East Feliciana Parishโs next registrar of voters is a veteran state elections official who wants to work closer to home.
The Police Jury, at its March 2 meeting, named Paul Blanchard to succeed Bobbie Gayle Ross as the registrar after a special committee interviewed five candidates for the post. Ross retired as registrar effective Dec. 31.Blanchard, a parish resident, works for the Secretary of Stateโs elections division, assisting local elections officials.
He said he hopes to begin the parish job within the next two weeks, noting that he had to be in New Orleans the next day to assist elections workers there prepare for a special March 14 election.
Thanking the jury for his selection, Blanchard said, โIt will be an honor to come home to help out my parish.โ
Jury Vice President Chrissie OโQuin, who served on the interview committee, said although the jury โhad some people who are really qualified; he is very, very qualified.โ
On another matter, jurors argued at length over a proposal to give 10 employees varying โstipendsโ for extra work they are said to be doing because the jury does not have a full-time parish manager.
Juror Kristin Chasteen moved to table the proposal, saying she wanted to know what extra duties the employees have taken on, as well as how much overtime pay they have received for doing additional work.
Juror Richard Oliveaux, who also opposed the extra pay, warned jurors that the affected employees will expect to continue receiving the money if they are still employed and the jury seated in 2028 decides to hire a parish manager. He also asked about the overtime paid since former Parish Manager David Amrhein quit last year.
โWhen are we going to talk about hiring a parish manager,โ Chasteen asked, suggesting that some employees have had to take on too much extra work.
โNone of them are complaining,โ Juror Jason McCray replied.
John Rouchon, a parish coronerโs assistant and a former parish manager, said jury President Louis Kent killed the process of hiring a replacement for Amrhein โbecause he didnโt like the five candidates.โ He said the jury is wasting a year a half of its tenure by not hiring a manager.
Rouchon, one of the applicants, also questioned how much overtime the jury has paid since Amrhein left.
Jurors did not share how the stipends would be awarded and how much each person would get, but Secretary-Treasurer Yamesha Harris, who serves as interim parish manager, said the stipends will total $2,200 on a biweekly basis, for an annual total of $57,200. That is less than the $81,000 budgeted for a parish manager, she said.
The pay schedule given to the jurors, however, shows that three employees, Harris, Public Works Director Derrick Hill and Building Inspector Jeff Williams will receive $10,400 stipends over a yearโs time, based on biweekly increases of $400.
Three employees will get $5,200 annually, while the remaining four will get $2,600.
Chasteen and Oliveaux were joined by Michael Cheatham and Kyle Fleniken in voting to table the proposal, but Dexter Armstead, McCray, OโQuin and Keith Mills voted โnoโ and Kent broke the tie with a fifth dissenting vote.
On the vote to approve the extra pay, Chasteen and and Oliveaux abstained.
In voting to approve the stipends, OโQuin said she also would like to get the overtime figures and see if the overtime pay decreases as the employees become more efficient.