April 18, 2025 • 39 mins
Mayor David McDavid brings decades of public service expertise to this revealing conversation about Zachary's governmental evolution. After examining the city's 15-year-old Home Rule Charter, McDavid recognized the need for updates that would clarify operations and improve efficiency as Zachary continues its growth trajectory.
The proposed charter changes address several critical areas of governance. Council member residency requirements would be strengthened, ensuring representatives actually live in the districts they serve. Leadership protocols would shift, with the mayor pro tem running council meetings while clearly defining who takes charge during a mayoral absence. Department head residency requirements would be eliminated, expanding the talent pool Zachary can draw from for key positions.
"We're not asking people for millage or anything like that," McDavid explains. "We're just trying to clarify some things to make sure that the city operations are clear and more efficient." His pragmatic approach balances progress with fiscal responsibility, emphasizing that changes to compensation structures wouldn't take effect until future terms.
Beyond charter reforms, McDavid shares exciting developments for Zachary's infrastructure and growth. From annexation plans that could extend city boundaries to the Mississippi River to new public safety radio towers improving emergency communications, his administration is laying groundwork for Zachary's future. Economic development initiatives are attracting new businesses while maintaining the city's clean, attractive appearance that continues drawing positive attention.
As Zachary embraces its "Thriving '25" theme, McDavid's vision combines practical governance with ambitious growth plans. Don't miss this opportunity to understand how your vote on May 3rd could reshape how Zachary operates for years to come. The future of our city government is in your hands – be sure to make your voice heard at the polls.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, zachary Residence.
This is Mayor David McDavid.
Keep listening to Fortune PairsPodcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hey, zachary, wherever you are today, you are
listening from the right placeas we sit down with Mayor Mac
McDavid, a longtime publicservant who went from walking
the beat to leading the chargeas Zachary's mayor.
With over 40 years in lawenforcement and a lifetime of
local insight, mayor McDavid isnow guiding Zachary through a
potential game changer a newHome Rule Charter.
What does that mean for how ourcity runs and, more importantly
(00:31):
, how it serves its people?
Pull up a chair, grab yourcoffee and let's talk about the
future of Zachary one ordinanceat a time.
I'm Mike Gennaro, host of thispodcast.
We're on a mission to bring youfront porch conversations with
a parish-wide impact podcast.
we're on a mission to bring youfront porch conversations with a
parish-wide impact.
This is porch and parish thepodcast, and welcome mayor
mcdavid.
Thank you so much, mike.
All right, what's up?
(00:52):
Tell us, tell us what a homerule charter is and what is
going on exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Well, when I took office I looked back at the home
rule charter, talked to a lotof residents here and I thought
maybe we need to maybe clear itup a little bit, change it a
little bit to make the cityoperations clearer and more
efficient.
That's what we looked at doing.
We came up with a board memberincluding the council was able
to put a board member on thereand you know it was an open
meeting, it was a public meetingand you know they went through
(01:18):
the Home Rule Charter one by one, went through it to see if they
cleared up, update it.
You know what need to be takenout.
You know last time we did itwas 15 years ago, so it was time
to look at it to make sure tomake it more efficient and make
the city run, uh, clearer, yeahall right.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So, uh, how do you want to do this?
Do you want to run us throughstep by step and just kind of
let us know?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
yeah, some of the key changes.
And, like I said, councilmembers and you look at section
201, uh 2-02.
Council members must live intheir district with clear rules
and residencies.
Before uh.
You know if uh.
And then what happened beforewith uh.
You know brandon old.
He found out he was movingoutside the district.
He stepped down and I thinkthat's important when you're
(02:01):
moving outside the district, goahead and step down, let
somebody take over your spot.
You know it spells that out.
You know it's a boundary changewhich it could come, you know,
census time again.
Or you know it could changeagain when they redo the census
where you know, make sureZachary's even, you know,
representative.
You know that can change thatway.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
So if you're thinking , you're going to run now, but
the boundaries changed the daybefore the election, nothing
Zachary would have been able tocontrol, right.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
It comes around every 10 years where they change it.
Oh, okay, that's different, itwas done about two or three
years ago and so another sevenyears.
They'll probably come backaround again.
But, like I say, if a counselordoesn't no longer meet the
qualifications, they need to goahead and step down and they
lose their position, which isonly fair.
I mean, if they move outsidetheir district, they need to
make sure that they step downand let either the governor or
(02:54):
the council pick somebody torepresent them, or, if it comes
down to where the governor hasto pick somebody to represent
that district.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, Now is there a story behind this.
What is it trying to?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
solve.
I mean I think, basically, ifthey are outside their
jurisdiction, I mean they needto step aside, I mean they're no
longer in that jurisdiction.
They don't represent thatjurisdiction.
They need to step aside.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
As somebody who wants to step up and represent that,
area, rather than trust in theprecedents that Brandon Noel set
.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah, I mean Brandon, he stepped aside, he was moving
, he moved outside the limits ofzachary and, uh, you know he's
no longer in that district herepresented, which was district
two, which is my district.
Okay, all right.
Then they had a special uh, theappointment somebody the
governor did because the councilcouldn't come to agreement.
Agreement, and then they had aspecial election, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
All right, want to take the next one.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yes, also council meetings Section 2-08, where
they have the flexibility toschedule meetings around
holidays.
I mean, sometimes you havemeetings that come up on
holidays, so it gives thecouncil the ability to schedule
meetings around the holidayswhere they're not having a
meeting on the holidays.
So I think that's veryimportant.
Another thing we come up withis the mayor pro tem runs the
(04:09):
meetings.
If you look around East BatonRouge, parish and other areas,
the mayor pro tem runs themeetings.
The mayor has no vote.
All he can do is call themeeting to order and go from
there and keep order.
Yeah, it has no vote.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Do you have a vote now?
No, no vote.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Do you have a vote now?
No, no vote Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
No vote.
So you're just basicallyrunning the meetings, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I think a mayor pro tem can run the meetings just
like they do in Baton Rouge.
Yeah, and you know, I thinkthat's more sufficient than me
just sitting up there every time, you know, running the meetings
, where they can be running themeetings, and if I have
something on the agenda I'll bethere for that meeting.
Yeah, gotcha, you know.
The other thing we set up ismayor's absence.
Look at Section 30-06.
It's something you know.
(04:52):
We set up a clear plan whotakes charge if the mayor is
temporarily unavailable?
In the past it's the mayor protem.
Now the mayor pro tem is notthere every day running the
day-to-day operations.
The chief administrationofficer is who I suggest runs in
(05:13):
my place if I'm unavailable, ifI'm sick, whatever it may be.
They run the day-to-dayoperations until they can have
an election, or if I'm out ofoffice or I can't continue to
serve, then that person will run.
They're there every day seeingwhat's going on to serve.
Then you know that person willrun.
They're there every day seeingwhat's going on.
Sure, I think it's moreefficient for them to be able to
run the day-to-day operationsthat are mayor protean there,
who's just their own councilnight.
So we change, we're changingthat got it, got it.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
And this is only um.
I mean I have to ask does thepublic have any say about this,
or just through their electedrepresentatives in council?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
through their elected representatives in council I
think I mean I think some of thecouncil are on board.
I mean they all voted to takethis to a vote of the people and
I think they're on board withit.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, what day does this go up for a vote?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
May 3rd we need everybody to come out and vote.
We've got four or five otherthings on the agenda.
All this is all together.
So it's all or nothing it's allor nothing and you vote yes or
no.
Yeah, you know, and, like I say, you know, I think it's a good
proposition.
I think we put it out there.
Uh, the other day we had 42shares on our facebook page.
I think we're being transparent.
(06:16):
We want the public to know whatwe're talking about.
We, what we did, is typed itout in layman's terms, where you
know not in lawyer terms wherewe can.
You know the public canunderstand it and if they have
any questions, stop by, we'llsit down with them and talk to
them about it.
We'll show them the old HomeReach order where we, you know,
took the items out.
We have it in red.
What we're changing, come feelfree to sit down, we'll send it
(06:38):
to them by email.
Whatever they want, we'll beglad to give it to them.
Yeah and that.
So yeah, uh, the other thingswe're looking at too is uh, you
know, the uh, mayor, council andpolice pay.
Uh, you know where it clarifieshow their salaries are set and
adjusted.
What it will be will be acouncil vote.
They'll make a decision to voteif they want to change the
salaries of the mayor or, youknow, chief uh, police or the
(07:01):
council.
Now, this don't take effectuntil the first term and the new
term.
So it's not like you walk inand say, okay, I want my pay
raise now.
It takes effect in the new term, the first year of the new term
after the election.
So that's very important there,because they can't just go out
(07:22):
and just keep giving themselvesa bunch of pay raises.
So I think it's very importantthere, you know because they
can't just go out and just keepgiving themselves a bunch of pay
raises.
So, yeah, I think it's veryimportant Now that's the only
thing you know that's thedealing with money will be that
they make the decision to lookat changing the salaries Now,
are the salaries low?
Yes, they are, and it'ssomething that we need to look
at.
I think it's very important.
You know that we look at that.
Yeah, uh, you know that we uhlook at that yeah, I mean it's
(07:44):
all public record.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I don't want to make it awkward, it is public record.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Uh, I mean, I'll give you one example yeah please do
chief lawrence was my secondcommand.
He's probably in the 80s, I'mnot sure zach mount make him.
When we left office tremendousamount of work, yes, and when he
took over as police chief hewas brought back down to 69 000.
Now, if you think about it, alot of his guys who are working
(08:08):
overtime or made might have beenthere many years too, are
probably making more than he is.
I know there's two or three,maybe four within my department
making more than I do.
You know it's.
