specifically referencing hasn't he run, hasn't he been a Democrat before?
[00:08:25] Speaker A: So I think so.
I'm not 100% on that.
We should verify this at one point. I think he changed parties about 10 years ago from Democrat. I think he switched parties and then I think it was about 10 years ago. And then he started running as a Republican. Now exactly why, I'm not sure. But on the ticket he is stated as Republican. So he's a former state senator. That's really easy. If you want to know who Elbert Guillory is, you can go look up his voting history.
That's easy. He's a former state senator. You can find out how he voted on things.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: According to Wikipedia.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: Wikipedia.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: He super reliable Democrat in 2007 and switched to a Republican in 2013.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: Oh wow. So he was a Democrat for five years.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: I don't know if there's any other,
[00:09:13] Speaker A: you know, when was he state senator?
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Let's see here.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: Was it 2007?
[00:09:20] Speaker B: I'm guessing that's where it.
Yeah. First when he first went for the. Ran for the state House.
That was back in 2007. So that's when he was initially elected to the state House, he was.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: He was running as a Democrat.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, got it. And then he switched in the next couple of terms. 2015, you said?
[00:09:40] Speaker B: Yeah, and it says back to Republican.
Okay. So before 2007, he was registered Republican.
[00:09:46] Speaker A: Okay. And then he switched to Democrat.
And then he switched back. Okay.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Okay, there you go.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: And then he says, opelousis needs change. He's got one specific thing. He says he wants to pay police more.
To which I'd be like, okay, from where?
Where does the money come from? I appreciate that, though. But like, money. Money doesn't just appear. We know this money comes from somewhere. Are we going to cut things or are we going to raise taxes? How's that play? Then we've got Devin Manuel, McKnight, not sure the party here, again, I'm assuming Democrat.
She is a healthcare supervisor at Ochsner, so she's got some management experience already going in there.
And the platform's not really like, it's things that she wants to see happen, but again, not a plan. Do you get what I'm saying? Like, there's. There's all this stated. Here's where we want to go. Here's what we want to do, here's what we want things to look like. But again, we need. We need the plan. We need the plan. What's. How are we going to get there?
Rod Sias, again, assuming Democrat Party is not publicly stated, isn't that interesting?
Somebody should probably check with the Secretary of State.
So he uses the phrase dignity economy.
A dignity economy.
What does that mean?
I have not seen that phrase. I mean, what's the A. No dignity economy.
Is that the alternative? Right.
Dignity based on what definition?
Is it the Bible's definition?
Is it the Marxist definition?
You know, like, what do we consider dignity and human flourishing? Define that. We have to have a definition of it. Right.
But at least it seems to be an original idea.
That's nice, I guess.
What, you have thoughts or an original.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: Yeah, at least way to say it, maybe.
Are all the. I know we haven't gotten to our last candidate yet, so we could wait till the end, but are all of the.
Are all the candidates basically saying, all
[00:11:51] Speaker A: right, we're gonna make it better here
[00:11:53] Speaker B: are the problems that are gonna be solved. They don't get into the details of exactly how, but do all of them in some way say basically more taxes, not necessarily local taxes. Cause that wouldn't get them elected?
[00:12:05] Speaker A: Well, the first thing is they're gonna go after federal dollars.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: But I was gonna say, but like more tax money, form of federal.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
I mean, so far Rod Sias hasn't said that. At least that I've seen.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: But
[00:12:20] Speaker A: the point that I'm trying to make, let's get through this. So, Rod Sias, it's still an idea, not a plan.
What's the ordinances that you're going to pass? What's the, you know, what's the. Okay, and then Keenan Lamb. Keenan Lamb, I don't know.
We're not totally sure if he qualified for the race, but at one point they said they were running.
He's got at least there's like a, like a checklist of things that he wants to do, but we don't know much about him. Maybe it didn't actually wind up working out. We're not totally sure. So we're not sure exactly with him. Maybe he's in, maybe he's out, maybe he qualified, maybe he didn't. But here's the big point that we want to make about these candidates.
Nobody is saying they want to make Appaloosas less safe.
