Discover Lafayette

Sally Scott Creed, a Licensed Professional Counselor who recently released the book, “For Crying Out Loud, The Benefit of Emotional Tears and the Movies That Bring Them On” joins Discover Lafayette to talk about why tears are necessary for emotional health. Her book has been in the making since 1998 when she had an epiphany about the role of tears in human emotional health. Sally Creed discovered that “letting out tears is a great way to release hurt, sadness, or any intense feeling and help us stay balanced.”

Sally Creed’s book, “For Crying Out Loud,” provides a teaching tool as to (1) Why tears are necessary; (2) Why you need to allow your emotional tears to flow; (3) The best way to release your tears; and (4) A listing of 150 movies by ten categories (abandonment, childhood/family issues, grief and loss, tragedy and trauma, etc.) to help bring on the tears. The book is available on Amazon, Kindle, Walmart, and Barnes and Noble.

In practice for over thirty years, Sally specializes in play therapy with children as young as two years of age. She is also experienced in parenting issues, individual therapy for adolescents and adults, and grief and trauma issues.

As a young woman, Sally had always believed that people who cried were weak. But at a retirement party for a beloved professor in her department, she was the only one who wasn’t crying at the thought of losing this mentor. A supervisor confronted her and spoke of the importance of tears and dealing with life’s issues. Sally began to realize that she had used humor as a defense mechanism. And she was not alone; many people keep their emotions hidden by being the ‘jokester’ or are quiet and reserved, or rude and hateful toward others.

Sally’s practice originally revolved around adult clients. But when she started working with children, her work was revolutionized as she witnessed the raw honesty of children. Infants cry when they experience pain or frustration as it’s the only way they can express themselves. At some point, young ones learn to hold in their feelings or risk being labeled a crybaby. Sally says, “We are all grown children. And I learned that most people’s problems started when they were little. When you understand how children are taught to stuff their feelings and not talk about them, you realize that most adults you work with have had bad things happen to them when they were children. We all wear masks.”

Today, Sally Creed shares that “the saddest thing to me is that most adults have forgotten how to cry, or they do their best to suppress it, and the only emotion they will allow to surface is anger. I believe that expressing emotions through tears is a crucial part of our existence and helps us in not only emotional ways but also physical ways as well.”

And science backs up Sally’s professional opinion. The ability to cry emotionally is what separates the human race from the animal kingdom. Sally credits author William Frey and his book “Crying: The Mystery of Tears” for her understanding of the benefits of emotional tears. Frey did a study on two types of tears, irritant and emotional, and explained that while both animals and humans constantly produce a fluid called ‘basal’ or ‘continuous’ tears to keep the surface of the eye moist and prevent infection, only human emotional tears release a substance called manganese which has been implicated in mood alterations. Manganese is thirty times greater in tears than in blood serum. Sally says that “The reason people feel better after crying is that they may be removing chemicals that build up in their bodies during emotional stress. And sadly, as men do not cry as often as women, they develop many more stress-related diseases, and statistically, die earlier than women.

“I have learned to practice what I preach. I cannot stress enough the importance of emotional health. As someone who has made a career out of helping people regain their emotional health, I have learned the importance of crying it out when I get overwhelmed by life or my job.”

So, the premise of Sally’s book is that people feel better after they cry. And movies, those that tug on your heartstrings, are a great way to let it all out….to have a good cry, the kind of cry that makes you bawl! Over the years Sally has questioned each of her clients about what their favorite “cry movie” is. Her book is a delightful compilation of the 150 movies recommended by her clients when she asked which ones made them cry. Sally’s personal favorites are Steel Magnolias, Imitation of Life, and Black Beauty.

How do you know when you may need to cry? She says, “You will know. Anger outbursts are a good indicator that you’re holding in too many emotions and are in need of release.” Other symptoms, such as suffering relationships, feeling overwhelmed, always turning to tv/alcohol/internet, etc. are also indicators.

Sally prescribes “how to cry.” She recommends that you watch the movie alone; it is difficult to let it all hang out if someone else is around and you’re worried they may laugh at you. Make sure you won’t be interrupted. Sally watches late at night when she’s all alone. Turn off your phone and get a movie that is not interrupted by commercials that will kill your attempts to allow tears. Next, pause the movie when you get emotional so as not to break the mood. Sally recommends crying for at least five minutes and no more than twenty minutes as that is an adequate time to release the pent-up emotions inside.

A bit of sage advice for when you are around a friend or family member who is crying: just sit there in support; don’t hand them a Kleenex as “it implies that they should dry their eyes. No one means that but that’s the message.” Sally leaves several boxes of Kleenex around her office and lets her clients get one when they feel they need it.

If you have recommendations for other movies that should be included in Sally Creed’s work, please send her an email at [email protected].

We thank Sally Creed for this delightful book! It is a wonderful resource for great movies even if you don’t feel the need to cry. Check out sallycreed.com if you’d like more information about her Lafayette Christian Counseling practice.

Lori and Richard Hurst, owners of Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn, join Discover Lafayette to discuss their family business celebrating its 90th year in operation. Richard Hurst is a third-generation family member who has worked in the restaurant since he was four years old when he started peeling potatoes and shrimp.

Discover Lafayette is grateful for the support of Eat Lafayette and Lafayette Travel for the opportunity to highlight our local restaurants, starting with Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn this month!

Lori Hurst is the public spokesperson promoting locally owned restaurants, serving as 2022 Chair of Eat Lafayette. The “water girl” of Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn, Lori is passionate about sharing the many reasons we should all celebrate our Cajun culture.

Lori Hurst, chair of Eat Lafayette, says, “Restaurant people give so much back to the community. All those fundraisers…those are local restaurants supporting you. It’s so important to eat locally. Support our local economy. You’re missing out if you’re not experiencing our local restaurants. Lafayette has so much to offer!

The Hursts are carrying on the rich legacy of Hulo “Poor Boy” Landry, who started Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn in 1932. As the Hursts tell it, Hulo used to hang out with his uncle at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans where he learned to cook by working with the guys in the kitchen. During the Depression, everyone brought something to the pot to make a meal to feed a crowd. Lori Hurst says back then you either put something on bread or added water to it to make a gumbo. “Poor Boy sandwiches” were a delicious meal outcome that originated in New Orleans and Hulo took a liking to them. He brought the concept back to Lafayette.

