Meeting with council members is first on agenda

By KEVIN CHIRI

Editor and Publisher

LAPLACE – Newly-elected St. John Parish President Bill Hubbard stopped by L’Observateur’s office on Monday morning for an interview and quickly had to stop his cell phone from ringing.

It was only after 9 a.m. and he pulled the phone from its case, giving it a look.

“There’s about 60 calls already, I just checked,” he said with a quick smile.

No surprise for the man who came from nowhere to win a huge election on Saturday, in what was his first run for political office.

Not only was it surprising for anyone to win an election when he had never run for public office before, but equally impressive was the fact Hubbard decided to shoot for the top position in St. John Parish.

“I’m still in awe of the response we got,” he said. “But mostly I’m just very excited about what I think we can do here.”

Hubbard won’t take office until after his inauguration on January 14, 2008, so he has time to talk to people, consider changes he wants to make in his administration, and spend time setting his own agenda.

Leading that list is a one-on-one meeting with each person who will be on the St. John Council, where he will be challenged to get a consensus for key decisions, something many considered to be lacking in recent years.

Hubbard ran on a platform of running government more like a business, and had a slogan of “a businessman with a plan,” so the pressure will now be on to see if he can deliver.

“It’s all about developing personal relationships with the people you work with. It’s something I think I am good at due to my business background, and now it is something I plan to put to use working with council members,” he said. “It you don’t have the council supporting what you want to do, nothing can be accomplished.”

Hubbard didn’t even want to specify a lot of detail about his agenda, other than noting drainage will be the top of the list for many needed areas in the parish, and of course he expects the animal shelter decision, which has languished for years in front of the council, “to be an easy thing to get done.”

But the key to it all, he reiterated, is to make sure each council person is on board.

“The way to do that is to meet with each one, find out what they need in their district, and help them get that accomplished first,” he said. “When they get what they need, I can get what I think is important for the whole parish.”

Some current administration members for Parish President Nickie Monica are undoubtedly wondering if they will retain their jobs, since Hubbard now has the power to replace any department heads or directors of departments that he has.

That includes such positions as Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Financial Officer, head of Economic Development, Public Works, Planning and more.

But Hubbard said he expects many department heads to remain the same, after he conducts interviews with each one.

“I know we have a lot of good people in key positions, and they will stay. I don’t have any plans to clean house,” he said. “But I plan to interview each director, and then make my recommendations if there will be any changes. Of course any of this needs council approval.”

Hubbard said that during his campaign there were many rumors about him bringing in a whole new set of directors, as well as the usual rumors of deals that had been made for people to get jobs. But he had promised during the campaign with published material that he was not going to make those decisions unless he was elected.

“During the campaign there was a lot of talk about what we had already prioritized to come in,” he said. “It wasn’t true and I had to tell some people that they couldn’t be guaranteed certain jobs even though they asked for them. I just wasn’t going to do anything like that, and there were some people who didn’t support me because I had that position.”

Hubbard said that he spent “about $200,000” on the election from start to finish, and made a loan of $20,000 from his own money to the campaign at one point.

“I had said at the beginning that I wouldn’t use any of my own money for the campaign,” he said. “And in the end, I made one small loan, but that was all. The rest of the money was all contributions, and it came from people with a lot of money to a little. I was especially appreciative of things like ladies at the bowling alley who wrote out a check for $20. I know that for some people it was a big thing for them to help me in that way, and I really appreciated that.”

Hubbard said that his wife Sherry will be a key part of his work with the parish, and plans to be involved in ribbon cuttings throughout the parish, as well as public events.

“She’s going to be like the Laura Bush of St. John Parish,” he said. “I like the fact that she will be involved with me.”

Hubbard’s business of Hubbard Enterprises will now be something he will put to the sideline, with a business partner handling the vast majority of the duties.

Last year Hubbard had over $3 million in St. John contracts, but for the next four years his company will not be allowed to bid on anything.

“That’s not as big a deal as some people made it out to be,” he said. “My partner is great and I have hardly been doing much with my business for the last six months since this campaign began. We only did about 4 percent of our business in St. John anyway, so it won’t be such a big deal to not bid here now. I know the parish president job is a full-time position and that’s certainly what this will now become for me.”

As for the future of the parish, Hubbard said he doesn’t see St. John as a place where explosive growth is coming to.

“We’re in a position to grow, but I don’t see it to be extremely fast,” he said. “So the things we have to do is manage what we have, make sure we have a plan for what will come here, and then our market will just naturally draw people.”

For the “businessman with a plan,” it will be something St. John residents are watching closely to see how the new parish president handles.

“It’s all about relationships with people, and that’s how you get things done. I think my background has prepared me for this, and that’s why I think you will see things getting done here now,” he added.