Allain gets behind revisions for St. Mary charter

Former state Sen. Bret Allain looked back Wednesday on some legislative accomplishments, many of them infrastructure improvements, while raising some red flags about the state of St. Mary Parish.
And then he got behind the effort to review the parish’s home rule charter, with a particular focus on making the parish presidency a full-time position.
“Shame on us if we don’t create an opportunity for our kids and grandkids to stay here,” Allain, R-Franklin, said at St. Mary Chamber luncheon Wednesday at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City.
Allain added to what looks like increasing momentum for major charter revisions.
Former state Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, won the race for parish president in October on a platform that included making the post full-time for his successors.
The job pays $12,000 a year, as it has for the four decades since the charter was ratified. In March 2023, St. Mary voters rejected a charter amendment proposed by Parish Councilman J Ina of Franklin to raise the parish president’s salary to the average of the salaries of the mayors of the five St. Mary municipalities, a step toward making the job full-time.
The amendment would have raised the president’s salary close to $50,000. The goal was to have a full-time president to provide full-time leadership, especially in economic development.
On Wednesday, Allain used some of the same talking points employed by Ina and Jones. The region’s other parishes have full-time presidents making $100,000 to $140,000 per year, Allain said.
He asked the audience to consider a private company with a $39 million budget, the size of the parish government budget.
“They don’t pay their CEO $12,000 a year,” Allain said. And: “You get what you pay for.”
The former senator said his remarks weren’t about the job recent presidents have done.
“It’s the structure that needs to be improved,” he said.
The charter has also come under fire, especially from Ina and Councilman the Rev. Craig Mathews, for limiting council leadership positions to members elected from the three at-large districts. Ina had also proposed, unsuccessfully, adopting the districts used by the School Board.
The 11-member School Board currently has four African American members to represent a parish population that is roughly one-third Black. The Parish Council also has 11 members, but only two of them are Black.
The council recently voted in favor of resurrecting a charter view committee, although it has yet to appoint members to the panel.
Allain, who stepped down in January after 12 years as District 21’s state senator, rose to chair the Senate’s Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee in his last term.
He pointed to accomplishments including funding for the $80 million Bayou Chene Flood Control Project, $50 million in funding to paint and rehabilitate the two bridges over Berwick Bay, and persuading the Department of Transportation and Development to put off building new overpasses on U.S. 90 until the bumpy highway can be smoothed over between Lafayette and the Calumet Cut.
Allain also pointed to some worrying statistics.
St. Mary Parish had the lowest population growth in the region 1940-2020, he said. The parish has only about 600 more residents than it had in 1960.
The average family income for parishes in the region is $69,000. In St. Mary, it’s $55,000.
And in educational attainment, 33% of the adults in Lafayette Parish have at least a bachelor’s degree. In St. Mary, the figure is 12%.
“We need to attract and be a hub for business,” Allain said. “We have a lot of assets others don’t have.”
Also at Wednesday's luncheon,Debbie Stevens of the East St. Mary Kiwanis was named Administrative Assistant of the Month.
The Business of the Month is Paul's Agency, an insurance provider with a history that goes back to 1901.