After developing an allergy to flour while working for Evangeline Maid bread and having to find employment to take care of his family, Hulo Landry opened a snowball business selling three snowcones for 5 cents during the Depression. A man who liked to eat, he packed a huge ‘poor boy sandwich’ lunch as he left home each day to sell his wares. His customers soon clamored for these sandwiches that no one in Lafayette had ever seen. Soon loyal customers convinced him to add his unique poor boy sandwiches to the snowball cart menu. And one benefactor, Judge Kaliste Saloom, helped Hulo open his first small restaurant on St. John Street in Lafayette so that people could sit down together and socialize while they ate his delicious food.

Hulo Landry pictured in 1932 in his first business enterprise, his snowball stand, which was the genesis of Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn which has been in business for 90 years.

Success led Hulo to open up a larger restaurant in 1939 on the Vermilion River at Pinhook near the bridge. Originally known as Huff’s Riverside Inn when he purchased the property, Hulo renamed it “Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn” in recognition of the nickname given to him by his loyal patrons. The restaurant endured flood after flood, even the renowned flood of 1940 which closed it down for three months after the waters rose to the roof of the building. Lori Hurst recounted how Hulo had to abide by a city agreement to have his restaurant workers hand push the Pinhook Bridge open to accommodate water traffic throughout the day.

Hulo Landry’s tenacity for staying in business enabled Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn to remain open. It become the first air-conditioned restaurant in Lafayette. The restaurant enjoyed continuous success and upon Hulo’s early death in 1958, his son-in-law and daughter, Larry and Kathlyn Hurst, took over the management of Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn. They prospered on the same premise that brought success and respect from the community to Hulo Landry: quality in food and perfection in service.

In 1977, Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn moved to its present site in Broussard at 240 Tubing Road where every family member has worked in some capacity ever since.

Larry Hurst, Richard’s dad and the second-generation family member to run the restaurant, served as an ambassador for the Cajun Culture food revolution in the U. S. He taught a lot of famous chefs such as Paul Prudhomme to blacken redfish and top it off with crawfish. Lori Hurst says, “Mr. Larry was just a quiet country boy taking care of his family and wife. Chef Prudhomme was a natural showman and took off with the redfish concept. Mr. Larry was also the first to offer a lobster tank, to offer emu and alligator, and to serve crawfish etouffee. No one sold etouffee in a restaurant before Mr. Larry as it was more of a home-cooked dish in the 1960s. People had always boiled and peeled crawfish at home.”

Today, Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn has an extensive menu that includes the favorites of patrons throughout the years. Crabmeat Imperial is one of the oldest dishes on the menu and the Lump Crabmeat dish has been # 1 for over forty years. Lori Hurst loves the crabmeat dishes as they are filling and delicious! “No one else can rock a crabmeat dish like Richard Hurst!”

Speaking of crabmeat, prices have skyrocketed in the aftermath of COVID. Lori Hurst says, “People used to import seafood from China. The pressure is now on Louisiana to supply fresh crabmeat. Crabmeat has gone up in price by 500% for Riverside Inn. Louisiana has enough crab meat to supply the U. S. Louisiana does not need to import crabmeat. But people around the U. S. and the world are willing to pay anything to get their hands on Louisiana crabmeat. It’s just a matter of supply and demand. New Yorkers are now saying ‘this is so much better than imitation crabmeat. It’s a reality check of what’s been going on.”

Richard Hurst is now holding a baton that’s been carried for 90 years, according to Lori Hurst. This loving wife is proud of her husband and the legacy they sustain in offering Cajun food to all of us, both locals and those visiting Acadiana! Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn’s chefs make 98% of their food, sauces, condiments, and other offerings from scratch. You will not find a better place to experience truly authentic Cajun cuisine!

Lori Hurst is the proud chair of Eat Lafayette and stressed how local restaurants help each other out. If Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn is out of something, she can call and say, “Hey you got this?” And she says her restaurant reciprocates with others, never hesitating. “The camaraderie is touching,” Lori says, and further emphasizes: “It is so important to eat local. I am very passionate about eating local, and shopping locally. I want everyone who was born here to remember how blessed they are to have been born here. Other people who tour come here just to eat. You are missing out if you’re not experiencing our local restaurants. Lafayette has so much to offer.”

Lafayette, Louisiana offers a plethora of ‘mom-and-pop’ restaurants that serve delicious Cajun and Creole foods, among other cuisines. To get a flavor of all our region offers, visit https://www.lafayettetravel.com/eatlafayette/ to check out what may suit your palate!

For more information on Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn, please visit https://www.poorboysriversideinn.com/. We thank Lori and Richard Hurst for all they offer to our community!

Chris Gondran, Senior Vice President and Director of Information Security for Home Bank, guides us on how to protect ourselves from internet identity thieves.

Chris earned an MBA from UL – Lafayette and has earned several industry certifications in Information Systems Security. His career has been built on helping others keep their assets safe. We’re grateful to Home Bank for bringing us this much-needed message during Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

It seems so often we’re either getting bogus texts or emails from someone trying to hack our personal account data or reading about data breaches occurring while others fail to protect their customer databases. We can all agree that the days of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are long gone, yet criminals are still “robbing the bank” as we all find ourselves vulnerable to cyber security thieves!

Cybersecurity is the protection of digital information systems. Chris says he “likens it to anything connected to the internet. Emails, cloud applications, and or a wire transfer such as an ACH payment.”

We are more vulnerable than ever before. Protecting your username and passwords is a critical step. It’s a ‘no-no’ to use the same passwords for all of your online accounts. Think of all the accounts you use: Facebook, LinkedIn, your bank account, your car note, paying the electric bill, etc. Your information can end up on the dark net, a parallel internet that criminals use to sell your data to hackers. So if your Facebook account is hacked, the criminals will take that combination of username and password and attempt to use it on all your other online accounts. Chris says that criminals have sophisticated automated computer systems and subscription software they can use to run thousands of log-in data info at any given time. Visit ic3.gov to file a complaint with the FBI (IC3) if you believe you have been the victim of an Internet crime or if you want to file on behalf of another person you believe has been such a victim; the site is also a treasure trove of information of scams and crimes being committed throughout the U. S.

October is CyberSecurity Awareness Month. It is an important reminder that human error is the biggest cause of cybersecurity breaches and we must stay on high alert. Responsibility and accountability for our online information rest upon each of us. Criminals are outthinking us all the time. There are even companies that offer malicious tools as a service. Bad actors who know nothing about hacking can go on the dark web, buy a database of email addresses and download them into software that will do the hacking for them. Chris Gondran noted that some of these companies are so big they have HR departments.