It's okay.
I understand that because Imade more than the chief did
sometimes, but I was workingdetectives and I was working a
lot of hours.
You know overtime hours andstuff like that.
But I still think you need tolook at you know the salaries.
(08:32):
I mean, we've done a study andwe have a copy of it.
We're glad to let the publicsee it.
We've done studies all overLouisiana I know Chris Calvert
did it along with Steve DonneryLouisiana.
I know Chris Calvert did italong with Steve Donnery.
They did a study and show thedifferent mayor salaries, the
council salaries and the chiefpolice salaries.
So I think we need to take alook at that down the line also.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, what is the potential check on that, on just
unadulterated raises?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Well, I mean, it's something they'll have to look
at and we look at, compare oursto cities our size.
Now there are some cities thatare smaller than us and making
way more than we are.
I mean currently Gonzales, Ithink, their chief's around
$110,000.
You know where their mayormight be in that area too.
I'd have to go back and look atthis, but some are more, some
are less.
You just got to look at it, Ithink our counselors pay is very
(09:26):
low.
Yeah, I think that needs to beraised up.
I think that would you sharewhat the council pay about
around 11 000, but you got someareas around 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
000.
Yeah, so I mean you got to lookat that and see you know where
the pay is and stuff like that.
Some councilmen want insurance.
I mean it's something we haveto look at.
We'll have to.
The council has to make thatdecision.
You know it.
Look at, the council has tomake that decision.
It's not me.
The council has to make thatdecision If they can afford
(09:49):
insurance with our budget andeverything else.
So I think that's important tolook at.
That's a council decision Gotit.
Yeah.
The next one up is cityadministration, which is section
4-01 to 4-05, which meansdepartment heads and the city
(10:10):
attorney don't have to live inthe city.
What has happened in the past,starting in the 70s, when this
was drafted up, and thatdepartment heads, whether it's
attorney, the CAO or CFO, whichis chief financial officer, had
to live in the city.
Now, if I go know, or CFO,which is chief financial officer
, had lived in the city.
Now, if I go down, and whatthis will help is have a bigger
(10:30):
pool of applicants, you knowthat we can go after.
You know, I'm not saying wedon't have them here, but it's
very limited Cause, zachary's,you know 20,000 residents.
So you know, if a person livesin Baton Rouge and say they,
they're a great lawyer, they'reone of the best, and you want to
hire them, but they don't wantto live in Baton Rouge because
their kids go to a school inBaton Rouge, whether it be a
public school U High Southern,lab, dunham, catholic High, st
(10:54):
Joe but they want to stay inBaton Rouge, why shouldn't you
be able to hire them here?
Because they're one of the best?
And, like I say, I think it'simportant we open up the pool of
candidates more, yeah,applicants and that.
So that's very important.
Also, what we did was listresponsibilities of the chief
(11:15):
administrative officer and chieffinancial officer, which we
thought was important.
You know where.
You know they help each other.
But also, chief administrativeofficer is my backup when I'm
out of town or if I'm in thehospital or sick or something I
can't serve.
They've got to understand whattheir roles are and what they
need to do.
So I think that's important.
Yeah, in the police departmentwe had this been going on for a
(11:37):
long time the police chief alsoserves as a city marshal.
Basically, what he does is hekind of gets officers in the
court.
Where it may be, a deputymarshal serves as a bailiff.
They go out and serve subpoenas, they serve papers, uh, do
evictions and stuff like that.
So you know, when I was policechief, I was a deputy marshal
too.
So you know, back in the early70s and that they, you know 80s,
(11:59):
they had an election where, uh,you know before it was, we were
called marshals and that Nowwe're chief police.
So we clarify that and it alsoallows the police chief to
appoint a deputy city marshal.
You know we don't.
You know the back old days wassome of them thinking now we
need a chief police and we needa marshal?
To me you're doubling up, yeah,doubling up.
(12:22):
To me it causes tension.
We call attention.
You know, all you need is onechief here in town and he can
cover the town.
He can handle the marshal andbail of spot got it.
You know, and the bailiffserves.
You know, when they're with thejudge, protection prosecutors,
anybody in the court, he's thereto help them.
But also, you know they gotpeople, all the bailiffs outside
who are checking for weapons,making sure everybody's coming
(12:44):
in dressed properly and that.
So I think it's very importantthat the chief is able to handle
that and make his decision whohe wants to pick.
I did it for years.
We just want to make sure weclarify it and that's cleaning
up the home-reach order from thepast.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
This might be off-topic, but when you
mentioned martial, the firstthing that comes to mind is
Marshall Law.
Right, has Zachary ever been inMarshall?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Law status, Not as I know of Reading back in history.
I've never seen it.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Got it.
You know, I got those NewOrleans roots.
I mean, we've seen that acouple times.
All right, okay.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
So you know, on down to city budget, which is Section
5-02, reduces the budgetproposal time from 60 to 45 days
and what it does is, you know,gives the CFO 45 days to get the
budget in which we do it nowwithin 45 days.
And we already started budgetmeetings with our appointed
(13:42):
directors and that, and we, youknow, getting their wish list
and looking at their budget andjust to accelerate the process
yes, okay yeah, just to make itget in there.
So we get it out and yeah, wegot to have it.
You know ready to go?
Yeah, come in june does it?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
does it cost more money when it goes beyond um the
45 day period?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
it'll cost more money , but it can cause other
problems, I think yeah, and youknow so we got to make sure
that's what the Home Retailerexpects of us.
We already do it within 45 days,so let's go to 45 days.
Also, if the council doesn'tapprove a budget which they can
deny a budget, 90% of theprevious year budget becomes the
default, which means it goesback to 90% of last year's
(14:23):
budget, in the past year'sbudget.
And in the past has happened,you know and you know.
You just got to make sure yougot to have money to operate on,
so it goes back to 90% of thebudget.
Then you have to fix the issue.
What, when it was the council'sissue?
What?
What needs to be fixed?
And he gives you time to fix it, got it?
And the last one here is Section508 requires majority council
(14:44):
approve the issue of bonds andtake on debt.
I think that's very important.
The council is the legislatedpart.
I'm an executive and yours, andI think it's important that
they are able to look at bondsand that we don't want to sink
our city into major debt.
What if I have an idea and it'smy idea and I just want to just
(15:05):
put it out there and I'm goingto do it anyway, not really
thinking about the long-termeffects, but the council looks
at it and says, hey, you know,it's sticking us in a pretty
tight hole for next 20 years.
They got to be able to makethat decision and they they
represent their constituents too, and they got to make that
decision.
Yeah, so I mean, it's takingdebt and I think that's very
important, that they are allowedto do that.
(15:26):
So we cleared that up.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Do you all take on debt for pretty much any major
capital improvement likebuildings, and you know.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, we're looking right now, like we told before,
we're looking at redoing CityHall.
We've got to make sure our chiefCFO, deanna Mankins, is looking
over the numbers right now.
We're looking at the budget andcan we afford to do it?
I don't want to stickadministrations 10 years down
the road with a heavy debt.
I don't want to see that happen.
I mean, right now, are wesufficient there?
(15:55):
We're out of room, but we cancontinue to operate without
setting ourselves up with a bigdebt.
That's important.
We just finished the policestation.
We're looking at everything.
We want to make sure we're notsituated with a bunch of debt.
That's what we want to becareful with.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, are we able to squeeze in any talk about the
old police station today?
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
I mean, do you want to just touch on that briefly?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, basically what we're doing right now, we have
to provide a building for thecourt system.
They will stay in there rightnow until we can figure out what
we're going to do with cityhall and maybe put them in there
with us or in that area.
Uh, you know, add on to it.
I mean, we've talked aboutbuying the old am ryan's
building and lot over there.
We'll we'll talk to the ownersof that and see if that's still
(16:44):
on the table and we decided todo that.
But we have to provide them anarea and that provides them a
good area there.
It gives them more room Nowthat the police department is
out of there.
You know, uh, back in the daysthat that was the police
department and the court systemwas where the annexation was
building to us.
Yeah, we can't add on to thatbecause we had people look at it
.
We just can't add on to it.
It's not feasible.
(17:04):
Mm-hmm.
So you know we do it would be.
You know, hopefully we'll dosomething with the city hall,
which is an old bake mill, andwe have already got some
architect drawings and looked atit.
It's real nice and we just gotto make sure financially we're
without living week to week ortwo weeks at payroll.
So that's our goal and, like Isay, our CFO was very conscious
(17:29):
of that.
She's on top of that and hey,sometimes she says, hey, mary,
no, you can't spend that money.
And I respect that.
I want her to tell me that andshe does that.
And it's kind of funny.
We were in meetings the otherday and she's got a little
gadget that says no, she mightask for something and she says
no.
A lot easier to say no that way.
I mean, you've got to realizeshe's a certified public
(17:50):
accountant and her licenses areon the line.
She's got to make sure she'sdoing the right things too.
She lives in the city, so it'simportant to her.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
That's what we're looking at there.
So I mean, you know, we wantthe public to understand these
updates to aim to strengthen ourcity government, improve our
clarity and make operations moreefficient.
So we're asking the public togo vote may 3rd.
We think it's important.
Every election is important,you know, and whoever votes
makes the difference and like Isay, it's determined by people
who go vote yeah and regardlessof small, which I know we got
the DA's thing coming up, themillage.
(18:27):
I know he'll be talking about it.
I don't want to touch bases.
I'll let him talk about his ownmillage, but we've got to look
at all this, and this is justclearing things up.
We're not asking people formillage or anything like that.
We're just trying to clarifysome things to make sure that
the city operations are clearand more efficient.
That's what we're looking at.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, got it, got it.