You know, we want less transparency in government,
[00:13:12] Speaker B: more water in the streets.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: More water.
Of course everybody's going to say we want transparency in government. We want a safer city, we want more good things to be here. The question is not do we want Opelousas to be a better place? The answer to that, obviously everyone would say, well, of course we do. What we need is how.
What we need is how is it going to happen?
A real position on a subject forces you to say, for example, I'm going to raise police pay and this is how I'm going to raise the money, by cutting this item or getting this dollar that no one's got before.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: Does several of the candidates reference basically looking to federal and state dollars? Is that an easy. Is that kind of like an easy out? Like kind of like. Well, that money, even though it comes from taxpayers pockets, ultimately we know that the federal government just prints money often and we know that we're heavily in debt as a nation and so is just kind of looking to those sources. Kind of just like the. Well, we'll just hope that we get more grants from the big government.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Go ask Jesse Billard. Like he's tried and it has not worked. He's run into walls, he's tried to get more federal dollars. He's exclaimed some frustration. He's like, we can't. We're sending people. We're trying to get it. We can't get it.
So something's Happening. I don't know what's happening, but something's happening. Where apparently there are obstacles that were not there before. Now, maybe it's just that the COVID money is drying up. When they really turned on the money furnace. Sure.
[00:14:50] Speaker B: That is probably a big part of it. Yep.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: But there seems to be this idea that we're just going to go get federal and state dollars is coming to an end. It's definitely coming to an end. Thank goodness. I would say thank goodness. Federal and state dollars are still your dollars, by the way. You pay taxes, you pay federal and state taxes.
Those dol. Are your dollars.
You buy things, you pay sales tax, you pay income tax, you pay inheritance tax. If you buy a car, you pay tax on that car. To say, I'm just going to get federal and state taxes.
You're going after increasing the amount of money that you pay to the feds and to the state. That's what you're chasing.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: But see, here's the real thing.
These are like greeting card statements.
You know I'm talking about.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: Make Appaloosis a safer place.
That's vague. It's a generalism.
It keeps you safe in the midst of debate.
What we want is specifics. And now it's. I don't know. We're like, qualifying has passed. The election is only a few months away, and we don't have specifics yet for any of these candidates. I would love to say this is who we should vote for.
Paris Circuit listeners. I can't say it right now because I don't know. Because we don't know what the plans are. We don't know what their intentions are. It's a weird situation to be kind of stuck in.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: But we need a plan. It's not. I don't. We're not being cynical here. What we're trying to say is, hey, we got to figure this out. And voters deserve to know what the actual plan is. So demand a plan, voters. Demand one. How are you going to do it? How? Ask the question.
Say it. And I think that if enough people say that and apply the pressure, it's going to get the work done.
Somebody's going to win.
[00:16:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Somebody is going to be the next mayor of Appaloosas.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Maybe to follow up with you there, we should probably repeat the invitation to any of the mayoral candidates who come on the show. Come and come and talk.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: We've invited to.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: Hey. We have, like, listen. Mayoral candidates. We have, like, a thousand subscribers now, and it's growing every day.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: Half a Million views in the last two months alone.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: People will hear you. Come, come talk about your platform.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: They obviously will hear you.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: Give us some specifics.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: Come and talk. Like, we invited Albert Guillory. We invited Julius Alcindor.
Julius.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: Mike Fontenot when he was running.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: Mike fought when he was running. Yeah. He's not running anymore. He's endorsed Elbert.
We invited those three candidates now two candidates. Julius said he would think about it. I haven't heard from him since then. And Elbert said he was coming. Then he didn't come. I assume something happened, but we had a time schedule for him and everything.
Come to the show.
Let's talk. We'll ask you the questions that we just asked.
How.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: Like how.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: How are you going to do it? How are you going to do this? What are you going to point in these directions?
[00:17:54] Speaker B: What would you be looking for in an ideal candidate for, you know, for someone.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: An ideal candidate.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah. So if you were going to, like, what would be some of the answers you would look for to some of these aspirations that we all have? We all want a safer opelousis. We all want better roads. We all want less water leaks. You know, what. What would maybe be the candidate that you're. You're looking for, hypothetically? We're not necessarily talking about a specific candidate here.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Well, so there's a fixed budget.
