Slidell city elections are back and it looks like the most interesting races will be for City Council positions.
Qualifying for the March 26 election closed out last Friday and there were quite a few surprise names who decided to take a shot at winning a seat on the council.
Check out our story on the front page of today’s paper for all the names, not to mention the fact that incumbent Mayor Greg Cromer will return to the job four more years without having to go through a campaign since nobody decided to take him on.
I’ve said many times before that anyone willing to run for public office deserves some appreciation since jobs like City Council, Parish Council or School Board are what I consider mostly thankless jobs. You can be sure you will hear from the public who is unhappy about this or that, but the time that is put in to become educated on issues, then vote in a way they believe is best for our community, is something few people are appreciated for.
I spoke with the mayor on Monday and congratulated him on winning another term, without having to go through the effort of campaigning. When you see an incumbent win another term unopposed I don’t see much other way to interpret that than to believe the person in office has done an excellent job. It was the third time it happened for Greg in his years of public office here, and at the state level.
In Greg’s four years he has no serious disputes that have arisen between himself and the council, and contrary to any negatives, has a pretty good track record of accomplishments so far—with plans to do more in the next four years.
I heard several council members mention late last week that they believe the cooperation between Cromer and the City Council is the best they have ever seen. And this came from some council members who have been around a very long time.
So congrats to our mayor for his victory, and good luck to the council members who will be in some interesting races, not to mention Chief of Police Randy Fandal who WILL have to go through a two-month campaign against his opponent Rhett Rodriguez.
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Jennifer Berger has a new office.
I saw that when I stopped by the Slidell Memorial Hospital marketing department recently and found Jennifer in a much larger office than I had always seen her in.
That’s because she has moved up at SMH, now heading the Marketing and Communications Department as the Business Development Director since Sam Caruso headed off for new pastures working with Pope John Paul II High School on their capital improvement plan, among other things.
I used to walk into Sam’s office regularly to chat, and also would take a few steps down the hall where Jennifer was to say hello, since the two of them WERE the Slidell Memorial Marketing and Communications Department.
I used to laugh about Sam normally having three computers on at once, which was a pretty good picture of what it is like to be in upper management for a hospital as big as SMH.
Now, Jennifer has taken over the entire operation as Business Development Director Numero Uno, and quite honestly, she deserves the promotion—hence the much larger office that Sam used to reside in.
I asked her how long she had been at SMH and she reminded me of something.
“I started here just about the exact same time you started the paper,” she said. “It’s been 13 years.”
And sure enough, she was exactly right. She reminded me that shortly after she was hired the hospital sent a press release to me about hiring her, which we ran, and she remembers, “it was kind of neat to see myself in the paper.”
Yea! I love that. I believe most folks love the community paper as much as they always did. But I guess 13 years of operating with our Slidell Independent here in town should make a good case for that.
As for Jennifer, it was interesting for us to have a laugh and chat a bit about both of us being on the job here for 13 years. And seriously, she deserves every bit of the promotion she received since she has always been the utmost professional in what I know is not an easy job.
So congrats Jennifer on your 13 years, but especially, your nice, big office. I will expect to see no less than three computers operating on your desk anytime I stop by!
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Congratulations to Tim Purvis on his 20-year anniversary with Purvis Financial in Slidell. I did an interview and story with Tim last week and learned something about him that I’ve seen before—that is, the job is more than a job to him.
Since he began in the financial services and loan business over 20 years ago, Tim found he has an opportunity to counsel people about money—something most of us needed when we were young.
He actually sees the ups-and-downs of young people trying to get on their feet financially, and I can see where his years of expertise can actually help someone figure it all out.
I used to say that we don’t get enough lessons like that in high school, preparing us for 40 years in the job market, so it was good to hear that he makes a serious effort to help people in that regard.
It’s another story about a Slidell small business owner who is doing something to help the public that goes beyond the actual business he is operating.
Congrats Tim.
Kevin Chiri can be reached by e-mail at kevinchiri@gmail.com.