You know we're never here forthe tough questions or anything
like that.
I just have to clarify that.
The one on the pay raise Ithink that'll probably be the
most controversial, just becauseit involves money.
What is, what is the check andbalance on on the pay raise?
Uh, so if if the council justsays we all want 100 grand, you
(19:10):
know to be on council, and they,they just vote that in not that
they would ever do that uh, dothey just get voted out of
office after that term?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
or you were saying it starts the term after the pay
raise will start the first yearof the term after re-election.
After re-election, got it.
If I get a pay raise next yearor this year or whatever it may
be, you know you have to do it,you have to start talking about
it or, you know, clearing it upnow, between now and before next
(19:40):
year, because once the nextyear gets here, you can't talk
about it, you can't giveyourself a pay raise in that
last year of your term.
So once you vote on it, ittakes effect under the new
election.
And what we do is I'm sure thecouncil will probably want to
talk about it do workshops, likeI said, we've done studies, we
(20:01):
looked at it, we want to befeasible.
I know there there has somecontroversy down south and saint
george, where the you know theythought they're, you know their
uh, the pay was high there andlike I say, that's something
they voted against down there.
They didn't like the way it wasgoing down, so they voted
against.
So, yeah, and you know you gotto be, you know you got to be um
, very smart and and then howyou do and spend the people's
(20:25):
money.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
That's what they want you to do and you've got to
look at that.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Granted, we all like to get paid tons of money, but
you've got to be within reasonto be smart.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, and attract the top talent to those positions
too.
We appreciate you all so much.
Is there anything else that youwant to talk about on the
agenda?
I ask you this every time I seeyou.
Is there just any newdevelopments?
You much um is there anythingelse that?
You want to talk about on theagenda.
Any um, I mean, you know I askyou this every time, I see is
just any new developments youwant to talk about?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
I mean you know we got uh we.
We met with the dotd the otherday and we had a great meeting
with them and explained to themsome of the issues we have here,
including uh signing off on thefinal annexation paperwork for
the jerry lane which is comingin the city of
Livingston-Zachary.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Oh, you got it annexed yeah they're coming in.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
We're just waiting on DOTD to find it off.
We'll check back with them inthe next couple weeks about it,
see if they signed off on it.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
yet there are a few implications to that that are
positive.
I mean we've never had controlover the entryway corridor to
our own town down east mountpleasant right and we're working
on that right now.
Yeah yeah, so I mean, once it'sannexed, maybe I'm not gonna
say it was an ugly drive at all,but it you know you're going
through the swamp there's,there's, there's obviously some
(21:32):
points of blight, that that onthat street yeah, we'd have to
sit down and talk to them andget some of that cleared up that
we think it's important yeah, I
Speaker 1 (21:38):
mean, if you go back, we've done it.
We probably tore down 10 to 12houses since I took office and
we've got some more we're goingto look at.
We want to give people a chanceto fix it up.
Sure, sure, including heirsthat might be heirs to the
houses.
Fix it up, but after a whileyou're hurting people's property
values and that We've got toclean it up.
It tracks crime.
It tracks rats.
It tracks snakes.
(21:59):
People hide snakes.
You know people hide, criminalshide in there.
Drug deals will be done inthere.
I mean being law enforcement.
I've seen it myself yeah,firsthand so you got to clean
that up, you know, and like Isay, when you make zachary
pretty, like it is, yeah, youknow, we had louisiana boot the
other day.
We had people from coke cola,we had people from, uh, other
areas.
Come here, man.
Y'all sure have a clean town.
(22:19):
Yeah, well, if you have a cleantown, people want to come live
here.
They want to go to school hereand they want to shop here, and
they want to, you know, livehere.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, we think it's important, kids can walk to
school without being afraid ofpassing that one scary house
that's true.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
But you know, yeah, we had a good meet with dotd.
We explained to them about oldscenic, the amount of wrecks
we've had there, and we needturning lanes or something.
We need to come up with a planand we're working on that right
now.
We also met with you know,talked to them about that.
We're trying to finish upgetting our lights, traffic
signals done.
We're working with the parishand the state on that.
(22:53):
All our traffic signal boxeswere obsolete, outdated.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Oh really.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
We're working on that .
We're getting some new stuffput in there trying to finalize
that.
We've got the crosswalks.
We're trying to finalize.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yeah, and a crosswalk is featured on the new cover,
or the cover of the newestFortune Parish magazine, with
some Zachary legacy family onthere that we hope you'll enjoy.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
We think that's important.
You've got a school there,you've got a restaurant there,
but also you have a sidewalkthere.
I mean I like traveling aroundZachary on my bike, but also you
have a sidewalk there.
I mean I like traveling aroundZachary on my bike, I like
getting on the sidewalk.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
You know little times I get a little worried riding a
bike on some of these houses, Imean on these highways out here
.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
But I want you know connectivity is important.
It is Better to walk.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
My kids are runners too.
Yeah, and that's important andthey've got to go eight miles
sometimes, and sometimes it'slike you get tired of running in
the same circle correct, andthat's me.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I like to switch it up.
Uh, on my bike and yeah, youknow, I go to an area and I go
there in may you know, playsawpon and uh, great bunt, texas
.
The walkability there isunbelievable.
I've been there yeah, oh, it'snice and then they have so much
things down there but dotd, wethink it's important for our uh,
you know our economicdevelopment.
We got uh things wanting tocome in the city limits of
(24:03):
Zachary.
Some of the areas out in OakScenic up to the diversion canal
which we want to take all thatin is outside the city limits.
So we're working on gettingthat in and my long-range plan
is to go to the MississippiRiver.
You know you've got your boatsto come in down the river.
I like that.
Come visit Zachary.
Yeah, got your, your your boatsto come in down the river.
(24:24):
I like that.
And visit zachary.
Yeah, you can bring big lp gascompany there and sell gas off
to other states or goodcountries.
You can have um, a lot of yoursmaller towns like west
wisconsin, east wisconsin, haveuh places where the barges can
uh dock up for the night.
They make money off that, yeah.
So I think it's important thatwe look at that.
Take that in.
Uh, you know where graychevrolet is.
(24:46):
You got the woodside familywhich is around 243 acres.
We want to bring them in up tothe, you know, up to that white
antebellum home.
They got to the north of them.
We want to take it in and rightnow we can take that in without
having to hire more policeofficers because we have enough
right now Our fire departmentalready covers that.
So we're good there.
So we want to make sure ourinfrastructure and everything's
(25:08):
in place before we start takingall these areas in.
I'm thinking about maybe andthis is what we talked about and
we'll have to see how thepublic thinks about it the areas
we want to annexation in.
We might come up and say, okay,we want to annex these areas in
.
I think my understanding is wecan put it to a vote of the
people that live in that areaand see if they want to come in.
I mean, you know, we can savethem a little bit on fire
(25:31):
district one tax there.
We can save them a little biton different taxes that were
different in Baton Rouge here.
And plus, you know, right now Imean you've got a police force
up to six on a shift we cover alot of areas Right now.
We're probably the first one inthis area outside the city
limits because the sheriff'soffice, you know, at night comes
(25:53):
out of central Scotlandville.
So we think it's important thatwe can, you know, annex some of
these areas in.
To cover it Back, when I firststarted out we covered all the
way out in the Pride Baywood,all the way out in the Pride.
Baywood all the way out to theMississippi River and some south
.
We had to help the sheriff'soffice out because they were
small then, but we're looking atall that right now for the city
.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Sounds like nothing but positives on that.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, we're back doing our road rehabilitation.
We're Church Street between HotTails to Old Slaughter Road.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
We're widening that a little bit A lot of cars are
coming that way, coming off fromthe Walmart, and that it's like
a diet right there.
I don't want to say the wrongword, but it gets smaller.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
It's very small there and we widened it.
Right now we know people aretrying to come to the light to
get out there.
It's tough getting out atMontegutter.
We got to DOTD looking at sometraffic studies in the area to
see what we can prove.
You know it's been talk of aroundabout, maybe down at
Rollins and 964.
We'll see.
You know the roundabout costs alot of money, so we got to look
at that.
I know, right now, thelegislator just started
(26:54):
yesterday and they're looking atreforming DOTD and we think
it's important.
Like we met with him the otherday and we told him the problems
we have on Highway 19.
We we met with him the otherday and we told him the problems
we have on Highway 19.
We have problems that we haveon Plank Road.
The amount of traffic.
You think about it.
People come out of theFelicianas, they go to Southern
University, lsu, exxon, they goto work, they go to travel down
there.
They're going to stop in hereand visit.
If they see a clean town,they're going to stop here.
(27:16):
Oh yeah, but we've gotinfrastructure here too to get
them through here, you know, ina safe manner, but also in a
quicker manner, you know.
Yeah, so we, you know we have alot of people come through here
now.
You got to think about what'scoming up north the ai bitcoin
whatever they want to call it ispossibly coming.
Yeah, and you got to realizethey have a moratorium up there.
So where you think the peopleare going to live, they're going
(27:37):
to live here, they're going toshop here and they're going to
come here.
So we think it's important.
So we're looking at all of them.
A lot of other stuff coming uptoo that we're trying to make
the city.
We've got our public safetyradio tower going up,
ribbon-cutting the mar out thereon Propolitan Road.
It's been 10 years in the making.
(27:58):
A lot of times in Walmart, theschools and north of Zachary
Radio was tough.
You couldn't hear, you couldn'tspeak.
So that tower is going to giveus that one function to protect
police officers, thefirefighters, sheriff's office,
ems.
It's going to make it better.
So we're doing a ribbon cuttingon that tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
And can you hear local radio too better?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Oh yeah, I'm sure you can.
