You never ran for mayor

Your story reminds me of the Mayor named J. Allen Daigre of New Iberia when I was growing up.
His philosophy was simple. He didn't need money because he had already made lots. He wouldn't spend money on ads for re-election because he didn't care if he won. He never made public speeches. He just presided over city council meetings to make policy and if you didn't like him just don't vote for him.
He stayed in office until he was too old to walk.

Those politicians are long gone.

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Curious to hear your take on how Gitz did as Mayor.

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Well, it wasn't Madisonville that wanted my grandpa to run. It was Abita. But anyway, I know Mr. Pete and he is an all right guy. He grew up with my grandfather; they were neighbors when they were kids. As far as I could tell, he wanted to keep Madisonville small. I didn't move here on a permanent basis until 2004. Towards the end, he was getting fed up with it all. He told me he spent more time in court more than anything, because people were always suing the town for petty shite, like getting a sprained ankle at the boat festival. Then he got beat up at Badeauxs. He just decided to sell the place, quit politics, and retire. I didn't blame him.

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Ray Gitz taught me “Industrial Arts

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Mr. Ray is a good guy too. He built a back deck for my grandparents back in the early 90’s. Solid work. I see him from time to time but he is in poor health and has dementia.

Not sure how it works in other states but in Texas, most local elected positions are unpaid except for the large cities. Even the positions in large cities receive a very small salary - Fort Worth for example, city council members each receive $25,000 annually and the mayor receives $29,000. With amount of time expected for meetings, public events, meeting with constituents, these positions are close to a full time job. They don’t quite require 40 hours/week, but the schedule flexibility required would make holding another job difficult.

It becomes a double edged sword - citizens understandably don’t want to pay local elected officials high salaries but the pay is so low that only those who are independently wealthy, own their own business at a stage where they don’t have to be hands-on daily to keep it running, or are retired are able to afford to hold these positions. Do those people represent the majority of their constituents?


In my view, the solution is to drastically cut back on all the “fluff” required of these positions and make them a 10-15 hour commitment/month max. That’s a more reasonable volunteer time commitment that would allow the average hourly/salary worker to hold these positions.

LINK to article about FW voters saying no (again) to council pay raises. It also mentions salaries of elected officials in other cities.