What motivates Cybercriminal activity? The most popular is financial gain, followed by people holding grudges against you (former employee or girlfriend/boyfriend), and espionage (foreign countries who disagree with our policies and just want to hurt the enemy via cybersecurity means).

Chris says “it’s always a cat-and-mouse game between the security world and the criminals. Once they realize what we’re doing to bypass them, they figure out new ways to get around it.”

Criminals use various methods to trick us and use deception to get us to perform an action contrary to our best interests. What to look for in “social engineering?” “Vishing” is the use of voice messages, “smishing” is the use of text messages, and “phishing” is an email….all of which are utilized to reel us in for a scam. Scammers will send out 100,000s of messages knowing that a small percentage of people who receive them will be vulnerable and accept the bait. If you get a message that you question, tell the person you’ll call them back. Then check it out, particularly if it is unsolicited. Log into your account if you get a suspicious email about an account; chances are the message is spam. Do not click links or open attachments within unsolicited emails or text messages.

Chris recommends using a password keeper which is found on most smartphone devices. The iPhone has a built-in protector that will alert you if you are using a weak password. Facial identification is a good way to protect information on your phone. Never share usernames & passwords with others. When you need to use a password, utilize at least 12 characters with no dictionary words. Come up with a phrase, something you can remember, and use the first letter of every word. Scammers have software that can catch obvious substitutions such as the “@” symbol for “a” or 0 for “o” and so on. Also, utilizing the cloud is important if something happens to your phone. Back up your data as you can’t recover lost data if you are not on the cloud. Use multi-factor authentication as an added layer of security.

While scams are as old as time, some stand out more than others on the internet. Romance scams are common as criminals work to gain victims’ trust via an illusion of a romantic or close relationship to manipulate and steal from them. Tech Support Scams involve criminals posing as legitimate tech support companies who notify you of an issue with your computer. They will ask you to allow them to gain remote access to your computer, and they can then install malware or steal sensitive data. Grandparent Scams are insidious as criminals pose as a relative, child, or grandchild, and instill fear in a family member as the huckster claims to be in immediate need of financial support. Government Impersonation Scams involve criminals posing as government employees and threatening to arrest or prosecute unless you provide funds; you should never fall for the offer to get out of trouble by buying gift cards and giving the number off the back of the card. Once the money is transferred, it is untraceable. No real business or government agency will ever insist you pay them with a gift card. Never send money to anyone you have only communicated with online or by phone.

Business Email Compromises are common. Cybercriminals compromise a legitimate email account and send malicious emails from it. Our guard will be down, because we know the sender and recognize their email address. Some criminals will monitor emails and highjack a conversation. Be careful. Criminals will find a domain that looks like a legitimate one, provide a malicious link, and you can be scammed before you know what happened.

It is important for businesses as well as individuals to become aware and create a culture of awareness. · Stopthinkconnect.org is a great sight with lots of information for staying safe at home and with personal online matters. Cisa.gov is an official website of the U. S. Government with free services and tools to help you prevent a cybersecurity breach.

You can review online services to discover if your phone or email account have been breached. Chris recommends https://haveibeenpwned.com/. He further recommends that you write down as many details as you can remember and keep copies of all documents, emails, text messages, etc. if you think that your data has been breached. Chris’ last takeaway of the day….focus on your high risk accounts such as Amazon, Apple, your bank account and Microsoft Office in the Cloud….these are all of high value to an attacker as they are tied to your money.

We thank Chris Gondran and Home Bank for an enlightening discussion. It’s a new day and we all need to be aware of our actions to protect ourselves and those around us.

State Senator Fred Mills, chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, joins Discover Lafayette to talk about recent news concerning the effectiveness of the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (“DCFS”), in particular Child Protective Services, after recent news of the deaths of two toddlers, each two years of age. One died following his third fentanyl overdose and the other was found in a trash can after dying from blunt force trauma.

These tragic deaths caused the operations of DCFS to come under intense scrutiny as legislators pushed for answers. The Senate Health and Welfare Committee is calling a series of oversight meetings every six weeks to discuss and monitor the agency’s handling of child welfare cases. Senator Mills says the purpose of the oversight is to have DCFS come up with a game plan for improvement, provide a timeline to achieve their goals, and also inform on the return on investment in changes made.

Chronic underfunding has left the agency short-staffed for years with the budget being slashed under the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal. Senator Mills also says that current and former employees report that the agency’s environment is ‘toxic” and staffers are working 17 to 18 hours per day. There is a 25% attrition rate at DCFS yet only about 7.8% report leaving over pay issues; people leave because of work conditions. Employees report that supervisors at high levels don’t understand what caseworkers in the field experience. Mills did note that there has been conflicting testimony from supervisors who say they are working to put all hands on deck to address the shortage of staff.

DCFS receives about 100,000 calls per year from physicians, teachers and laypeople reporting potential cases of abuse with about 20,000 of those calls turning into cases to be handled. With high-risk Level 1 reports of abuse, DCFS has a statutory mandate to react within 24 hours and staff members report that there is not enough manpower to handle the volume as well as these mandated timelines. With 400 authorized jobs not being filled currently, each case worker is pushed to the maximum. In 2008, DCFS had 5,242 employees; in 2021 it had 3,561 full-time workers.

Senator Mills reports that the majority of the calls requesting help for children are from the East Baton Rouge and New Orleans area. August and September of each year see a huge spike in calls to DCFS as children are returning back to school and teachers and physicians interact with the young ones. Senator Mills gets many calls from grandparents asking for help as they witness their grandchildren struggling in abusive environments; their own children (the parent) may be on drugs, the family is dysfunctional, and the children are in danger. They ask, “What can we do?”

The average entry-level age of a caseworker is 35 as DCFS experiences trouble hiring people right out of college. The Senate Oversight Committee asked if outreach in all 64 parishes was being done to recruit through special job fairs and working with local economic development agencies. There has also been talk of modifying job requirements to be able to entice people to come to work. Currently, a social worker degree is required but older workers who have been with DCFS for 30 to 40 years say they have no degree, just experience and a great passion for the work. These older, seasoned workers feel DCFS is spending too much time trying to recruit based on education when the agency is unable to fill positions. They say, “If you have attrition and can’t fill positions, what you’re offering is not selling.”

DCFS is working to add a team approach to handling cases and reports of abuse. Importantly, a medical component to assist the caseworkers was reported this week as 50 positions are to be filled to add nurses to make home visits to families where the infants were exposed to drugs in utero. Senator Mills also said that retired law enforcement officials could be hired to accompany case workers for protection under trying circumstances, and partner with Medicaid officials to assist families to prove eligibility for benefits. The potential for public/private partnerships with one-year contract workers to reduce the bottleneck is also on the table; Senator Mills also asks, “Could current employees be given a finder’s fee for recommending new employees? Could bonuses be offered for short-term employees?”