And what we're going to do toowith that, that's great, that's
great, that brings a smile to myface.
If we can you know, maybeVerizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, we'll
have room for them to add on toit too, to make the signal
better.
I mean that's what's importanthere is, you know, public safety
.
And it's been 10 years and wefinally got it done, great,
(28:41):
great Making ground on it.
So it's going to be in the citylimits of Zachary.
We don't take care of themaintenance around it, the city
of.
Zachary will be, so we thinkit's a win-win for us here in
Zachary.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
It is my radio station.
When I first moved to Zachary,I was still young enough to
listen to KLSU 91.1.
But the signal would go outsomewhere around I don't know
where.
Exxon was on 61.
I'd be like, oh shoot, give upa little quality there.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
This will help us here.
You know, as acker grows, we'retrying to get our technology
better here.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Oh yeah, you know, we a lot of our fiber coming in
too.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yes, oh yeah, we got revs in here.
We got at&ts in here.
You know I've talked to both ofthem and I hope they get on top
of it.
We got still some areas in herein zachary don't have internet,
don't have access to internet,and I think that's that's bad.
Now, granted, they can go tothe library, but I think they
should be able to have access totheir internet.
Yeah, whether it's in brianroad and there's some areas in
copper mill that don't have itand I think we need to really
(29:37):
focus on that and that's whatwe've done.
You know, we've had people callin with their addresses.
They don't have it send it tothe representatives.
Hey look, you're here in town,you get, you know, they got a
bunch of grant money.
So here, yeah, let's fix theseissues here.
That's important, zachary, youknow, fixing the issues that
people can use the internet,whether it's teachers uh, kids
do school work.
Our business owner, you know,might be working from the house,
(29:58):
or something like that.
Yeah, it's important you knowand uh, so we we're glad to see
that going on right now.
We have a lot of constructiongoing on around town.
Here we're fixing some areaswho have you?
You know some of the waterpressure issues and that we just
our new wells are going to goon line here pretty soon and we
met with, you know, senatorKennedy's office.
(30:18):
We're looking at possibly downthe line and also our legislator
in Baton Rouge maybe getting awater tower, a water well and,
you know, maybe a new gastransmission line.
We have two gas lines, oneright there at Diversion Canal
and one out here on Kearney Roadto get our gas to where it
needs to be.
And you know our guys watch it.
They can watch it on theirphone.
When the gas pressure, whenit's cold it goes down, they can
(30:40):
pick the pressure up a littlebit.
Make sure the city stays online.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Our sewer lift stations are monitored.
We have that going on right now.
We check them, our water lines,we check all that.
We're getting our technologywhere it needs to be to make
sure we run efficient here inZachar.
But that goes to the men andwomen.
They're working hard here.
They understand our vision here,what we're trying to do in that
and I think it's important.
(31:05):
I mean I have to give them.
Without them it would be tough.
I mean I think it's important,I mean I have to give them
without them it'd be tough.
I mean I give them all thecredit.
Uh, you know they, they get outhere and work and you got the
ballpark out here.
You got 35 to 40 tournaments ayear here.
Think about the people visitingzachary, using our hotels,
doing our shop and doing our,you know, visiting our
restaurants.
Uh, it's great and you can eatoff the floor at the ballpark
(31:25):
out there, he's got a peewee theball.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
He's great.
He's the greatest I go outthere.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
All his machinery is clean his lawnmowers, his weed
eaters.
I mean, he hung correctly.
I mean you cannot beat that.
And before that, shane abe, Idid a great job too, and uh.
But you know you've got a lotof stuff's happening here,
zachary, and every time I'llride around here at night the
whole, uh, the restaurants arefull.
It's busy here in town and I'mgrateful to that.
(31:51):
We got, you know, theoff-the-hook came in here and
it's been a plus, and we gotmore stuff looking to come, it's
been good.
Yeah yeah, benny's is on theworks.
I know they're waiting on Bakerto kind of get finished there,
but they're coming.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
No, they didn't give up, huh.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Not.
I talk to the family every timeI see them at a meeting.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Good yeah, where is it?
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah, yeah, and then I think other things will jump
off after that around town.
I know that there's a piece ofproperty that Susie Gautreaux is
trying to get in right there in.
Ocasinic.
That's going to be a plus forus and we're working on some
other stuff, a 14-acre tractright there.
Right by the law office.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Right there, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
And then we try.
I think it might be a welcomebarbecue or something like that.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Oh, wow, that's a deep track.
It goes all the way back toBreck.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, yeah, it's nice and we like to.
You know we got I met with aproperty owner or a business
owner and a baker the other dayand they wanted to come to
Zachary T&T Smokehouse.
I mean they got some good smokeuh barbecue here and you know
we we've had them at a couple ofevents and bring it.
Yeah, I mean we're trying toget you know we're recruiting
(32:53):
and and we uh, my economicdevelopment is recruiting,
working hard, trying to getpeople here.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
You know.
Well, a big shout out to y'allfor attending ICSC.
That's something that that alot of you know non-com
commercial real estate folksdon't don't pick up on.
But y'all are traveling to tothe states where the retailers
are, are meeting with brokersand y'all are setting up your,
your uh stand as a city.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I mean that's, that's incredible, yeah if you go down
and you tell them hey look, youknow, we had one of the best
schools districts.
We've been 16 years number one.
We got a 50 million dollarexpansion going on lane hospital
.
Your fire department's got anumber one rating which saves
you on homeowners insurance,business insurance.
I mean that's important, yougot crime here, but it's low
crime.
I mean you got it here, you gotit's everywhere.
(33:38):
I mean, but it's here, I meanyou got.
You know, when you sell that tothem and they ride through
zachary and see how clean it is,how people work together and
make Zachary happen, look at theschool system and academic, but
also the sports of our schoolsystem.
You go down, you've got sportsat the elementary schools now.
(33:58):
We didn't have that when I washere in the early 70s and 80s
but I mean that's how Zacharyhas progressed and people are
looking for that.
I mean, when I travel all overthe United States playing ball,
I look at different things.
Well, look, number one how canI prove Zachary what?
do they got.
I want in Zachary.
I look at all that.
You know a lot of people.
Well, we want to target.
(34:18):
Well, a lot of these businessesain't going to come here unless
you've got 30,000 moreresidents.
Yeah, it's a formula and theylook at it.
They do their homework, theycan tell by cell phone visits
and they do everything.
I mean they can get it down toa size.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
They don't even really need to be in the city to
make that decision.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Yeah, and I mean we've had some great talks with
a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
It's just, you know, I think Not there yet, yeah, and
you know they'll, and we'llhave some more.
I think getting part of 61 inis going to be a plus for us
Critical, critical I think withthat major US highway coming
through there, I think it'sgoing to open up some
possibilities for us down theline.
You've got to think about thefuture and that's why I say
let's go out to the MississippiRiver, take it in, look at
(35:08):
Georgia Pacific, look at thelandowners to the left and right
out there.
You still wouldn't have to hiremore officers because you've got
three or four houses out there.
Now you'd have to go out thereon a police issue which is
Georgia Pacific, but the firedepartment already covers that
out there.
They work together with GeorgiaPacific Fire Brigade, so they
work together on stuff out theretogether.
So you still again, youwouldn't have to hire more
police officers Now if you gonorth from Flanagan Road up to
(35:31):
the Parrish line.
yeah, with Sunnyside and BeaverCreek area you'd have to hire
some more, and we have peopleI've talked about wanting to
come into the city limits ofZachary.
We'll have to look at that, butwe have to get that
infrastructure in place, whetherit's water tower, gas
transmission lines, sewer gas,water in that area.
(35:51):
So, yeah, we're working on allthat, All right.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Last big question for you, Just as somebody who likes
to run and play a lot thediversion canal has a really
pretty levee.
Is that something that peoplecan walk on at any point.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
That's something.
I'm going to tell you what myplan is.
I don't know who to happen, uh,and we'll see who they turn.
I'd like to make that a neweast and west highway that's a
roadbed there.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
A roadbed, yeah, at the bottom of the levee.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, right, it runs all the way up to plank road.
Yeah no brainer we need to lookat, maybe to help us relieve
some traffic in town here.
Yeah, we got other areas we canlook at again it's about money,
yeah and I think hopefully theuh, the legislator that will
prioritize and throw some moremoney at dotd and fix some of
these streets.
I mean, I think, it's importantwith growth, you got to do
(36:40):
something yeah, it'll takepressure off of main street.
Yeah, it will and you can makeit more walkability yeah, you
know where people can get arounddo some things downtown.
I mean, I went to ribbon cuttingtoday at best, best company
boutique.
It's nice place in there it'swonderful one in there and it's,
you know, like, hey, it's nicein here, you can go shop there.
You ain't got a little batonrouge, you can shop here.
(37:00):
It's got blue jean.
It's a lady's store but theygot plenty of stuff and there
was ladies in there shopping,yeah you know.
But so things like that, youcoming to Zachary is a plus.
I mean, we had Empire Wingscome in here the other day.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
That's the one that's got people buzzing right now.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
I'm telling you I've had their honey barbecue wings
and they're good.
I know they were down atSouthern University.
I mean this is something youcan run in there and grab you
some chicken wings for a partyor a football event or whatever
it may be.
They got some good fries andother stuff.
You can't beat that, you know,and every time I passed by
they've been busy.
Yep, I mean so it's a plus.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
I mean I see people walking.
Uh, you know you're notsupposed to walk on the train
tracks, but they walk fromempire down the train track and
everybody's got the little whitebox from empire wings now.
