LAFAYETTE — Two candidates are seeking election to the District 2 seat on the new Lafayette Parish Council: Kevin Naquin and Ted A. Richard. Naquin is listed as a Republican; Richard as No Party.
Lafayette voters decided last year to de-consolidate the Lafayette City-Parish Council. Now everyone in the parish will vote on a new parish council member, and people living in the city limits will vote on both a parish council member and a city council member. If you want to know what districts you are in, check your ballot by clicking here .
If you want to see a map of the districts, CLICK HERE: https://lcg.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=668d0511de2b490cb3143376b9738bf8
Kevin Naquin
Background:
Born and Raised in Scott, LA . Currently reside in Duson unincorporated area of the parish for the past 16 years. I am also a graduate of Acadiana High School -Class of 97 and University of Louisiana at Lafayette-UL 2001. I am employed by USMEDEQUIP as a Business Development Rep for the past 12 years. I am servicing Hospital Systems across Louisiana and Parts of Texas. I have 3 Children, 2 Daughters and one Son. Currently engaged to Christy Gaspard. I Served as Lafayette City Parish council for District one for the past eight years. Currently running for new parish council district 2.
Why do you want to run for office?
I want to run for office because I would like to better our parish and community. We have major issues facing our parish and we need someone who can work with people, the new administration and new parish council in order to get things done. I would love to leave the community in a better place and make it attractive for my children so that when they grow up they would like to stay here in Lafayette Parish. I have people skills, I’m accessible, transparent and very active in the community. I bring experience, integrity, honesty and leadership to my district.
What issue is the most important for you to tackle in your district?
The most important issue to face in the parish and my district is parish wide fire protection. We lost our current rating due to lack of water, response time, personnel, and equipment needs. Homeowners insurance in the unincorporated areas in my district have increased due to these reasons. It has increased anywhere from $500 a year to $1800 a year. It will go up again in the next four years if we don’t address these issues. We need to find a revenue source without taxes if possible, to help fun this important issue.
What distinguishes you from other candidates?
What distinguishes me from any other candidates is the experience, knowledge and work ethics that I bring to the table. Also the willingness and courage to do what is right even though it is not popular. I vote my conscience and try to understand both sides of every issue before making the decision.
Ted Richard
Link to Ted Richard's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Ted-A-Richard-Lafayette-Parish-Council-District-2-113599679993375/
Background:
Graduate of Carencro High School – Class of 1980
Retired after 30 years in Retail Upper Management
Former Chairman of the Board of Acadiana CARES
Former Vice-President and then President of Acadiana PRIDE Festival
The ONLY openly gay candidate to EVER run for ANY elected position in Lafayette Parish
Why do you want to run for office?
My opponent in this race is running on his record of his tenure on the City-Parish Council for the past eight years. It is my contention that it is precisely his actions on the current City-Parish Council that has put the Parish of Lafayette in the financial crisis in which it now is. Kevin Naquin has become “part of the problem” for the past eight years. I am the ONLY candidate in this entire election process that has answered ALL questions with proper responses on identifying the issues facing the new Parish Council, with a specific plan, in each instance, to address those issues. Whereas every other candidate has only given “general knowledge” answers without actually addressing the issue about which the question was asked.
What issue is the most important for you to tackle in your district?
Although ALL of the people running in this race has stated that DRAINAGE is the number one issue facing the new councils, I beg to differ.
In my opinion, FAITH IN GOVERNMENT is the biggest obstacle facing our new government. This issue of drainage has been around for over 50 years, and we have had over 50 years to keep the drainage issues under control. However, prior governments have, over the years, mishandled funds which were specifically dedicated to drainage, into other “priority” (namely “pet”) projects, which took precedence at the time. Had those funds been kept in the drainage coffers, and actually spend on drainage abatement issues, Lafayette Parish would not be in the situation we now find ourselves in.
Lafayette Parish Government consistently wastes money on “reactionary” spending. Whereas, had the monies be allocated and spent properly from the onset, these current issues would have been addressed in a more timely manner. I would rather see our government be more “pro-active” in its spending habits.
Lafayette Parish Government consistently wastes money on “reactionary” spending. Whereas, had the monies be allocated and spent properly from the onset, these current issues would have been addressed in a more timely manner. I would rather see our government be more “pro-active” in its spending habits.
What distinguishes you from other candidates?
I am the ONLY candidate in this race who has promised to refuse to accept the annual salary of nearly $30,000 which this office pays. Instead, I would like for that money to be used to hire additional staff whose ONLY responsibility would be to research and collect delinquent property taxes of over $1.3 million which are currently owed to the Parish.
The reason that I am running as a “no party” candidate is because I DO NOT need a “D” or an “R” after my name to tell me what the “right thing” to do is. My parents have been married for over 60 years, and I was raised with the highest morals and standards to which I constantly strive living up to.
In addition, I am running a very novel campaign, in that I am doing absolutely NO fund-raising. My job as a Parish Council Representative is to actually represent my constituency. I do not believe that fund-raising should be a requirement to hold ANY public office.
I DO believe that the reason there is so much corruption in government is because too many qualified candidates choose to not run for office for exactly that reason. (Another reason is the continuous onslaught of attack ads on social media spreading rumor and innuendo about the candidates without ever contacting the candidate to actually talk about the issues. Social media can be a great help to any candidate; but there are “secret groups” on many social media platforms whose ONLY objective is to ridicule any candidate with whom they disagree; which only serves to continually polarize our democracy.)
I want to prove that an extremely qualified candidate can win a seat in public office without the added stress of continuous fund-raising. Once you take the money out of politics, all that’s left is the integrity of the candidate, and the issues. And I have proven my self to be the ONLY candidate with HONESTY and INTEGRITY and an ACTUAL PLAN on how to move our parish forward.
