Mayoral candidates present platforms at Rotary

Incumbent Franklin City Councilman Eugene Foulcard and former councilman Jimmie Daniel II, both candidates for Mayor of Franklin, spoke to the Franklin Rotary Club Tuesday at the Forest restaurant, providing Rotarians with the first glimpse of the candidates’ platforms.
Foulcard gave the first address, saying, “Our city, our voice, and your vote. My name is Eugene Foulcard and I’m running for Franklin. I’m not running against a particular person. I’m running to improve Franklin and move us in a different direction.”
He went on to say that he believes he has plateaued as a councilman in Franklin, as far as having done all he can possibly do from that perspective, and that he feels he has a unique skillset to move Franklin forward.
He said, “I’m hard-working, accomplished and I have been involved in a number of civic activities throughout Franklin for a number of years. I’m a lifelong resident of Franklin. I was born here, raised here, and I am still here.”
Foulcard said he graduated from Southern University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and that his matriculation at SU was the only time he didn’t live in Franklin.
He described his family as “vested in Franklin’s future,” being the owners of a number of businesses here, and added, “I’m not going anywhere. I’m here for the long haul.”
He touted his years of service as chief financial officer for St. Mary Community Action Committee Association, having served in “various capacities” in his family’s businesses, and 13 years as a volunteer board member for Franklin Foundation Hospital, with three years as the chairman of said board.
Foulcard cited “economic development” as one of the concerns he intends to address if elected, saying, “I plan on being very, very aggressive in raising and managing the profile of the city of Franklin to be able to pursue businesses outside of the borders of Franklin, and retain the current businesses that we have in Franklin. I think that is key.”
He said that he believes people can be enticed to come to Franklin through the beautification of the city, as well as via aggressive marketing campaigns.
Foulcard also stated that he would address the city’s infrastructure difficulties by continuing with projects already in place, to fix the city’s roads, drainage and water issues.
He proposed working with the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce to hold job fairs in conjunction with Metal Shark and Gulf Craft, while additionally communicating with those companies to maintain a working knowledge of their needs.
Foulcard closed by saying, “I think we can turn the corner. I plan on having an open government and plan on having City Hall open for anyone to drop in anytime to come in and speak with me about any concerns they may have. I plan on making a difference.”
He yielded the podium to Daniel by calling him a very good friend, and referred to the both of their mothers as, “the nicest mothers in town.”
Daniel began with a synopsized autobiographical history, saying that he graduated from Franklin Senior High in 1988 and went to Mortuary School at Delgado Community College in New Orleans.
He then married his wife, Tiffany Daniel, and has three children with two grandchildren whom he calls, “great grandchildren, because they’re my grandchildren and they’re great.”
He said he has dedicated most of his time in Franklin to coaching baseball for 20-plus years at Caffrey Park, but that as his kids are now past the age for recreational sports at the park, he feels like moving on to other ventures is what he should do, too.
Of his call to run for Mayor, Daniel said, “Someone spoke with me about six months ago about running for mayor of Franklin, and ever since then it’s kind of been tugging on me, and I kept thinking about it, and I hadn’t really done anything about it, and then I dealt with it, and I finally decided to do it.”
Daniel pointed to his experience in service, having served as a Councilman from 2002 to 2006, under three separate mayors, saying he was proud to have done so.
“I always said that I wanted to come back and serve in a higher office,” Daniel said, “and that day is today. So, here I am.
“The worst thing about it is that I’m running against a friend of mine. That’s the only bad thing.”
Daniel told of having publicly served the Franklin community, in some form or fashion, for 28 years, marking in particular, his move from the mortuary business into the granite business in 2010, where he now works with his wife.
Of his professional life, Daniel said, “I had a vision, and I didn’t know it was going to be that prosperous or needed, but it was, and it turned out to be great. So, I’m serving the community in that industry.”
He said that in deciding to run for the office of mayor, he made up his mind that he would only carry through with it contingent on the approval of his wife and kids.
According to Daniel, his wife and daughter assented immediately to the proposition, with his son as the only holdout. He said his son asked him, “What’s wrong? You don’t like things the way they are now?” which, Daniel said, “hit me kind of hard.”
However, he revealed that by the end of the week, on the deadline day for qualifying to run, his son finally relented, and told him to run.
Daniel stated that he spoke with current Mayor Raymond Harris and that he agrees with much of the way Harris feels about the current state of revenue in Franklin.
“So, we understand that we have some hurdles that we have to jump over,” Daniel said, “the mayor, Mr. Foulcard and the rest of the council. And they’ve had to make some tough decisions. Back in 2005 they had to cut all city employees by five percent, and that’s a tough cut to do.
“I’m sure a lot of people in this room, having been in administration before, understand that that affected a lot of families, and that it was hard to get through. But, they did that.”
He said furthermore, that if he agreed with everything that was going on, he wouldn’t be running for mayor, and then named some of his grievances.
“Some other changes that they [the mayor and city council] had to do are—the roadside pickup for trash used to be free. Now, if you have debris, there’s a charge for that,” Daniel said, elaborating that he went over the council meeting’s minutes for the past two years and noticed, “that they increased our water bills, our water rates, our sewer bills, and these aren’t decisions that these guys wanted to make.”
He then pointed to the council’s approval of pay increases for the incoming mayor and council, authorized last year, wherein the mayor receives a purported 25 percent increase in salary, four district councilmen receive a purported 30 percent increase and the mayor pro tempore—a purported 40 percent increase.
“So, I understand that the council has been through some tough times and had to make some changes and increase our bills,” Daniel said, “but I don’t believe that then their wages should be coming up, whether it be mine or Mr. Eugene’s… 25, 30 and 40 percent… I’ve worked my whole life and I never got more than a three percent raise.”
He explained that Mayor Harris, at the time of the vote to increase their wages, told the council that he did not believe that it was the right time for their wage increases. He said of Harris, “He understood that the mayor and the councilmen hadn’t had their pay increased in a long time. But, he also understood that they have other jobs, and that this is supplemental pay for them.
“They should have to stick it out with the rest of the citizens for as long as the hard times last.”
Daniel expressed that not only does the city have to live within its budget, but that the raises in pay for the council and mayor must pull funds from other departments, because of that budget.
“We all have the same things we want out of living in Franklin,” Daniel said. “We all want the same end result—we may have different ways of getting there, but I feel fortunate that we have all these guys out there giving of their time, their lives, and giving of their families.”
Daniel closed by saying, “We can move Franklin forward to a brighter future, and I’ll tell you what… that guy that I talked to, about six months ago, about running… that was Jesus Christ. He told me to do it, and I honestly believe that.”
He said that he believes that through Christ, all things are possible, and thanked Rotarians for their time.