So I know it's, it's great, Imean it's, uh, it's a plus for
zach yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
And so that's our goal is to bring in, you know,
economic development, bring somesales tax so we can make sure
we maintain our infrastructures,our fire and police and all
that is dependent on that, andthat's important that you
continue to maintain that as wegrow.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
All right Well let's leave it there.
You know we highlight the bestof Zachary with everything that
we do and I know we're very wellaligned with the city on that.
So continue to do your goodwork, mayor, and we send you
some prayers and you know we gotyour back.
That is it for this episode ofPorch and Parish, the podcast.
(38:25):
You can catch us most everyweek.
I know I've been a little bitsporadic We've had some
technical difficulties lately,but what you got, man, I just
want to let you know our themefor this year Thriving 25.
I like it.
Okay, we can spread that.
Can we get the sticker Thriving25.
Let's leave it there and we'llsee you next time.
Thank you, america, america.
Hey, zachary Residence.
This is Mayor David McDavid.
Keep listening to Fortune PairsPodcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hey, zachary, wherever you are today, you are
listening from the right placeas we sit down with Mayor Mac
McDavid, a longtime publicservant who went from walking
the beat to leading the chargeas Zachary's mayor.
With over 40 years in lawenforcement and a lifetime of
local insight, mayor McDavid isnow guiding Zachary through a
potential game changer a newHome Rule Charter.
What does that mean for how ourcity runs and, more importantly
(00:31):
, how it serves its people?
Pull up a chair, grab yourcoffee and let's talk about the
future of Zachary one ordinanceat a time.
I'm Mike Gennaro, host of thispodcast.
We're on a mission to bring youfront porch conversations with
a parish-wide impact podcast.
we're on a mission to bring youfront porch conversations with a
parish-wide impact.
This is porch and parish thepodcast, and welcome mayor
mcdavid.
Thank you so much, mike.
All right, what's up?
(00:52):
Tell us, tell us what a homerule charter is and what is
going on exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Well, when I took office I looked back at the home
rule charter, talked to a lotof residents here and I thought
maybe we need to maybe clear itup a little bit, change it a
little bit to make the cityoperations clearer and more
efficient.
That's what we looked at doing.
We came up with a board memberincluding the council was able
to put a board member on thereand you know it was an open
meeting, it was a public meetingand you know they went through
(01:18):
the Home Rule Charter one by one, went through it to see if they
cleared up, update it.
You know what need to be takenout.
You know last time we did itwas 15 years ago, so it was time
to look at it to make sure tomake it more efficient and make
the city run, uh, clearer, yeahall right.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So, uh, how do you want to do this?
Do you want to run us throughstep by step and just kind of
let us know?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
yeah, some of the key changes.
And, like I said, councilmembers and you look at section
201, uh 2-02.
Council members must live intheir district with clear rules
and residencies.
Before uh.
You know if uh.
And then what happened beforewith uh.
You know brandon old.
He found out he was movingoutside the district.
He stepped down and I thinkthat's important when you're
(02:01):
moving outside the district, goahead and step down, let
somebody take over your spot.
You know it spells that out.
You know it's a boundary changewhich it could come, you know,
census time again.
Or you know it could changeagain when they redo the census
where you know, make sureZachary's even, you know,
representative.
You know that can change thatway.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
So if you're thinking , you're going to run now, but
the boundaries changed the daybefore the election, nothing
Zachary would have been able tocontrol, right.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
It comes around every 10 years where they change it.
Oh, okay, that's different, itwas done about two or three
years ago and so another sevenyears.
They'll probably come backaround again.
But, like I say, if a counselordoesn't no longer meet the
qualifications, they need to goahead and step down and they
lose their position, which isonly fair.
I mean, if they move outsidetheir district, they need to
make sure that they step downand let either the governor or
(02:54):
the council pick somebody torepresent them, or, if it comes
down to where the governor hasto pick somebody to represent
that district.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, Now is there a story behind this.
What is it trying to?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
solve.
I mean I think, basically, ifthey are outside their
jurisdiction, I mean they needto step aside, I mean they're no
longer in that jurisdiction.
They don't represent thatjurisdiction.
They need to step aside.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
As somebody who wants to step up and represent that,
area, rather than trust in theprecedents that Brandon Noel set
.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yeah, I mean Brandon, he stepped aside, he was moving
, he moved outside the limits ofzachary and, uh, you know he's
no longer in that district herepresented, which was district
two, which is my district.
Okay, all right.
Then they had a special uh, theappointment somebody the
governor did because the councilcouldn't come to agreement.
Agreement, and then they had aspecial election, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
All right, want to take the next one.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yes, also council meetings Section 2-08, where
they have the flexibility toschedule meetings around
holidays.
I mean, sometimes you havemeetings that come up on
holidays, so it gives thecouncil the ability to schedule
meetings around the holidayswhere they're not having a
meeting on the holidays.
So I think that's veryimportant.
Another thing we come up withis the mayor pro tem runs the
(04:09):
meetings.
If you look around East BatonRouge, parish and other areas,
the mayor pro tem runs themeetings.
The mayor has no vote.
All he can do is call themeeting to order and go from
there and keep order.
Yeah, it has no vote.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Do you have a vote now?
No, no vote.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Do you have a vote now?
No, no vote Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
No vote.
So you're just basicallyrunning the meetings, yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I think a mayor pro tem can run the meetings just
like they do in Baton Rouge.
Yeah, and you know, I thinkthat's more sufficient than me
just sitting up there every time, you know, running the meetings
, where they can be running themeetings, and if I have
something on the agenda I'll bethere for that meeting.
Yeah, gotcha, you know.
The other thing we set up ismayor's absence.
Look at Section 30-06.
It's something you know.
(04:52):
We set up a clear plan whotakes charge if the mayor is
temporarily unavailable?
In the past it's the mayor protem.
Now the mayor pro tem is notthere every day running the
day-to-day operations.
The chief administrationofficer is who I suggest runs in
(05:13):
my place if I'm unavailable, ifI'm sick, whatever it may be.
They run the day-to-dayoperations until they can have
an election, or if I'm out ofoffice or I can't continue to
serve, then that person will run.
They're there every day seeingwhat's going on to serve.
Then you know that person willrun.
They're there every day seeingwhat's going on.
Sure, I think it's moreefficient for them to be able to
run the day-to-day operationsthat are mayor protean there,
who's just their own councilnight.
So we change, we're changingthat got it, got it.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
And this is only um.
I mean I have to ask does thepublic have any say about this,
or just through their electedrepresentatives in council?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
through their elected representatives in council I
think I mean I think some of thecouncil are on board.
I mean they all voted to takethis to a vote of the people and
I think they're on board withit.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, what day does this go up for a vote?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
May 3rd we need everybody to come out and vote.
We've got four or five otherthings on the agenda.
All this is all together.
So it's all or nothing it's allor nothing and you vote yes or
no.
Yeah, you know, and, like I say, you know, I think it's a good
proposition.
I think we put it out there.
Uh, the other day we had 42shares on our facebook page.
I think we're being transparent.
(06:16):
We want the public to know whatwe're talking about.
We, what we did, is typed itout in layman's terms, where you
know not in lawyer terms wherewe can.
You know the public canunderstand it and if they have
any questions, stop by, we'llsit down with them and talk to
them about it.
We'll show them the old HomeReach order where we, you know,
took the items out.
We have it in red.
What we're changing, come feelfree to sit down, we'll send it
(06:38):
to them by email.
Whatever they want, we'll beglad to give it to them.
Yeah and that.
So yeah, uh, the other thingswe're looking at too is uh, you
know, the uh, mayor, council andpolice pay.
Uh, you know where it clarifieshow their salaries are set and
adjusted.
What it will be will be acouncil vote.
They'll make a decision to voteif they want to change the
salaries of the mayor or, youknow, chief uh, police or the
(07:01):
council.
Now, this don't take effectuntil the first term and the new
term.
So it's not like you walk inand say, okay, I want my pay
raise now.
It takes effect in the new term, the first year of the new term
after the election.
So that's very important there,because they can't just go out
(07:22):
and just keep giving themselvesa bunch of pay raises.
So I think it's very importantthere, you know because they
can't just go out and just keepgiving themselves a bunch of pay
raises.
So, yeah, I think it's veryimportant Now that's the only
thing you know that's thedealing with money will be that
they make the decision to lookat changing the salaries Now,
are the salaries low?
Yes, they are, and it'ssomething that we need to look
at.
I think it's very important.
You know that we look at that.
Yeah, uh, you know that we uhlook at that yeah, I mean it's
(07:44):
all public record.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I don't want to make it awkward, it is public record.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Uh, I mean, I'll give you one example yeah please do
chief lawrence was my secondcommand.
He's probably in the 80s, I'mnot sure zach mount make him.
When we left office tremendousamount of work, yes, and when he
took over as police chief hewas brought back down to 69 000.
Now, if you think about it, alot of his guys who are working
(08:08):
overtime or made might have beenthere many years too, are
probably making more than he is.
I know there's two or three,maybe four within my department
making more than I do.
You know it's.
It's okay.
I understand that because Imade more than the chief did
sometimes, but I was workingdetectives and I was working a
lot of hours.
You know overtime hours andstuff like that.
But I still think you need tolook at you know the salaries.
(08:32):
I mean, we've done a study andwe have a copy of it.
We're glad to let the publicsee it.
We've done studies all overLouisiana I know Chris Calvert
did it along with Steve DonneryLouisiana.
I know Chris Calvert did italong with Steve Donnery.
They did a study and show thedifferent mayor salaries, the
council salaries and the chiefpolice salaries.
So I think we need to take alook at that down the line also.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, what is the potential check on that, on just
unadulterated raises?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Well, I mean, it's something they'll have to look
at and we look at, compare oursto cities our size.