Senator Mills reports that DCFS came up with 15 bullet points on ways the agency can improve its functioning. The Senators want a detailed plan and a timeline as to what DCFS hopes to accomplish. The question Senator Mills raised was, “Do you have the skill set to make the proposed changes and why did it take these two catastrophes to bring about these changes?” There are big challenges ahead.

This is our second time interviewing Senator Mills and you can hear our first interview here. He has been a longtime proponent of the advantages of utilizing medical marijuana to treat chronic health issues and led the charge to have it legalized in Louisiana. He reports that many people are experiencing the benefits of having access to medical marijuana for a variety of health reasons and the calls he gets from these patients are gratifying. The product is still not at maximum production which has led to a shortage in dispensaries and continued high prices.

Senator Mills estimates Louisiana is still a generation away from legalizing recreational marijuana. He joked that younger people under 40 say “What the Heck!” and people over 55 say “Heck, No!!”

Senator Mills represents portions of Lafayette, St. Martin, St. Landry and Vermilion parishes. A pharmacist by trade, his work in the Senate has been heavily skewed to taking care of Louisiana citizens’ medical needs. We thank him for his dedicated service to our community. We also thank him for his heart, his willingness to answer calls, and his wonderful sense of humor!

Toby Aguillard, Roya Boustany, and Jules Edwards III met on October 13, 2022, at a forum sponsored by the Lafayette Parish Bar Association. Each had the opportunity to discuss their unique qualifications to serve as our newest Lafayette City Court Judge.

The Bar Association did not endorse any candidate and Discover Lafayette does not either; we are proud to make this forum available to the general public so that Lafayette residents can make an informed decision upon exercising their right to vote.

The election will take place on November 8. Early voting takes place at the Registrar of Voters Office from October 25 through November 1, 2022, from 8:30 am to 6 pm, excluding Sunday.

Each candidate offers extensive legal experience and a passion for public service. In this audience populated by local attorneys, the questions were a bit more technical than in a usual forum yet this podcast will give our listeners a chance to hear what drives each candidate.

Toby Aguillard has always felt called to public service. As a young man, he graduated from St. Joseph’s Seminary College, a Benedictine college and monastery in Covington, then followed his heart when he realized that marriage was important to him. He served as Lafayette City Police Chief under former Mayor-President Joel Robideaux. Toby worked as Deputy Sheriff for the Cameron and East Baton Rouge Sheriffs’ offices and following graduation from Southern University Law Center as a prosecutor in the DA’s office in Cameron Parish and the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office. He served as director of the Internet Crimes Division of the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office immediately prior to his appointment as Chief in Lafayette. In order to build trust in the Lafayette community, he continued the community outreach program initially begun under former Deputy Chief Reginald Thomas, where officers walked door to door to meet with residents; he believes that these community outreach sessions gave him unique insights into how to deal with City Court litigants.

“My biggest challenge serving as Lafayette City Police Chief was the day that we lost Officer Michael Middlebrook. Everything came after that. There was an immediate firestorm over insurance benefits for his family. There were 300 police officers who were angry that Michael Middlebrook gave his life and his family lost their benefits immediately. It was about negotiating with the City Council and the Mayor-President to negotiate the issue. The Police Union was down my back and it was an extremely difficult time. But in a few days, we were able to smooth it out. I had to take a strong leadership role, telling my guys, ‘You have to trust me.’ And they did. My experience working with the budget as Chief will also be of great value to the City Court.” Toby Aguillard

Roya Boustany, the youngest candidate at 36 years of age and a graduate of Southern University Law Center, serves as a Chief Felony Prosecutor for District Attorney Don Landry. She recounted how she always wanted to be a prosecutor and wants to give both victims and defendants a voice. One young victim of rape at the age of 11 left a lasting impression upon Roya as the young girl stated that Roya was the first person to ever listen to her. Roya stays busy in court and has prosecuted many felony criminal cases, including those involving the gamut from theft to rape and murder. She previously served as Public Defender. Roya is extremely involved in leadership positions in the community, serving as President-elect of Junior League of Lafayette, President of the Lafayette Young Lawyers Association, a graduate of Leadership Lafayette XXXII, and Acadiana Center for the Arts Board member, among many other activities.

“I’ve handled thousands of cases as a prosecutor in my career. The judge needs to be an open-minded, fair, equitable, caring, and compassionate person. That is what we all want and expect. You expect someone to listen to you, and not have preconceived notions about you as a lawyer or your client. I give every single person that comes to talk to me (as a Prosecutor) every amount of respect, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. Working as a prosecutor has helped me develop that compassion.” Roya Boustany

Jules Edwards III is a graduate of Loyola Law School, and served as a Judge for the 15th Judicial District Court for 27 years.  He served in the military for 30 years, having enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve in college and retiring as a Louisiana Army National Guard Colonel. He served as Inspector General for the Army, working to ensure that the units were following proper procedures as he learned how to “speak his truth when standing up to superiors who may need to change their procedures.” He credits his time in the military for building his character, teaching him discipline, and instilling honor and integrity into his daily actions. Jules is focused on helping young troubled people and getting them on the right track before their first serious offense ends up leading them to a lifelong path of crime or what he calls the “Criminal Justice Elevator” where they may end up serving life sentences in prison. He sees serving as City Court Judge as an opportunity to be consistent while working with perpetrators of misdemeanors and get them on the path to leading a life of integrity. He also wants to produce videos to help people understand the role of the City Court Judge, the witnesses, and what you need to do when you show up for court….to “demystify the process of what happens.”

“I believe that justice is what love looks like in public and justice is giving to the other that which the other is due. I have had the pleasure of working with many young people from diverse backgrounds in the military as they honed their character, developed their virtues, reduced their vices, so that they could become the kind of people who had integrity.” Jules Edwards

All three candidates stressed the need to have adequate funding for upgrading the computer system and software utilized by the Lafayette City Court, which was implemented about 20 years ago. Similarly, all agreed that local nonprofits are an under-utilized resource that can be tapped into in partnership with City Court to offer rewarding opportunities for public service to criminal defendants. The three candidates praised the service of City Court Judge Doug Saloom and his staff, saying that the high-quality team is filled with dedicated employees who work together to accomplish their mission.

