Councilman Kevin Naquin is humming a new refrain: four more years.
The District 1 councilman representing Scott and north/west Lafayette Parish tells The Independent he plans to run for re-election in October for a second term on the council.
“My plans for October are to seek re-election from the great people of District 1,” he says. “I’ve been honored and privileged to serve them the first four years of my term, and I look forward to continue to provide them with professional representation and look to continue to try to fix and solve the issues at hand in District 1 — mainly drainage, roads and fire protection.”
A medical equipment salesman by day who is married with three young children, Naquin is best known as a Cajun musician with his band, The Ossun Playboys, winners of multiple Cajun French Music Association awards over the last decade-plus. Naquin and his Playboys have been busy of late, performing in the last nine days in Rochester, NY, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Jazz Fest in New Orleans and the Crawfish Festival in Breaux Bridge.
Naquin served as vice chair and chairman of the council in consecutive years in 2013 and ’14, shepherding the creations last year of the Future Funding Source Committee, a volunteer panel of Lafayette residents with professional expertise that for nearly a year as has been studying LCG’s budget and tax revenue with an eye toward making recommendations on how to square the two. Naquin counts creation of the committee among his bona fides as an elected leader.
“What are we going to do about fire and police? What are we going to do about roads? What are we going to do about drainage? How are we going to fund public parks and recreation and why isn’t this consolidated?” he asks rhetorically.
Naquin also thinks big picture, saying an overall goal is “figuring out how we’re going to improve Lafayette for the next four years and how we’re going to fund it.”