Now there are some cities thatare smaller than us and making
way more than we are.
I mean currently Gonzales, Ithink, their chief's around
$110,000.
You know where their mayormight be in that area too.
I'd have to go back and look atthis, but some are more, some
are less.
You just got to look at it, Ithink our counselors pay is very
(09:26):
low.
Yeah, I think that needs to beraised up.
I think that would you sharewhat the council pay about
around 11 000, but you got someareas around 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
000.
Yeah, so I mean you got to lookat that and see you know where
the pay is and stuff like that.
Some councilmen want insurance.
I mean it's something we haveto look at.
We'll have to.
The council has to make thatdecision.
You know it.
Look at, the council has tomake that decision.
It's not me.
The council has to make thatdecision If they can afford
(09:49):
insurance with our budget andeverything else.
So I think that's important tolook at.
That's a council decision Gotit.
Yeah.
The next one up is cityadministration, which is section
4-01 to 4-05, which meansdepartment heads and the city
(10:10):
attorney don't have to live inthe city.
What has happened in the past,starting in the 70s, when this
was drafted up, and thatdepartment heads, whether it's
attorney, the CAO or CFO, whichis chief financial officer, had
to live in the city.
Now, if I go know, or CFO,which is chief financial officer
, had lived in the city.
Now, if I go down, and whatthis will help is have a bigger
(10:30):
pool of applicants, you knowthat we can go after.
You know, I'm not saying wedon't have them here, but it's
very limited Cause, zachary's,you know 20,000 residents.
So you know, if a person livesin Baton Rouge and say they,
they're a great lawyer, they'reone of the best, and you want to
hire them, but they don't wantto live in Baton Rouge because
their kids go to a school inBaton Rouge, whether it be a
public school U High Southern,lab, dunham, catholic High, st
(10:54):
Joe but they want to stay inBaton Rouge, why shouldn't you
be able to hire them here?
Because they're one of the best?
And, like I say, I think it'simportant we open up the pool of
candidates more, yeah,applicants and that.
So that's very important.
Also, what we did was listresponsibilities of the chief
(11:15):
administrative officer and chieffinancial officer, which we
thought was important.
You know where.
You know they help each other.
But also, chief administrativeofficer is my backup when I'm
out of town or if I'm in thehospital or sick or something I
can't serve.
They've got to understand whattheir roles are and what they
need to do.
So I think that's important.
Yeah, in the police departmentwe had this been going on for a
(11:37):
long time the police chief alsoserves as a city marshal.
Basically, what he does is hekind of gets officers in the
court.
Where it may be, a deputymarshal serves as a bailiff.
They go out and serve subpoenas, they serve papers, uh, do
evictions and stuff like that.
So you know, when I was policechief, I was a deputy marshal
too.
So you know, back in the early70s and that they, you know 80s,
(11:59):
they had an election where, uh,you know before it was, we were
called marshals and that Nowwe're chief police.
So we clarify that and it alsoallows the police chief to
appoint a deputy city marshal.
You know we don't.
You know the back old days wassome of them thinking now we
need a chief police and we needa marshal?
To me you're doubling up, yeah,doubling up.
(12:22):
To me it causes tension.
We call attention.
You know, all you need is onechief here in town and he can
cover the town.
He can handle the marshal andbail of spot got it.
You know, and the bailiffserves.
You know, when they're with thejudge, protection prosecutors,
anybody in the court, he's thereto help them.
But also, you know they gotpeople, all the bailiffs outside
who are checking for weapons,making sure everybody's coming
(12:44):
in dressed properly and that.
So I think it's very importantthat the chief is able to handle
that and make his decision whohe wants to pick.
I did it for years.
We just want to make sure weclarify it and that's cleaning
up the home-reach order from thepast.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
This might be off-topic, but when you
mentioned martial, the firstthing that comes to mind is
Marshall Law.
Right, has Zachary ever been inMarshall?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Law status, Not as I know of Reading back in history.
I've never seen it.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Got it.
You know, I got those NewOrleans roots.
I mean, we've seen that acouple times.
All right, okay.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
So you know, on down to city budget, which is Section
5-02, reduces the budgetproposal time from 60 to 45 days
and what it does is, you know,gives the CFO 45 days to get the
budget in which we do it nowwithin 45 days.
And we already started budgetmeetings with our appointed
(13:42):
directors and that, and we, youknow, getting their wish list
and looking at their budget andjust to accelerate the process
yes, okay yeah, just to make itget in there.
So we get it out and yeah, wegot to have it.
You know ready to go?
Yeah, come in june does it?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
does it cost more money when it goes beyond um the
45 day period?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
it'll cost more money , but it can cause other
problems, I think yeah, and youknow so we got to make sure
that's what the Home Retailerexpects of us.
We already do it within 45 days,so let's go to 45 days.
Also, if the council doesn'tapprove a budget which they can
deny a budget, 90% of theprevious year budget becomes the
default, which means it goesback to 90% of last year's
(14:23):
budget, in the past year'sbudget.
And in the past has happened,you know and you know.
You just got to make sure yougot to have money to operate on,
so it goes back to 90% of thebudget.
Then you have to fix the issue.
What, when it was the council'sissue?
What?
What needs to be fixed?
And he gives you time to fix it, got it?
And the last one here is Section508 requires majority council
(14:44):
approve the issue of bonds andtake on debt.
I think that's very important.
The council is the legislatedpart.
I'm an executive and yours, andI think it's important that
they are able to look at bondsand that we don't want to sink
our city into major debt.
What if I have an idea and it'smy idea and I just want to just
(15:05):
put it out there and I'm goingto do it anyway, not really
thinking about the long-termeffects, but the council looks
at it and says, hey, you know,it's sticking us in a pretty
tight hole for next 20 years.
They got to be able to makethat decision and they they
represent their constituents too, and they got to make that
decision.
Yeah, so I mean, it's takingdebt and I think that's very
important, that they are allowedto do that.
(15:26):
So we cleared that up.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Do you all take on debt for pretty much any major
capital improvement likebuildings, and you know.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, we're looking right now, like we told before,
we're looking at redoing CityHall.
We've got to make sure our chiefCFO, deanna Mankins, is looking
over the numbers right now.
We're looking at the budget andcan we afford to do it?
I don't want to stickadministrations 10 years down
the road with a heavy debt.
I don't want to see that happen.
I mean, right now, are wesufficient there?
(15:55):
We're out of room, but we cancontinue to operate without
setting ourselves up with a bigdebt.
That's important.
We just finished the policestation.
We're looking at everything.
We want to make sure we're notsituated with a bunch of debt.
That's what we want to becareful with.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, are we able to squeeze in any talk about the
old police station today?
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
I mean, do you want to just touch on that briefly?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, basically what we're doing right now, we have
to provide a building for thecourt system.
They will stay in there rightnow until we can figure out what
we're going to do with cityhall and maybe put them in there
with us or in that area.
Uh, you know, add on to it.
I mean, we've talked aboutbuying the old am ryan's
building and lot over there.
We'll we'll talk to the ownersof that and see if that's still
(16:44):
on the table and we decided todo that.
But we have to provide them anarea and that provides them a
good area there.
It gives them more room Nowthat the police department is
out of there.
You know, uh, back in the daysthat that was the police
department and the court systemwas where the annexation was
building to us.
Yeah, we can't add on to thatbecause we had people look at it
.
We just can't add on to it.
It's not feasible.
(17:04):
Mm-hmm.
So you know we do it would be.
You know, hopefully we'll dosomething with the city hall,
which is an old bake mill, andwe have already got some
architect drawings and looked atit.
It's real nice and we just gotto make sure financially we're
without living week to week ortwo weeks at payroll.
So that's our goal and, like Isay, our CFO was very conscious
(17:29):
of that.
She's on top of that and hey,sometimes she says, hey, mary,
no, you can't spend that money.
And I respect that.
I want her to tell me that andshe does that.
And it's kind of funny.
We were in meetings the otherday and she's got a little
gadget that says no, she mightask for something and she says
no.
A lot easier to say no that way.
I mean, you've got to realizeshe's a certified public
(17:50):
accountant and her licenses areon the line.
She's got to make sure she'sdoing the right things too.
She lives in the city, so it'simportant to her.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
That's what we're looking at there.
So I mean, you know, we wantthe public to understand these
updates to aim to strengthen ourcity government, improve our
clarity and make operations moreefficient.
So we're asking the public togo vote may 3rd.
We think it's important.
Every election is important,you know, and whoever votes
makes the difference and like Isay, it's determined by people
who go vote yeah and regardlessof small, which I know we got
the DA's thing coming up, themillage.
(18:27):
I know he'll be talking about it.
I don't want to touch bases.
I'll let him talk about his ownmillage, but we've got to look
at all this, and this is justclearing things up.
We're not asking people formillage or anything like that.
We're just trying to clarifysome things to make sure that
the city operations are clearand more efficient.
That's what we're looking at.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, got it, got it.
You know we're never here forthe tough questions or anything
like that.
I just have to clarify that.
The one on the pay raise Ithink that'll probably be the
most controversial, just becauseit involves money.
What is, what is the check andbalance on on the pay raise?
Uh, so if if the council justsays we all want 100 grand, you
(19:10):
know to be on council, and they,they just vote that in not that
they would ever do that uh, dothey just get voted out of
office after that term?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
or you were saying it starts the term after the pay
raise will start the first yearof the term after re-election.
After re-election, got it.
If I get a pay raise next yearor this year or whatever it may
be, you know you have to do it,you have to start talking about
it or, you know, clearing it upnow, between now and before next
(19:40):
year, because once the nextyear gets here, you can't talk
about it, you can't giveyourself a pay raise in that
last year of your term.