In closing, it is appropriate to include a quote from an audience member, Attorney Miles Matt who said, “I am proud that we have three such good quality candidates!” And he was right!

Please listen to this podcast to hear the nuances of each voice. Each candidate offers their own unique perspective and all are well-spoken and supportive members of our community. And please vote!! We thank Toby, Roya, and Jules for offering themselves up to serve as Lafayette City Court Judge!

This is a re-release of our interview originally conducted with Ceci Neustrom in May 2022. Since our first interview, Ceci celebrated her body of work by unveiling two new portraits representing the Bergeron and Trahan families at the Hilliard Art Museum on October 12, 2022. We thought it was fitting to once again share her beautiful story during this week of Festivals Acadiens de Creoles in Lafayette.

Ceci never pictured herself as an artist. Growing up as an older daughter in a family of 13 children in Mississippi, Ceci was a nurturer who took care of things…she cooked, sewed, and cleaned. “Art was never a part of my life.” We taped this episode at the offices of BBR Creative with owner, Cherie Hebert, who has supported Ceci’s art.

Ceci graduated from USL and married football star Michael Neustrom, who eventually served as Lafayette Parish Sheriff for 16 years. They have made a good team and are the proud parents of six children.

A native of Mississippi, Ceci studied to become an educator, and then found her career evolving into being a landman, or as she became known, a “landmam.”

For decades, she researched the ownership of land and mineral rights of families in South Louisiana and became immersed in the interconnectedness of the Acadian families in our region. Her work in the local courthouses inspired her to learn more about the families who had settled here after the 1755 expulsion of Acadians who had become owners of vast expanses of land in our region. She’d sit at their kitchen tables or on their farms and get to know their stories as she figured out who owned mineral rights to the properties their families had settled on generations before.

Then, at the age of 55, her husband Mike gave her the gift of art lessons with Pat Soper, an acclaimed local art teacher and painter. Ceci had no inkling that she herself had artistic talent and had only doodled before she took up classes. She was angry with Mike for putting her in a position to fail. But, she didn’t fail, soaring once she tapped into her dormant ability to paint. She ended up as a resident artist at the renowned Art Studio League in New York City. Ceci found that she loved the experience of creating, of “joining in the experience of creation with our maker. It felt to me like a miracle that I could do this. I didn’t believe that I could do this.”

Chief Judge James McKay of the 4th Circuit convinced Ceci Neustrom to paint his portrait. This work set her on the path to loving the art of portraiture, of capturing the essence of the human form. “I discovered figure painting. It’s what spoke to my heart.” Judge McKay played football at USL with Ceci’s husband, Mike Neustrom, in the 1970’s.

Ceci has grown as an artist and has since created breathtakingly beautiful oil portraits of locals, as well of present-day descendants of Acadian settlers who arrived in south Louisiana in the mid-1700s. She has named this the “Acadian Heritage Series.”

To date, her work showcases the Babineaux, Bergeron, Breaux, Broussard, Comeaux, Guidry, Hebert, LeBlanc, Prejean, and Trahan families.

While many of us are familiar with events surrounding the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755, paintings depicting that era always seem to include large groups of people, not individuals affected by the tragedy.

Ceci’s oil portraits draw you in and make things real. You can feel the strength and the grit, of the Acadians who survived and thrived. It’s hard to explain the energy that surrounds these paintings that honor our region’s Acadian lineage.

Ceci was helped greatly by local experts in the Acadian culture. Cheryl Perret helped Ceci get started in identifying Acadian families who might participate in her series. Special thanks go to Mary and Warren Perrin of the Acadian Museum for their historical knowledge. Suzanne Breaux also was of great help, who is a fiber specialist, knew the importance of utilizing the brown cotton relied upon by the Acadians, and loaned Ceci the outfit from Glen Pitre’s Belizaire the Cajun for Jerry Prejean to wear. Patsy Foster of the Acadian Village loaned Ceci her outfit to be used in the portrait paintings. And Ceci made some of the clothing used, in particular the Evangeline style cloak worn by Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco’s granddaughter, Kathleen Boulet.

Candid photos of a few portrait subjects

In closing, we want to thank Ceci Neustrom for sharing her story and her art for all to enjoy!

“I really wish that everyone could experience the joy of art. I never dreamed that art would influence me and challenge me in the way it has. I wish I had experienced this younger in life. But, on the other hand, I think God’s timing was perfect for me. Had I started younger, I may have been inclined to use it as a career. If I was doing this to earn money, the joy I’ve received may have been diminished. My joy is in giving it away and sharing it. My driving force is sharing my joy. That’s a greater payment than a dollar bill can ever be.”

For more information on Ceci Neustrom’s work and artistic talent, please visit https://www.cecineustrom.com/works.

Lafayette Parish Sheriff Mark Garber joins Discover Lafayette to discuss his career and the scope of responsibilities of his office. He is the 27th Sheriff to serve Lafayette and has served in that capacity since January 2016.

A native of Iota, Sheriff Garber graduated from LSU-BR and SMU Law School in Dallas. While in undergrad school, he worked with the Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office as a dispatcher before moving up to corrections. He then worked as a game warden with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Sheriff Garber joined the City of Arlington, TX Police Department where he spent ten years, being chosen for the prestigious motorcycle unit. He also gained enforcement experience in patrol, traffic enforcement, field training, police sniper, and SWAT (Special Operations).

It was while Sheriff Garber worked in Arlington that he realized he wanted a Ph.D. level education and pursued law studies. He jokingly recalled if he knew how hard it would be to juggle so many responsibilities he may not have chosen law school; but he did well and looked at each law course as a financial investment as he had to put himself through school, not qualifying for assistance due to his income as a police officer.

Sheriff Garber next served in the U. S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations as a Civilian Special Agent, Criminal Investigator in Iraq, earning a Bronze Star Medal for his actions. His time in Iraq included deployment as a Battlefield Interrogator which put him in the war zone alongside frontline shooters. He recounted that he spent several tough weeks at Fort Huachuca in Arizona learning prescribed interrogation techniques and was able to meld them with his own experiences and talents from serving in law enforcement.

On his service in Iraq, Sheriff Mark Garber said, “Your perspective changes when you work with people who are getting killed. You want to survive and you want to protect each other. That’s what the goal is. But I never saw circumstances where torture would produce reliable information to give to a ground commander that could be trusted. I preferred other methods. My role was to give advice and to get senior leadership of al-Qaeda taken out.”

