SLIDELL – For the second time in four years there will likely be several changes on the Slidell City Council after the March 26 election.
In 2018, four new council members won election as Ken Tamborella (District E), David Dunham (District B), Leslie Denham (District A) and Cindy King (District G) took office following a handful of term limited vacancies.
While all four of those council members have expressed plans to run again, with qualifying currently underway and concluding this Friday, Jan. 28, there will still be a few shake-ups on the council once things are settled after the primary election in March.
In District ‘C,’ Warren Crockett is term limited out, meaning there will definitely be a new face in that seat. While there has been talk that Crockett might consider running for an At-Large seat, the only name that has surfaced so far as possibly qualifying to run for the District ‘C’ seat is an active member for the Democratic Committee in St. Tammany, with Gnanse Nelson rumored to be planning to sign up.
District ‘D’ will also have a new face following the death of former Councilman Val Vanney. This could prove to be the most interesting race of all with Bonnie Vanney, wife of Val, expressing interest to run for her husband’s seat.
She is expected to face competition for the position, possibly from Nick DiSantis, president of the Palm Lake Homeowner’s Association, who has been active in area affairs.
Longtime Councilwoman Kim Harbison has been serving the city for 20 years, but will have competition if she hopes to win a second term in District ‘F,’ as former Keep Slidell Beautiful Director Trey Brownfield has announced plans to run against her.
Harbison has represented the area around Robert Boulevard, but should face a strong challenge from Brownfield, who earned positive local notoriety through his work with KSB.
There are two At-Large council races to be decided again with Bill Borchert and Glynn Pichon both currently holding those seats after serving their first term. Both are expected to qualify for a second term, with a hint there could be a challenge for them.
The City Council has already addressed a minor redistricting situation that came about following the official census results that were released last year.
Any district that shows a growth or loss of more than 5 percent of population must be redistricted, and that only occurred in District ‘F,’ where Harbison’s district lost approximately 7 percent of the population.
Some of District ‘G,’ further north on Robert Boulevard, was transferred to District ‘F’ so all the council districts have close to the required total of approximately 4,100 people.
The council already approved the change late last year and is now set again for the next 10 years.