After 10 years of service on the St. Charles Parish Council, Calyton “Snookie” Faucheux Jr. has announced he will step down from his seat.
Faucheux, 54, said he plans on the Nov. 4 Parish Council meeting being his last.
“I will probably send the notice to the Secretary of State right after that meeting,” he said.
The second baby born in St. Charles Parish Hospital, Faucheux has lived in the area his entire life and said deciding to move away was hard.
“Considering I have been there my whole life, of course there is a side of me that is very nostalgic,” he said. “I mean my grandparents graduated from Hahnville High School and my own children graduated from Destrehan High School. Leaving there is definitely a nostalgic thing, but on the other hand I am very excited about the opportunities that lay before me.”
An 18-year veteran of Shell, Faucheux was offered a promotion to become the environmental field representative for onshore drilling for Shell and will be based in an office near Shreveport in the town of Mansfield.
For the last two months, he has been commuting from Mansfield to St. Charles Parish for council functions, including budget hearings, but he will permanently relocate to Mansfield as soon as he steps down from the council. Faucheux said he has enjoyed serving St. Charles Parish, but he couldn’t turn down this business opportunity.
“Unfortunately, politics does not pay enough money for me to not look for business opportunities,” he said.
The Faucheux name has been a fixture in St. Charles Parish politics for years with Snookie’s grandfather serving as a police juror and his father serving as a police juror and councilman.
First elected as Councilman at Large Division B in 2000, Faucheux served back-to-back terms until 2008 when he ran unsuccessfully for parish president against current Parish President V.J. St. Pierre. In 2011, he was reelected as Councilman at Large Division B.
Throughout his years on the Parish Council, Faucheux has been working on the West Bank hurricane protection levee and is happy that in his final term he helped lay the foundation for upcoming construction on part of that flood protection system.
Faucheux said that’s what he would like to be remembered for the most.
“We have had a lot of obstacles to the West Bank levee, but we persevered,” he said. “I would also like to be known as a leader on the council and representing the people of St. Charles Parish,” he said.
Faucheux said although he is happy to see movement in flood protection for the parish, he is disconcerted to be leaving at a time when the area faces impending flood insurance rate hikes with the implementation of the Biggert-Waters Act.
“Except of the actual threat of hurricane and widespread flooding itself, nothing has had the impact that Biggert-Waters will have. I can probably say that to many areas of the country that no single piece of legislation will have the impact on communities that Biggert-Waters will,” he said.
Although he has no plans on running for elected office in Caddo Parish, where Mansfield is located, Faucheux does plan on attending council meetings to warn of the dangers of the Biggert-Waters Act.
Now that his time serving the area has come to an end, Faucheux is thankful to the voters who have put their faith in him over the years.
“I’d just like to thank the people of St. Charles Parish for having the faith to elect me for my third term and I hope they feel that I have served them well,” he said.
Faucheux said he has talked with former Councilman Billy Raymond about taking over his seat until a special election could be held in late March or early April 2014.
Though Faucheux has gauged Raymond’s interest in returning to politics, the replacement would have to be approved by the Parish Council.
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