Upon returning to the U. S. Sheriff Garber continued service with the U. S. Secret Service, then returned to Lafayette where he served as an Assistant DA prosecuting felonies for the 15th JDC before being elected in 2015 to serve as Sheriff. This year, in 2022, Sheriff Garber became an FBI National Academy Graduate.

Lafayette’s Sheriff is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the Parish under the Louisiana Constitution. The Sheriff shares jurisdictions with the other cities’ police departments (Broussard, Carencro, Duson, Lafayette, Scott, Youngsville.) Its Narcotics Division works extensively with the Lafayette City Police Department. When needed, the other police departments call upon the Sheriff for assistance and resources.

“What are our core functions to serve the community? We incarcerate people. We investigate crimes. We answer calls for service. These are the three pillars of our service that directly influence and affect safety. Safety is our basic need and you can’t engage in commerce or education until you are secure. That’s our #1 concern.”

When Sheriff Garber took office in 2016, there were 900 prisoners being housed in the downtown Jail, a facility designed to hold about 300. “People were sleeping in unsecured common areas. The overcrowding led to health issues and staff morale was low. Garber implemented strict protocols to turn around the situation and improve safety for all. Today the jail holds approximately 600 prisoners and the Sheriff’s Annex can hold about 150 individuals.

We spoke of the backlog of untried criminal cases as a result of the COVID shutdown. Garber pointed out that Pre-Covid, these cases were already way behind, and then the district court was shut down for 18 months. But Sheriff Garber couldn’t shut down the jail and his staff kept working to keep the jail running efficiently. The low rate of COVID cases in the jail caught the attention of the CDC which called upon his office to see what they were doing to keep a lid on the outbreak. His office utilized PODS where new prisoners would isolate before they could be released into the general prison population. The Lafayette jail never experienced a serious outbreak of COVID cases.

There has been recent talk of a new jail facility being built in Lafayette Parish, perhaps with a public-private partnership. Sheriff Garber emphasized it is the responsibility of Lafayette Parish to determine if, when, and where this happens, as well as the appropriate size of the facility if the community wants more prisoners to be incarcerated. “The decision is to be made by the Executive Branch as to what they want. If larger jails were the solution, Louisiana would be the safest piece of real estate on search. Large jails don’t seem to affect crime rates.”

With a perpetual shortage of Parish funds to support not only his jail operations but also the Parish Court House, Judicial Operations, and the District Attorney’s Office (among others), the allocation of available and finite funds is always a topic of discussion. The Sheriff did state that there is adequate funding to build a new facility with the existing tax millage; however, there is not enough funding to increase staffing in the event a larger facility is determined to be necessary. “Prisoners have to be taken care of 24/7, 365 days per year, and with an increased jail population comes an increase in costs pertaining to food, clothing, medical needs, all of the prisoners’ needs.”

In 2018, Sheriff Garber proposed an increase in sales tax to cover operations but the initiative was rejected by voters. Ancillary programs not directly related to core functions of the office were cut as Garber determined that “we would direct our funding to the frontlines and put all eggs in the correction and enforcement basket. We focused on doing our statutory duties and reduced staffing levels to about 800, with a current shortage of about 65 employees at this point in time.”

The Sheriff’s budget is approximately $70 million per year and Garber said, “75% of it is gone on January 1 of each year as his office meets its obligation to cover each Sheriff Deputy retiree’s health insurance costs, as just one example. The office is funded by a 1/2 cent sales tax collected in the unincorporated areas of the Parish, as well as an ad valorem tax paid by property owners parish-wide. Expenses of approximately $2 million per month are incurred covering employee pay and operations. But Garber says he “won’t pursue more funding until Lafayette Parish voters are ready to support that initiative.”

Jail space is always at a shortage and Garber believes they’ve done as well as they can do given the backlog of criminal cases. “I’ve done everything I can to maximize our productivity. I just need people to get adjudicated more quickly to relieve the pressure. As soon as we get more space, we can house additional prisoners.”

In 2018, the Sheriff’s Department partnered with the Lafayette Parish Public School System to manage the School Resource Officer (SRO) program to provide on-premises police services to all public schools to ensure a safe learning environment for students and staff. SROs are in 52 schools (46 public and 6 private) in Lafayette Parish. Garber credits former School Board member Erick Knezek and former Superintendent Don Aguillard for initiating this program. With the recent uptick in violence in schools, especially on the week of this podcast’s release, the SRO program has proven its worth.

Sheriff Garber set up the Violent Offender’s Task Force which mobilized from January 5, 2022, until the end of September 2022 with the intent to disrupt, interrupt and displace violence before it occurs. A partnership of Lafayette City police officers and sheriff deputies were tasked with addressing gun violence, utilizing technology at a scope and level not seen before as the task force aimed to identify the relatively few individuals who cause a majority of violence in our community. Garber explained that “cracking down” on an entire community when you are trying to stem crime is a disparate way to treat the population you are trying to serve and protect. “98% of the violence is caused by a very few involved in the drug trade/quasi-gang activity where people are beefing with each other. So much damage has been mitigated but you can’t measure what you prevent.” Taking out certain bad actors has resulted in a decrease in violence and a tremendous amount of drugs and guns have been taken off the street. Garber commended the community for the support they have received which allowed them to effectively target gun crimes and remove illegal guns from the street without having to arrest people randomly.

There are many, many more programs administered by our Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office, including but not limited to a full-time SWAT team, Criminal Patrol Unit (CPU) which targets mid to upper-level drug trafficking through Lafayette Parish, partnership with Parish Proud, and the Acadiana Law Enforcement Training Academy (A.L.E.T.A.) which prepares peace officers to pass basic training tests needed to be fit for service.

For more information on all the services rendered by the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office, visit https://lafayettesheriff.com/

Dr. Jeffrey Joseph, otolaryngologist and facial plastic surgeon of Acadian ENT joins Discover Lafayette to discuss his 29-year career in reconstructive and cosmetic surgery. Dr. Joseph works with a team of other ENT specialists and staff, including Drs. Bradley Chastant and Ryan Chastant.  Their practice recently merged with Camellia ENT, which has been in operation since 1990, and now includes Drs. David Foreman, Lane Anzalone, and Jimmy White.

Dr. Joseph has been seeing patients in Southwest Louisiana since 1993. His professional acumen in performing rhinoplasty and rejuvenation surgery on the aging face has made him well-known and in demand in our community. He is also known nationally and in 2003, Dr. Joseph was the only Louisiana facial plastic surgeon included in the book “The Beauty Makers” featuring talented facial plastic surgeons in the U. S.