So reflect your campaign priorities in a proposed budget.
I'd start there.
Here's what I want to do, and here's the proposed budget that I would have in order to do it. This is nothing crazy.
Lafayette does this. The mayor, president of Lafayette writes a proposed budget and brings it to the council, and then the council, I think, eats it alive, basically. But the point is that the mayor president comes in and says, this is my plan. This is what I want to do. And here it is reflected in this budget.
Let's just start there. Like I said before, the city budget is public.
Go pull an existing copy, modify it, keeps the final dollar amount the same, and then say, here's how my plan is reflected in dollars.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Right.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: That'd be easy.
What are your priorities? Work it out in dollars. Show me with dollars.
Opelousis. I'll say it again. Opelousis has an amazing amount of potential. And some people have realized and are making moves.
It's happening now.
Alpha Lucis has an amazing amount of potential.
Don't sleep on it. And if people get in now, I think that we can continue to build something great here. I would love to see candidates who are reflecting that I would love to see candidates with positive trajectory plans and move forward. What's. Just give me. I'll tell you what. Give me one line item on the city budget that you would change. How about that? Don't give me a whole budget. Just give me one. Give me a department that you would consider radical restructure or elimination of, or maybe give me a department that you think about creating in the city. Like, give me something. And then how would you actually do it? Tell me a decision that you want to make that some people in Opelousas would hate.
Are you willing to be unpopular?
Are you willing to make the hard decisions?
And then I would say, for whatever you're going to do, where does the money come from?
[00:20:28] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: How are you going to pay for it?
Right. Don't just give me vague federal, state dollars. Where's that money going to come from? You don't know that you're going to get it.
You don't know.
People tried to pass taxes here, and it did not work.
It did not work.
What are you going to do?
And if I was talking to Mayor Alcindor, I would just say, can you be more specific on the projects? And I think he could. I mean, he's not going to. I've had some conversations with him in the past. I think he could probably be specific about the projects that he's referencing, and then we could go from there.
So that would be what I would chase.
November 3rd.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: November 3rd. Early voting, I think, is October 20th through the 27th.
Listen, it's coming. It's coming down the pipe. We need to figure this thing out and get it sorted.
And honestly, if you remember, in the past few elections inside of the city of Opelousas, local races have been decided by a couple hundred votes.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:37] Speaker A: Like, I can think of a couple of chief of police races. I can think of a couple mayoral races.
Couple hundred votes have been the deciding moment in a lot of these events. I mean, we need to make sure that our people in the city of Opelousas know what's coming and vote. Now, here's the standing invitation that David has already made. The door is open.
Come be on the Parish circuit and let's talk. Let's talk.
This is our invitation to every candidate right now. Come on the show, let's talk and push what your actual plan is out to potentially half a million people.
Wow. I mean, that's like the whole city of Opelousis.
It's a lot bigger than the whole city of Opelousas.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: Are you becoming too concerned with vanity metrics?
[00:22:33] Speaker A: Stuart I'm just trying to apply pressure where I know how to apply it. I'm just trying to help people see come on the show. We would love to talk to you about it and get these things further out.
Help people understand what your platforms really are.
And if you are a citizen of opelousis, I would encourage you to ask questions. If you know who these candidates are, if you have relationships with them, and you do, undoubtedly, because it's a small town, you probably have some of these people in your cell phone. Shoot them a text, ask them, how are you going to do this? Give me the details of the plan and we'll go from there. Guys, thank you all so much for listening to another episode of the Parish Circuit. We appreciate you. You can go to the parishcircuit.com, find all of our articles and episodes, become a subscriber if you would so desire, to the podcast and to our articles and you can even.
Man, it's crazy. You can even support us financially. The first few monthly financial supporters have come through, which we are very grateful for, and we invite anybody else who would consider doing such a thing to come alongside and help us build something great here in Acadiana. Thank you guys so much for listening and we'll see you next time.
