New tourism director earns council praise

There was a distinct note of change in the air at the March 2 St. Martin Parish Council meeting. It was the last for Laci Laperouse as council clerk.
Past council members and family joined the current council, President Chester Cedars and others to say farewell but not goodbye to the popular 11-year council clerk. Laperouse will now make the move to her new position as director of a revamped Parish Tourism Office.
Laperouse said, “I have too many people to thank individualy, but I’m deeply appreciative to everyone I worked with for helping me grow, and President (Chester) Cedars for believing in me even when I didn’t.”
The council confirmed the appointment of her replacement, Brooke Gillespie, about whom Laperouse commented, “We made a hell of a team. I just wish everyone had a Brooke.”
Among those commenting about Laperouse’s tenure were past council member/presidents Lisa Nelson and Jason Willis. Nelson said, “Everything we ever asked, you did it. Not tomorrow, but today.”
Willis added, “Pick up the phone and she was there. She made us all look good.”
Council member Tangie Narcisse was a schoolmate and friend of Laci’s since childhood. She said, “She made it so much easier to work through the things I didn’t know.”
And Councilman Chris Tauzin commented, “She made our job way too easy.”
Cedars concluded his own comments by saying, “I look forward to a long relationship with Laci. She brings a real sense of excitement to everything she does.”

Reapportionment
As governments throughout the country prepare to receive results of the 2020 Census, district reapportionment is on most agendas.
As with the 2010 reapportionment, the parish engaged the services of Mike Hefner of Geographic Planning and Demographic Services LLC to manage the process. Hefner said that distribution of census data has repeatedly been delayed by the COVID-19 crisis. The U.S. Census Bureau now estimates that state and local entities can expect to receive the results around late July or early August.
Population changes uncovered by the once-per-decade head count are usually accompanied by the need to redraw district lines to maintain similar populations in each district and accomplish other governmental goals related to equal representation.
Among the criteria that must be considered during the process, Hefner said, are compactness and contiguousness of districts, consideration of “communities of interest,” such as ensuring that racial minority representation is not weakened, and making sure the process is free of any political agenda.
By the time the data is released, the parish will have nominees chosen from each district to sit on the required reapportionment commission which will work with Hefner during the process. By coupling the parish contract with that for the school board, both entities will save on the expenses, he said. Hefner added that all meetings related to reapportionment will be open to the public. The results can have far-reaching impacts, “and it’s actually a very interesting process,” he commented.