So once you vote on it, ittakes effect under the new
election.
And what we do is I'm sure thecouncil will probably want to
talk about it do workshops, likeI said, we've done studies, we
(20:01):
looked at it, we want to befeasible.
I know there there has somecontroversy down south and saint
george, where the you know theythought they're, you know their
uh, the pay was high there andlike I say, that's something
they voted against down there.
They didn't like the way it wasgoing down, so they voted
against.
So, yeah, and you know you gotto be, you know you got to be um
, very smart and and then howyou do and spend the people's
(20:25):
money.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
That's what they want you to do and you've got to
look at that.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Granted, we all like to get paid tons of money, but
you've got to be within reasonto be smart.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, and attract the top talent to those positions
too.
We appreciate you all so much.
Is there anything else that youwant to talk about on the
agenda?
I ask you this every time I seeyou.
Is there just any newdevelopments?
You much um is there anythingelse that?
You want to talk about on theagenda.
Any um, I mean, you know I askyou this every time, I see is
just any new developments youwant to talk about?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
I mean you know we got uh we.
We met with the dotd the otherday and we had a great meeting
with them and explained to themsome of the issues we have here,
including uh signing off on thefinal annexation paperwork for
the jerry lane which is comingin the city of
Livingston-Zachary.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Oh, you got it annexed yeah they're coming in.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
We're just waiting on DOTD to find it off.
We'll check back with them inthe next couple weeks about it,
see if they signed off on it.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
yet there are a few implications to that that are
positive.
I mean we've never had controlover the entryway corridor to
our own town down east mountpleasant right and we're working
on that right now.
Yeah yeah, so I mean, once it'sannexed, maybe I'm not gonna
say it was an ugly drive at all,but it you know you're going
through the swamp there's,there's, there's obviously some
(21:32):
points of blight, that that onthat street yeah, we'd have to
sit down and talk to them andget some of that cleared up that
we think it's important yeah, I
Speaker 1 (21:38):
mean, if you go back, we've done it.
We probably tore down 10 to 12houses since I took office and
we've got some more we're goingto look at.
We want to give people a chanceto fix it up.
Sure, sure, including heirsthat might be heirs to the
houses.
Fix it up, but after a whileyou're hurting people's property
values and that We've got toclean it up.
It tracks crime.
It tracks rats.
It tracks snakes.
(21:59):
People hide snakes.
You know people hide, criminalshide in there.
Drug deals will be done inthere.
I mean being law enforcement.
I've seen it myself yeah,firsthand so you got to clean
that up, you know, and like Isay, when you make zachary
pretty, like it is, yeah, youknow, we had louisiana boot the
other day.
We had people from coke cola,we had people from, uh, other
areas.
Come here, man.
Y'all sure have a clean town.
(22:19):
Yeah, well, if you have a cleantown, people want to come live
here.
They want to go to school hereand they want to shop here, and
they want to, you know, livehere.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, we think it's important, kids can walk to
school without being afraid ofpassing that one scary house
that's true.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
But you know, yeah, we had a good meet with dotd.
We explained to them about oldscenic, the amount of wrecks
we've had there, and we needturning lanes or something.
We need to come up with a planand we're working on that right
now.
We also met with you know,talked to them about that.
We're trying to finish upgetting our lights, traffic
signals done.
We're working with the parishand the state on that.
(22:53):
All our traffic signal boxeswere obsolete, outdated.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Oh really.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
We're working on that .
We're getting some new stuffput in there trying to finalize
that.
We've got the crosswalks.
We're trying to finalize.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yeah, and a crosswalk is featured on the new cover,
or the cover of the newestFortune Parish magazine, with
some Zachary legacy family onthere that we hope you'll enjoy.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
We think that's important.
You've got a school there,you've got a restaurant there,
but also you have a sidewalkthere.
I mean I like traveling aroundZachary on my bike, but also you
have a sidewalk there.
I mean I like traveling aroundZachary on my bike, I like
getting on the sidewalk.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
You know little times I get a little worried riding a
bike on some of these houses, Imean on these highways out here
.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
But I want you know connectivity is important.
It is Better to walk.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
My kids are runners too.
Yeah, and that's important andthey've got to go eight miles
sometimes, and sometimes it'slike you get tired of running in
the same circle correct, andthat's me.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I like to switch it up.
Uh, on my bike and yeah, youknow, I go to an area and I go
there in may you know, playsawpon and uh, great bunt, texas
.
The walkability there isunbelievable.
I've been there yeah, oh, it'snice and then they have so much
things down there but dotd, wethink it's important for our uh,
you know our economicdevelopment.
We got uh things wanting tocome in the city limits of
(24:03):
Zachary.
Some of the areas out in OakScenic up to the diversion canal
which we want to take all thatin is outside the city limits.
So we're working on gettingthat in and my long-range plan
is to go to the MississippiRiver.
You know you've got your boatsto come in down the river.
I like that.
Come visit Zachary.
Yeah, got your, your your boatsto come in down the river.
(24:24):
I like that.
And visit zachary.
Yeah, you can bring big lp gascompany there and sell gas off
to other states or goodcountries.
You can have um, a lot of yoursmaller towns like west
wisconsin, east wisconsin, haveuh places where the barges can
uh dock up for the night.
They make money off that, yeah.
So I think it's important thatwe look at that.
Take that in.
Uh, you know where graychevrolet is.
(24:46):
You got the woodside familywhich is around 243 acres.
We want to bring them in up tothe, you know, up to that white
antebellum home.
They got to the north of them.
We want to take it in and rightnow we can take that in without
having to hire more policeofficers because we have enough
right now Our fire departmentalready covers that.
So we're good there.
So we want to make sure ourinfrastructure and everything's
(25:08):
in place before we start takingall these areas in.
I'm thinking about maybe andthis is what we talked about and
we'll have to see how thepublic thinks about it the areas
we want to annexation in.
We might come up and say, okay,we want to annex these areas in
.
I think my understanding is wecan put it to a vote of the
people that live in that areaand see if they want to come in.
I mean, you know, we can savethem a little bit on fire
(25:31):
district one tax there.
We can save them a little biton different taxes that were
different in Baton Rouge here.
And plus, you know, right now Imean you've got a police force
up to six on a shift we cover alot of areas Right now.
We're probably the first one inthis area outside the city
limits because the sheriff'soffice, you know, at night comes
(25:53):
out of central Scotlandville.
So we think it's important thatwe can, you know, annex some of
these areas in.
To cover it Back, when I firststarted out we covered all the
way out in the Pride Baywood,all the way out in the Pride.
Baywood all the way out to theMississippi River and some south
.
We had to help the sheriff'soffice out because they were
small then, but we're looking atall that right now for the city
.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Sounds like nothing but positives on that.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, we're back doing our road rehabilitation.
We're Church Street between HotTails to Old Slaughter Road.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
We're widening that a little bit A lot of cars are
coming that way, coming off fromthe Walmart, and that it's like
a diet right there.
I don't want to say the wrongword, but it gets smaller.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
It's very small there and we widened it.
Right now we know people aretrying to come to the light to
get out there.
It's tough getting out atMontegutter.
We got to DOTD looking at sometraffic studies in the area to
see what we can prove.
You know it's been talk of aroundabout, maybe down at
Rollins and 964.
We'll see.
You know the roundabout costs alot of money, so we got to look
at that.
I know, right now, thelegislator just started
(26:54):
yesterday and they're looking atreforming DOTD and we think
it's important.
Like we met with him the otherday and we told him the problems
we have on Highway 19.
We we met with him the otherday and we told him the problems
we have on Highway 19.
We have problems that we haveon Plank Road.
The amount of traffic.
You think about it.
People come out of theFelicianas, they go to Southern
University, lsu, exxon, they goto work, they go to travel down
there.
They're going to stop in hereand visit.
If they see a clean town,they're going to stop here.
(27:16):
Oh yeah, but we've gotinfrastructure here too to get
them through here, you know, ina safe manner, but also in a
quicker manner, you know.
Yeah, so we, you know we have alot of people come through here
now.
You got to think about what'scoming up north the ai bitcoin
whatever they want to call it ispossibly coming.
Yeah, and you got to realizethey have a moratorium up there.
So where you think the peopleare going to live, they're going
(27:37):
to live here, they're going toshop here and they're going to
come here.
So we think it's important.
So we're looking at all of them.
A lot of other stuff coming uptoo that we're trying to make
the city.
We've got our public safetyradio tower going up,
ribbon-cutting the mar out thereon Propolitan Road.
It's been 10 years in the making.
(27:58):
A lot of times in Walmart, theschools and north of Zachary
Radio was tough.
You couldn't hear, you couldn'tspeak.
So that tower is going to giveus that one function to protect
police officers, thefirefighters, sheriff's office,
ems.
It's going to make it better.
So we're doing a ribbon cuttingon that tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
And can you hear local radio too better?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Oh yeah, I'm sure you can.
And what we're going to do toowith that, that's great, that's
great, that brings a smile to myface.
If we can you know, maybeVerizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, we'll
have room for them to add on toit too, to make the signal
better.
I mean that's what's importanthere is, you know, public safety
.
And it's been 10 years and wefinally got it done, great,
(28:41):
great Making ground on it.
So it's going to be in the citylimits of Zachary.
We don't take care of themaintenance around it, the city
of.
Zachary will be, so we thinkit's a win-win for us here in
Zachary.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
It is my radio station.
When I first moved to Zachary,I was still young enough to
listen to KLSU 91.1.
But the signal would go outsomewhere around I don't know
where.
Exxon was on 61.
I'd be like, oh shoot, give upa little quality there.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
This will help us here.
