Committee recommends new planning commissioners
GONZALES — Eatel’s former president and a previous Ascension public school superintendent were the top-ranked applicants recommended for seats on the reshuffled parish Planning and Zoning Commission.
After two days of interviews of 24 candidates, the Parish Council Personnel Committee selected 10 candidates Tuesday night to fill the seven commission seats with three alternates.
In December, members of the outgoing Parish Council, which appoints commissioners, cleaned out the commission. The council removed all nine commissioners and shrank the body’s size to seven members amid public controversy.
None of the former commissioners who sought their old jobs were among the committee’s selections late Tuesday night. If the recommendations hold on Tuesday when the full council considers them, the commission would start its work with no past members.
The Personnel Committee recommendation came in the form of a ranking of the top 10 candidates only.
Under a motion from Council Chairman Chris Loar, who sits on the Personnel Committee, the top four ranked candidates will get two-year terms and the next three will get one-year terms.
Under the changes the council enacted in December, the terms of commissioners were reduced from four years to two years or one year.
The applicants, listed based on their ranking, are:
- Robert Burgess, of Prairieville, former president and chief operating officer of Eatel, with 38 points.
- Donald Songy, of Prairieville, former superintendent of Ascension Parish public schools, with 36 points.
- Jackie Callender, of Geismar, retired U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program manager, with 32 points.
- Morrie Alec Bishop, of St. Amant, president of The Gonzales Weekly, former vice president of the Bank of Gonzales, a lawyer practicing in New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, Miss., and manager of family farming and real estate interests, with 25 points.
- Gasper Chifici, of Geismar, a Donaldsonville native who is a civil engineer with experience in water and wastewater systems, with 24 points.
- Paul J. Nizzo, of Gonzales, a Donaldsonville native who was past chairman of the now-defunct West Ascension Recreation Board, former deputy sheriff and a CF Industries employee, with 23 points.
- Joshua Ory, of Gonzales, a draftsman for the engineering firm Forte and Tablada of Baton Rouge, with 15 points.
- Roy Domangue, of Gonzales, a home builder active with state and regional builders groups, including past president of Capital Region Builders Association, with 11 points.
- Dean Esposito, of Prairieville, a lawyer working for a Baton Rouge firm, with 5 points.
- Joshua Williams, of St. Amant, a specialist with Marathon Petroleum Co. who works on turnaround planning, with 4 points.
“It’s a good group,” Loar said after the council clerks announced the top 10.
Parish President Tommy Martinez said in an interview Wednesday he would have liked to see former Commissioner Julio Dumas return to the panel, but said it was the council’s decision to make.
“You know, I guess the ones that they nominated seemed like they do have some leadership abilities, so I don’t know. We’ll see,” Martinez said, making a pointed understatement.
Individual top 10 rankings were produced by council committee members Loar, Kent Schexnaydre, Teri Casso and Travis Turner on tally sheets. Those individual scores were then aggregated Tuesday night to develop the top 10 list.
Committee Chairman Todd Lambert also ranked candidates, but his ranking was not used. Lambert said his ranking was to be used only if there were a tie.
Turner missed roughly half of the candidate interviews on Monday due to a previous engagement but was present for all of them Tuesday.
Three candidates who initially said they were applying for the openings dropped out before interviews, including two former commissioners, parish officials said.
Also, three late additions were added to the final stack of 22 applications on Monday but one of those additions also dropped out before she was interviewed late Tuesday night, leaving 24.
Others who interviewed for the post were former Commissioners Milton Clouatre Jr., Howard Dalton, Dumas, John “J.B.” Esnard Jr. and Michael Marchand.
Also interviewing were former Parish Councilwoman Cheryl Fontenot, community activist Kathryn Goppelt, former Delta Airlines employee Harold Henkel, retired police Officer Coral “C.J.” Lambert, civil engineer David Laurent Jr., Excel project manager Randal LeBlanc, former J.C. Penney public relations employee Margaret Mayers, homemaker and former human resources executive Kristyn Starkovich and BASF production leader Tim Theriot.