Hanagriff stays out of parish president pay talk

Parish President David Hanagriff excused himself from discussion of possible amendments to the St. Mary Parish Home Rule Charter in a special meeting of the parish council Wednesday.
“Part of tonight’s discussion will be about paying a parish president a full-time salary for a full-time position,” Hanagriff said. “As parish president, I am running next term if the salary’s zero, if it’s $12,000, if it’s $50,000 or whatever this parish council and the people of St. Mary decide it should be.”
Hanagriff said he does not feel he should be part of the discussion and would not attend the meeting. But he suggested, “In Iberia Parish the parish president can run for three terms and three terms only, and that’s it. He can never run again. I like that aspect, primarily because I’m not about big government. I’m a businessman first and foremost and I don’t like the idea of making a full-time position with a larger salary.”
He said he also has “issues” with the parish retirement system and across the nation “where everybody’s getting these large retirements…if you’re restricted to three terms you won’t have this big retirement you have to pay for.”