A native of Crowley, his father owned Emile Joseph Menswear in the Northgate Mall and in the South College Shopping Center. Dr. Joseph was always interested in medicine since he was a young boy, and followed the advice of his best friend’s dad, the late Nolan Edwards, who told him if he was going to be a doctor, he should be a plastic surgeon because he liked to draw and paint. “I started thinking this would be a good avenue for me to do the two things that I’m most passionate about, taking care of people and drawing and painting!”

While Acadian ENT offers a full array of skin care services, Dr. Joseph gives simple advice to take care of your skin and avoid unnecessary damage. “Wash with soap such as Purpose or Cetaphil. Use sunscreen and a topical Vitamin C or retinol product. It all starts with taking care of your skin and protecting yourself from the sun. Consistency with good products is the key.”

Dr. Joseph won’t operate on smokers and he works to try to get people to their ideal weight prior to surgery to obtain the best results. The most requested “anything” is people wanting to look like a Kardashian. Many of his patients have had skin cancer removed and need reconstruction of their face post-Mohs surgery to restore symmetry.

While most plastic surgeons perform 12 to 20 facelifts a year, Dr. Joseph performs over 100, which is a lot for a town of our size. While surgery can cause immense bruising and discoloration for the first few days, Dr. Joseph follows up with his patients every day for the first five days to check the healing process and give an accurate assessment to the patients as to how well they are healing. On the fifth day, stitches are removed and the patient’s hair is washed in the office. Most bruising is gone by the 7th day and by the 10th-day post-surgery, the typical patient can get out and about. Supplements such as arnica and bromelain work wonders to keep bruising and swelling under control. And more common sense advice from the doc: Vicks salve (Vaporub) helps with bruising for anyone….surgery or not.

With 29 years of experience, Dr. Jeffrey Joseph has seen his practice evolve. Focusing on facial cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, his advice to potential patients is “Don’t pick the procedure or the way you think it should be done; pick the doctor that gets the best results consistently. It’s very similar to going into a restaurant and letting the chef cook the meal as they know how; ask the doctor to do the procedure in the way they think is best.”

Dr. Jeffrey Joseph loves Lafayette and wants nothing more than for our community to be safe for our citizens and beautified. “People travel to South Louisiana for surgery and they notice how close-knit the community is. If you take care of your city, it takes care of you.”

We thank Dr. Joseph and Acadian ENT for being a part of Discover Lafayette. For more information on their services and four locations throughout Acadiana, please visit https://acadianent.com/.

Our guest is Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, the 54th person to serve the State of Louisiana in this capacity.

Billy Nungesser’s drive to rebuild the tourism industry of Louisiana as we exit the pandemic is admirable, and we are well on the way to breaking the historic number of visitors we experienced in 2019 right before the pandemic. “In 2019, over 53 million people visited Louisiana leaving behind $1.9 billion in tax dollars, over $1,100 for each Louisiana family. By 2023, we’ll be back to record-breaking numbers, In Louisiana, we treat strangers like family. You leave Louisiana with a friend for life and you keep coming back. Especially in the Acadiana region.”

Billy brings a unique joie de vivre to his position. Enthusiastic and hard-working, he became nationally known 12 years ago when serving as President of Plaquemines Parish in the aftermath of one of the biggest environmental disasters in history, the BP Oil Spill. He became the voice of Louisiana’s frustration and the New York Times named him the “hardest working man in Louisiana.”

Never seeing himself as a politician, Billy and his wife were living in Plaquemines Parish where they had built a riding center for special needs kids. With the 26 horses (and a few donkeys) they offered, he said, “We watched miracles happen in these young lives who had been wheelchair-bound.” He also was a rancher with 400 head of cattle and 200 head of elk and had a successful business converting shipping containers into offshore living quarters.

When Katrina hit in 2005, Billy found himself not only with animals to rescue, but neighbors who were stranded with no help. He took in 30 people who lived with him for months. Commissioner Agriculture Mike Strain’s dad and uncle, who were in the cattle business with him, lived with him for a year after Katrina, rescuing animals. “I never saw a politician come by. I got so aggravated that people were left on their own.” He got angry enough to run for Plaquemines Parish President and won. He became a voice of Louisiana and its people.

Billy was elected to serve as our Lt. Governor in 2016. The Office of Lieutenant Governor oversees many departments, with its main responsibility being Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, overseeing state parks and nine museums. Keep Louisiana Beautiful is also an important focus, as Lt. Gov. Nungesser strives to build awareness in our citizens of the importance of cleaning up our state.

Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser spoke highly of Matt Stuller and his initiative, Parish Proud, for its heroic efforts to clean up Lafayette Parish and end the habit of littering. We can all do our part to pitch in and change our culture. For more information on Parish Proud, visit https://parishproud.org/

He also believes that the Historical Preservation and Revitalization of Downtowns throughout Louisiana is of critical importance. For an overview of grants and tax incentives, visit https://www.crt.state.la.us/cultural-development/historic-preservation/main-street/.

As a former Parish President of Plaquemines, Billy shared the importance of all businesses, strip malls, and restaurants putting out trash bins so that it is easy to dispose of trash. “When I was Parish President, we put out 20 trash cans along Hwy. 23 at an angle where people could throw their trash from their cars. 90% of garbage went into the trash cans or near enough so that it was easy to dispose of.” He shared that less than 17% of our people actually litter. “It’s time to clean up our state just as you clean up your home when you invite people over. Hopefully one day we won’t have to spend millions to pick up trash.”

The Lieutenant Governor’s Office is giving out grants to parishes and cities that will put up trash cans and keep them clean. He is also focused on working with Sheriffs across Louisiana to award grants to pay for work-release prisoners to pick up trash. “We want to give them tools to get grants and not take away from funding for fighting crime.” He recently spoke to 3rd-graders in Alexandria on the importance of fighting litter and encouraged them to “Go home and tell our parents if they litter, you’re going to call the Lieutenant Governor!”

One of Lt. Gov. Nungesser’s favorite departments is overseeing Volunteer Louisiana, which in the past few years has mobilized its 10,000 volunteers on disaster recovery. Partnering with nonprofits of all sizes, Volunteer Louisiana has helped remove trees, muck and gut homes, and get people back in their homes after devastating losses. In good times, the organization has helped paint senior citizens’ homes, build wheelchair ramps, and take other steps which improve the quality of life for our most in-need citizens.

With every opportunity available, Lt. Gov. Nungesser promotes our “Louisiana flavor.” At the recent IPW (International Pow Wow for tourism), he promoted Bayou Rum and Tabasco Sauce, saying, “It’s an economic engine promoting all of the good food and flavors Louisiana has to offer.”

