Authement, Troxler battle it out for assessor
Elections for Clerk of Court and the Assessor’s Office in October will pit a 30-year incumbent against two local professionals and a parish councilman against a former parish emergency director.
While current Assessor Clyde “Rock” Gisclair gave no comment as to whether he plans to run for reelection, two experienced parishioners are vying for his seat.
Tab Troxler was the parish’s Director of Emergency Preparedness for 12 years, including the time when Hurricane Katrina hit.
“I was the parish official who took us through Hurricane Katrina – I’m proud of my records and I’m proud of what we could do for people,” Troxler said.
Troxler said he hopes to get the parish’s youth involved in and excited about the election.
“I think it’s important that we get some young folks involved in the electoral process,” he said.
Troxler, a lifelong resident of the parish, is a first-time candidate for public office.
His platform includes promoting the use of online services from the Assessor’s Office while still providing personal service to office visitors.
Running against him is current Councilman-At-Large Terry Authement.
Authement believes that his time on the Parish Council and experience in management and with major corporations from previous careers make him the ideal candidate.
“In my opinion, I don’t need a job but I see a job that needs to be done,” he said.
Authement said he hopes to modernize the office by utilizing current technology.
“The office does an excellent job, but I want to bring in the technology to create a Web page and work with our parish…to modernize the office so that it’s more accessible to people that can go online,” he said. He also hopes that by utilizing technology he can reduce the office’s paper consumption, and therefore costs.
St. Charles natives Lance Marino and Fenwick Swann are also running on platforms of modernization, but for the Clerk of Court. The two are up against incumbent Charlie Oubre, 81, who is running for his tenth term in office.
Since he was first elected in 1978, Oubre said he has brought many positive changes to the office, including the use of computers and hiring more than three times as many employees to the office compared to when he first took over as Clerk of Court.
“I want to continue to serve the citizens of St. Charles Parish,” Oubre said. “I feel that my experienced staff and I maintained the office on a high level of efficiency and I would like the opportunity to continue. I also enjoy meeting and assisting the public with their needs.”
Oubre said many of his employees have been with him for more than 20 years and he wants to make sure they are protected.
Lance Marino is an experienced Parish Council member and insurance broker out of Norco. He hopes to usher in an “era of modernization” at the clerk’s office, including the creation of a Web site, e-mail communications and online access of public records.
“I’m looking forward to another opportunity to serve,” Marino said. “I see the challenge in updating and modernizing the clerk’s office.”
Running against him is Luling attorney Fenwick Swann.
Swann works with the Public Defender’s Office and is a National Guard veteran.
If elected, Swann also has plans to modernize the clerk’s office.
“At present, the clerk’s office under-utilizes information technology – I want to see St. Charles Parish keep pace with the innovations in document handling and electronic access to public information,” Swann said. “After practicing law in St. Charles Parish for more than a decade, I have used the clerk’s office on a near-daily basis and I am motivated to improve our parish’s critical legal information storehouse.”
This is the second in a series of articles on local elections that will appear in the Herald-Guide. If anyone plans on running for the council or for parish president in October, please notify either Jonathan Menard or Michelle Stuckey at (985)758-2795 or send an email to editor@heraldguide.com as soon as possible.
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