Mayor candidates with varied experience meet for forum

One has 20 years of government experience on the St. Mary Parish Council. One built a Morgan City business that employs 190-200 people. Another is making his first bid for public office after working for decades in a highly technical field.

They're the men who are running to become Morgan City's mayor. Voters got a look at them side by side in a KWBJ YouTube livestream Wednesday, a last look before early voting begins Friday. Early voting runs through Oct. 27, excluding Sundays. Election Day is Nov. 3.

The political newcomer is Don Hicks, a Vietnam veteran as well as a veteran of Entergy's commercial nuclear power program.

Hicks said Morgan City should take advantage of its assets, including the highway and commercial waterways.

"I would go in and try to build on what we've got and make it better," Hicks said.

Lee Dragna is a former chairman of the Consolidated Gravity Drainage District No. 2 board, In the private sector, he built LAD Services by diversifying its barge-building operations.

"I got out of Morgan City into the world and brought the money back," Dragna said.

Kevin Voisin is the former Parish Council member who said Morgan City's economic challenges require experience beginning with inauguration.

"There will be no apprenticeship or on-the-job training," Voisin said.

Highlights from the forum:

--Economic diversification. Dragna pointed to his own experience with LAD again, saying the company went into areas such as repairs, and even performed some work for the SpaceX effort.

Diversification means building a base beyond the oil and gas industry, he said. "Without new industry, Morgan City will not survive," Dragna said.

Hicks talked about the need to make contacts with business and industry .

Voisin said that as a Parish Council member he helped make infrastructure improvements happen on Industrial Road and Levee Road. It's important to work with the parish economic development director who will succeed Frank Fink next year.

"I'm not going to sit behind a desk in City Hall," Voisin said.

The one real instance of head-to-head disagreement in the forum came after Dragna said Morgan City needs "to fend for itself" on economic development. "Morgan City needs to go out on its own," Dragna said.

Hicks disagreed, saying the city should work with parish and state officials. "They have the resources we don't," Hicks said.

--The health of local businesses. Business people tell Hicks what their biggest need is. "They need customers," he said.

They also need reliable infrastructure and utilities, Hicks said. He'd like to see more effort to promote tourism, bringing people into the area, and more encouragement of training for local people in trade schools and college.

Morgan City's brand as a city is being an oil and gas town, Dragna said. "Morgan City needs to be branded in a different way."

Voisin hopes to promote collaboration among groups such as Morgan City Main Street; St. Mary Excel, which commissioned a study on development opportunities in Morgan City and Berwick; and the Cajun Coast Convention and Tourism Commission. He said he wants to visit small businesses in his first 30 days in office.

--Housing. Voisin suggested look at ways to support housing development with bonds as Berwick did with the Renwick Subdivision and to encourage development by Morgan City's Hellenic Corp. Dragna also wants a look at the Renwick example and said he worked with Hellenic during his time on the drainage district board.

"We need to allow Hellenic to finish what they started," Dragna said.

Hicks focused on the need to rehabilitate existing homes in need of repair. Otherwise, he believes, new construction will result in an increase in the number of unoccupied homes. He said 57% of the city's homes are owner-occupied, 34% are rentals and 14% are unoccupied.

-Things to do for young and old. Dragna said the focus of city recreation should go beyond sports, maybe with offerings for young people interested in technology. There should be a central place for adults and teens to enjoy.

Both Dragna and Hicks said the city needs a new swimming pool.

Promoting tourism would help Morgan City, Hicks said. "By increasing tourism, we're creating opportunities for everybody, not just the people coming in," Hicks said.

Hicks believes the city needs a teen center.

--A clean city and blighted property. A question relayed by moderator Danika Foley asked why Morgan City hasn't won a Clean City contest since 2010.

There are limits on litter enforcement, Hicks said. But the city could help itself by fixing sidewalks and potholes He suggested that community service requirements for offenders should include cleaning up litter.

"When you drive into the city, it's dirty and it's not kept up," Hicks said.

Voisiin likes the community service idea and wants to use jail trustee labor for cleaning up. He'd also like to see the return of the Morgan City Garden Club, and would ask restaurants to make sure trash receptacles are available near their drive-throughs.

Dragna said the city government doesn't set a good example, allowing weeds to grow around signs, for example.

"We have to get the people of the city involved," Dragna said. "It's their city. It's our city."

Blighted property may be a tougher problem, again because laws are hard to enforce.

Voisin talked about addressing absentee landowners and trying to get shopping centers to remove signs promoting defunct business.

"We need to enforce those ordinances," Dragna said. And grants are available to improve disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Hicks said he's been told by planning and zoning officials that there's little the city can do. But other cities have been more successful, he said.