The Louisiana Civil Rights Trail is also an important initiative that Billy Nungesser wanted to create as a means to capture this important historic element of our past. “Louisiana has more heroes and occurrences that happened here than anywhere. The first bus boycott wasn’t in Alabama, it was in Baton Rouge in 1953 when a young man, 17 days out of law school, filed a lawsuit protesting his having to ride in the back of the bus.” Over 14,000 Black residents in Baton Rouge participated in the bus boycott. For more information on the Civil Rights Trail, visit https://www.louisianacivilrightstrail.com/.

Billy was a successful businessman before serving in elected office. His idea to take old shipping containers and convert them into living quarters became a huge success as he created comfortable quarters for offshore workers. He laughingly recounted that when he approached his dad with a request for startup funding, he was turned down, but his mom shared the $7,900 left in his college fund. Billy’s first project was to purchase a 20 foot storage container, put in six bunks, a kitchen, and a bathroom. He rented it to Joe Adams of Houma Industries. Within a short time frame, he was building fifty living quarters each for Shell and Chevron. When he sold his company, it had a total of 1,000 high-quality buildings in the Gulf in addition to 20 modular prisons across the U. S. for prison overcrowding needs.

In closing, we want to thank Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser for his service to our state and for his dedication to our people. He may be a candidate for Governor next year and will announce his decision in early 2023.

As we wound down our interview, he said, “The only thing I will ever promise is good government, because if I took a dollar for anything other than that, I couldn’t look you in the eye and ask you to vote for me. My advice to the next Governor or Lt. Governor is that no matter what party you’re in, you’ve got to work together. It is invaluable to work together as a team.”

We’re joined by Dr. Gary Wagner, Acadiana Business Economist and Endowed Chair at UL- Lafayette B.I. Moody III College of Business Administration.

This is Dr. Wagner’s second interview, the first having been conducted in March of 2020, right before the pandemic shut down things for a while and threw the employment market a curve ball unlike any other.

The pandemic recession was historic. Dr. Wagner always tracks economic data and was taken aback by the number of job losses we saw in a short period of time, saying, “It was like nothing we had seen in 80 to 100 years.”

Thankfully, the U. S. has regained all the jobs that were lost. Lafayette has done very well in the past six months compared to the rest of Louisiana, with many job gains in the healthcare sector. The oil and gas sector has not lost jobs but is still hovering at about 13,000, where we were at the end of 2014 when the bottom fell out of the market.

With oil and gas still being the highest-paying job field in Louisiana, the state of this industry is of crucial concern. Dr. Wagner reflected on the mid-1980s when the energy industry peaked and constituted one-third of Louisiana’s economy; 33 cents of every dollar earned at that time was tied to oil and gas. Today, it’s 1%. In Dr. Wagner’s view, “We’re now seeing the consequences of antiquated tax policies put in place decades ago which are not conducive to attracting business. By historically relying upon oil and gas production as a captive resource with our tax system built around that commodity,” we can expect stagnant business conditions.

Southern states tend to rely upon sales taxes rather than property taxes, which in Dr. Wagner’s view is a less stable and regressive way to tax citizens. He prefers to see a property tax as the main source of revenue as it is more stable and less impactful on lower-income individuals who end up spending a bigger chunk of their income on taxes when they purchase basic commodities.

Healthcare is driving job growth in Acadiana and is our top employer along with education, with 20% of our jobs coming from these two sectors. Six percent of our local economy is oil and gas related. Wagner noted that our region recovered very quickly after the hit it took in late 2014. “It says a lot about our people as not many regions have bounced back after such a blow to their economies.”

With UL-Lafayette now being designated as a Carnegie R1 university (top-tier research institution), Lafayette and the surrounding region have much to celebrate. Dr. Wagner said this recognition will attract talented people and not just academics who want to work for UL. Lafayette will be viewed as a hub for creativity, talent, and innovation. Innovation is what drives a region. Other metro areas that have R1 universities, such as Austin, Columbus OH, and Raleigh/Durham, have all grown exponentially and are known for attracting talent. He noted that he could think of only two thriving metro areas that don’t have R1 universities: Boise, Idaho has Hewlett Packard and attracts top talent; and Rochester, Minnesota has the Mayo Clinic and is a medical hub.

“Lafayette is a great place to live with a great university. I’ve worked at other R1 universities and I’ve never seen in other places the connection that our people have here to the university such as UL does. The community support for UL-Lafayette is amazing. And what a great place to live! People can work remotely anywhere now and have options as to where they can live. We have a very unique culture compared to the rest of the country and could become a bedroom community for Houston and other thriving metro areas. We can capitalize on our quality of life.”

Inflation is the biggest problem we’re facing today. He doesn’t predict much growth into next year due to inflation. While people saved at record levels during the early stage of the pandemic due to uncertainty about the future, the stimulus package spurred spending at high levels, leading to a 40-year high for inflation, the highest since the 1970s. There is nothing at this point to indicate it will turn around any time soon. Locally and nationally, we won’t see much job growth as the Federal Reserve aggressively raises interest rates as a means to slow the economy and get inflation under control.

Lafayette’s number of patents is on par with the national average, and higher than the rest of the state. But that is not the only way to innovate the marketplace. Dr. Wagner would like to see a greater partnership with UL-Lafayette and the healthcare sector to spur innovation in that industry.

Investment in our public education system is also a key priority for Dr. Wagner. He feels it is important to keep our talent here. “The people who will be driving the future of our region are here now. Investing in education and cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit in our young students will pay dividends 20 years from now. Most of our students will stay here; this is a long-term strategy.”

“Seattle became ‘Seattle’ because Bill Gates was born there. Similarly, Austin is a tech hub because Michael Dell went to UT-Austin and started Dell Computers. Who knows where the next Bill Gates is, sitting around Acadiana just waiting to flourish? I’d rather see investments in people who are here than try to attract people to come here. We underinvest in public education. I want to see our kids be talented and innovative. Innovative places invest in education. Look at Raleigh/Durham in 1950. The Research Triangle was nothing. Now it’s one of the higher-income places in the U. S. They made targeted investments that really paid off. They stuck with the plan.”

Dr. Wagner publishes a quarterly report with updates on economic conditions and trends. You can access the B.I. Moody III College of Business Administration Louisiana Economic Activity Forecast here and sign up to receive updates.

We thank Dr. Wagner for his service to our community as well as the college students he teaches Intro to Economics and Economic Measurement Analytics!