Charter amendment, School Board seat on Saturday ballot

St. Mary Parish voters will go to the polls Saturday to decide the fate of a pay raise for the next parish president and, in the western parish, to pick a School Board member.

Polls will be open 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday. Bring a photo ID to your voting place.

Parishwide, voters will choose whether the parish president’s salary should be increased to average of the salaries for the mayors in the five St. Mary municipalities.

Currently, the parish president gets $12,000 per year, unchanged since the home rule charter was adopted 40 years ago.

The average compensation among the mayors is just more than $49,000. Mayoral salaries range from $36,000 in Baldwin to $63,000 in Morgan City.

Parish Councilman J Ina presented the proposed amendment as a step toward making the parish president’s post a full-time job. He also argued that paying an adequate salary would make the system more fair by opening the job to more people.

Current Parish President David Hanagriff made a pitch for the amendment at Wednesday’s Parish Council meeting.

“This is about adjusting for inflation,” Hanagriff said. “This is about making it livable.”

He was quick to point out that the raise wouldn’t take effect until after the current term.

“This is not a pay raise for David Hanagriff,” he said. “I am termed out. I’m promoting this for whoever runs for parish president.”

St. Mary Chamber President Beth Chiasson sent an email letter Friday supporting the amendment.

"Our Parish deserves to be represented well by a Parish President who is paid appropriately for their position and the work that they do," Chiasson wrote.

In School Board District 4, interim member Debra R. Jones is being challenged by Mark R. Romero. Both are from Franklin.

Jones was appointed as an interim member after Pearl Rack resigned her board seat after qualifying closed. Jones and Romero are running to serve nearly all of the remainder of the four-year term that started in January.

The Registrar of Voters Office reported that of the more than 31,000 registered voters in St. Mary, only 754 cast ballots during early voting March 11-18.