You know, as acker grows, we'retrying to get our technology
better here.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Oh yeah, you know, we a lot of our fiber coming in
too.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yes, oh yeah, we got revs in here.
We got at&ts in here.
You know I've talked to both ofthem and I hope they get on top
of it.
We got still some areas in herein zachary don't have internet,
don't have access to internet,and I think that's that's bad.
Now, granted, they can go tothe library, but I think they
should be able to have access totheir internet.
Yeah, whether it's in brianroad and there's some areas in
copper mill that don't have itand I think we need to really
(29:37):
focus on that and that's whatwe've done.
You know, we've had people callin with their addresses.
They don't have it send it tothe representatives.
Hey look, you're here in town,you get, you know, they got a
bunch of grant money.
So here, yeah, let's fix theseissues here.
That's important, zachary, youknow, fixing the issues that
people can use the internet,whether it's teachers uh, kids
do school work.
Our business owner, you know,might be working from the house,
(29:58):
or something like that.
Yeah, it's important you knowand uh, so we we're glad to see
that going on right now.
We have a lot of constructiongoing on around town.
Here we're fixing some areaswho have you?
You know some of the waterpressure issues and that we just
our new wells are going to goon line here pretty soon and we
met with, you know, senatorKennedy's office.
(30:18):
We're looking at possibly downthe line and also our legislator
in Baton Rouge maybe getting awater tower, a water well and,
you know, maybe a new gastransmission line.
We have two gas lines, oneright there at Diversion Canal
and one out here on Kearney Roadto get our gas to where it
needs to be.
And you know our guys watch it.
They can watch it on theirphone.
When the gas pressure, whenit's cold it goes down, they can
(30:40):
pick the pressure up a littlebit.
Make sure the city stays online.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Our sewer lift stations are monitored.
We have that going on right now.
We check them, our water lines,we check all that.
We're getting our technologywhere it needs to be to make
sure we run efficient here inZachar.
But that goes to the men andwomen.
They're working hard here.
They understand our vision here,what we're trying to do in that
and I think it's important.
(31:05):
I mean I have to give them.
Without them it would be tough.
I mean I think it's important,I mean I have to give them
without them it'd be tough.
I mean I give them all thecredit.
Uh, you know they, they get outhere and work and you got the
ballpark out here.
You got 35 to 40 tournaments ayear here.
Think about the people visitingzachary, using our hotels,
doing our shop and doing our,you know, visiting our
restaurants.
Uh, it's great and you can eatoff the floor at the ballpark
(31:25):
out there, he's got a peewee theball.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
He's great.
He's the greatest I go outthere.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
All his machinery is clean his lawnmowers, his weed
eaters.
I mean, he hung correctly.
I mean you cannot beat that.
And before that, shane abe, Idid a great job too, and uh.
But you know you've got a lotof stuff's happening here,
zachary, and every time I'llride around here at night the
whole, uh, the restaurants arefull.
It's busy here in town and I'mgrateful to that.
(31:51):
We got, you know, theoff-the-hook came in here and
it's been a plus, and we gotmore stuff looking to come, it's
been good.
Yeah yeah, benny's is on theworks.
I know they're waiting on Bakerto kind of get finished there,
but they're coming.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
No, they didn't give up, huh.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Not.
I talk to the family every timeI see them at a meeting.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Good yeah, where is it?
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah, yeah, and then I think other things will jump
off after that around town.
I know that there's a piece ofproperty that Susie Gautreaux is
trying to get in right there in.
Ocasinic.
That's going to be a plus forus and we're working on some
other stuff, a 14-acre tractright there.
Right by the law office.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Right there, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
And then we try.
I think it might be a welcomebarbecue or something like that.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Oh, wow, that's a deep track.
It goes all the way back toBreck.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, yeah, it's nice and we like to.
You know we got I met with aproperty owner or a business
owner and a baker the other dayand they wanted to come to
Zachary T&T Smokehouse.
I mean they got some good smokeuh barbecue here and you know
we we've had them at a couple ofevents and bring it.
Yeah, I mean we're trying toget you know we're recruiting
(32:53):
and and we uh, my economicdevelopment is recruiting,
working hard, trying to getpeople here.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
You know.
Well, a big shout out to y'allfor attending ICSC.
That's something that that alot of you know non-com
commercial real estate folksdon't don't pick up on.
But y'all are traveling to tothe states where the retailers
are, are meeting with brokersand y'all are setting up your,
your uh stand as a city.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I mean that's, that's incredible, yeah if you go down
and you tell them hey look, youknow, we had one of the best
schools districts.
We've been 16 years number one.
We got a 50 million dollarexpansion going on lane hospital
.
Your fire department's got anumber one rating which saves
you on homeowners insurance,business insurance.
I mean that's important, yougot crime here, but it's low
crime.
I mean you got it here, you gotit's everywhere.
(33:38):
I mean, but it's here, I meanyou got.
You know, when you sell that tothem and they ride through
zachary and see how clean it is,how people work together and
make Zachary happen, look at theschool system and academic, but
also the sports of our schoolsystem.
You go down, you've got sportsat the elementary schools now.
(33:58):
We didn't have that when I washere in the early 70s and 80s
but I mean that's how Zacharyhas progressed and people are
looking for that.
I mean, when I travel all overthe United States playing ball,
I look at different things.
Well, look, number one how canI prove Zachary what?
do they got.
I want in Zachary.
I look at all that.
You know a lot of people.
Well, we want to target.
(34:18):
Well, a lot of these businessesain't going to come here unless
you've got 30,000 moreresidents.
Yeah, it's a formula and theylook at it.
They do their homework, theycan tell by cell phone visits
and they do everything.
I mean they can get it down toa size.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
They don't even really need to be in the city to
make that decision.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Yeah, and I mean we've had some great talks with
a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
It's just, you know, I think Not there yet, yeah, and
you know they'll, and we'llhave some more.
I think getting part of 61 inis going to be a plus for us
Critical, critical I think withthat major US highway coming
through there, I think it'sgoing to open up some
possibilities for us down theline.
You've got to think about thefuture and that's why I say
let's go out to the MississippiRiver, take it in, look at
(35:08):
Georgia Pacific, look at thelandowners to the left and right
out there.
You still wouldn't have to hiremore officers because you've got
three or four houses out there.
Now you'd have to go out thereon a police issue which is
Georgia Pacific, but the firedepartment already covers that
out there.
They work together with GeorgiaPacific Fire Brigade, so they
work together on stuff out theretogether.
So you still again, youwouldn't have to hire more
police officers Now if you gonorth from Flanagan Road up to
(35:31):
the Parrish line.
yeah, with Sunnyside and BeaverCreek area you'd have to hire
some more, and we have peopleI've talked about wanting to
come into the city limits ofZachary.
We'll have to look at that, butwe have to get that
infrastructure in place, whetherit's water tower, gas
transmission lines, sewer gas,water in that area.
(35:51):
So, yeah, we're working on allthat, All right.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Last big question for you, Just as somebody who likes
to run and play a lot thediversion canal has a really
pretty levee.
Is that something that peoplecan walk on at any point.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
That's something.
I'm going to tell you what myplan is.
I don't know who to happen, uh,and we'll see who they turn.
I'd like to make that a neweast and west highway that's a
roadbed there.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
A roadbed, yeah, at the bottom of the levee.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, right, it runs all the way up to plank road.
Yeah no brainer we need to lookat, maybe to help us relieve
some traffic in town here.
Yeah, we got other areas we canlook at again it's about money,
yeah and I think hopefully theuh, the legislator that will
prioritize and throw some moremoney at dotd and fix some of
these streets.
I mean, I think, it's importantwith growth, you got to do
(36:40):
something yeah, it'll takepressure off of main street.
Yeah, it will and you can makeit more walkability yeah, you
know where people can get arounddo some things downtown.
I mean, I went to ribbon cuttingtoday at best, best company
boutique.
It's nice place in there it'swonderful one in there and it's,
you know, like, hey, it's nicein here, you can go shop there.
You ain't got a little batonrouge, you can shop here.
(37:00):
It's got blue jean.
It's a lady's store but theygot plenty of stuff and there
was ladies in there shopping,yeah you know.
But so things like that, youcoming to Zachary is a plus.
I mean, we had Empire Wingscome in here the other day.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
That's the one that's got people buzzing right now.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
I'm telling you I've had their honey barbecue wings
and they're good.
I know they were down atSouthern University.
I mean this is something youcan run in there and grab you
some chicken wings for a partyor a football event or whatever
it may be.
They got some good fries andother stuff.
You can't beat that, you know,and every time I passed by
they've been busy.
Yep, I mean so it's a plus.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
I mean I see people walking.
Uh, you know you're notsupposed to walk on the train
tracks, but they walk fromempire down the train track and
everybody's got the little whitebox from empire wings now.
So I know it's, it's great, Imean it's, uh, it's a plus for
zach yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
And so that's our goal is to bring in, you know,
economic development, bring somesales tax so we can make sure
we maintain our infrastructures,our fire and police and all
that is dependent on that, andthat's important that you
continue to maintain that as wegrow.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
All right Well let's leave it there.
You know we highlight the bestof Zachary with everything that
we do and I know we're very wellaligned with the city on that.
So continue to do your goodwork, mayor, and we send you
some prayers and you know we gotyour back.
That is it for this episode ofPorch and Parish, the podcast.
(38:25):
You can catch us most everyweek.
I know I've been a little bitsporadic We've had some
technical difficulties lately,but what you got, man, I just
want to let you know our themefor this year Thriving 25.
I like it.
Okay, we can spread that.
Can we get the sticker Thriving25.
Let's leave it there and we'llsee you next time.
Thank you, america, america.
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