Joey Durel

Infobox_Mayor


imagesize = 150px
name= Lester Joseph "Joey" Durel, Jr.
|order=
office= Mayor of Lafayette, Louisiana, USA
term_start= 2004
term_end=
predecessor= Walter Comeaux
successor= Incumbent
birth_date= birth date and age|1953|4|3|
birth_place= Lafayette, Louisiana
death_date=
death_place=
spouse=Lynne Miller Durel (married 1973)
children=Three children, Nicole D. Hebert (born 1975), Jason Durel (born 1977), and Natalie D. Broussard (born 1982)
profession= Businessman
religion=Roman Catholic
party=Republican
footnotes=Durel, only the second Republican mayor of Lafayette since Reconstruction, was reelected in 2007 without opposition.

Lester Joseph "Joey" Durel, Jr. (born April 3, 1953), rocketed to local political prominence when in 2003, he became the second Republican elected as mayor of Lafayette, Louisiana, and the second person elected as "City-Parish president" of the combined City of Lafayette and Lafayette Parish government. A small businessman, Durel had never before sought or held political office. He was the consummate "outsider" in his race from the political standpoint but an "insider" on the basis of business and commerce. His election also defied the statewide tide that year that heavily favored Democrats.

Durel was unopposed for his second term as City-Parish president in the jungle primary held on October 20, 2007.

Early years and family

Durel was born in Lafayette to Lester J. Durel, Sr. (born 1921), and the former Iris Massicot (born 1924). The senior Durel formed the first "Durel's Pet Shop" in 1951, and the business remained in family hands until all the outlets were sold in 2004. Durel, Jr., graduated in 1971 from Our Lady of Fatima High School in Lafayette. Thereafter, he attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (then the University of Southwestern Louisiana). In 1975, he procured his bachelor of science degree in business administration.

In 1973, Durel married the former Lynne Miller, also a Lafayette native. They have three children: Nicole Hebert (born 1975), Jason (born 1977), and Natalie (born 1982). Oldest daughter Nicole and her husband Tommy Hebert have given Lynne and Joey two grandchildren, Hannah (1999) and Meredith (2000). Natalie and her husband, Patrick Broussard, have a son, Braxton (2007). The Durels are Roman Catholic.

Durel's business pursuits

A month after he graduated from college, Durel went to work in the family pet shop and opened a second outlet in 1976. He met a private payroll every year until his election as mayor-president. His entrepreneurial spirit led him into several other businesses as well, including Arby's Restaurants. At one time, he managed some 150 employees in eight retail stores. In 1996, he was named the "Sam Walton Small Businessman of the Year."

Durel is a graduate of "Leadership Lafayette Class X" and "Leadership Louisiana." In 2001, his peers named him chairman of the board of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. Durel was appointed by former Republican Governor Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Jr., to the Small Business Task Force and is the past chairman of the Citizens Advisory Committee of Lafayette. He has also been active in Big Brothers/Big Sisters. He is secretary of the board of South Louisiana Community College – and is currently on the UL-Lafayette Athletic Advisory Committee.

Durel becomes a Republican

Durel registered to vote as a Democrat in 1971, when he turned eighteen. He was hence among the first young people directly impacted by the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In 1978, he switched affiliation to Republican. Two years later, Lafayette elected the conservative William Dudley "Dud" Lastrapes, Jr., as the city's first Republican mayor since Reconstruction. Lastrapes served from 1980–1992, when the office reverted to Democratic occupancy. Durel hence reclaimed for his party the mayoralty-parish presidency, combined as a result of a popular referendum.

The election of 2003

Durel was the only Republican candidate in the jungle primary, a unique feature of Louisiana elections, held on October 4, 2003. He led the field with 41 percent of the vote, compared to 29 percent for Democrat Glenn M. Weber, who was the chief administrative officer of the consolidated government and the choice of outgoing City-Parish President Democrat Walter Comeaux. (The position is term limited – a maximum of three four-year terms; Comeaux declined to seek a third term.) Another Democratic candidate, "land man" Floyd Domingue (a land man is one who obtains land for oil drilling rights), received 19 percent of the ballots. Three lesser candidates divided the remaining 11 percent.

Durel and Weber hence went into the general election held on November 15. Durel won with 34,806 votes (52 percent) to Weber's 32,113 (48 percent). The mayor-presidency vote mirrored the gubernatorial totals in Lafayette Parish. Republican Bobby Jindal received 34,951 votes (52 percent) to Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco's 32,734 (48 percent). Blanco won the governorship but lost her home parish of Lafayette. Durel trailed Jindal by only 145 votes in the parish, and Weber trailed Blanco by 621 ballots. On the surface, there appeared to have been relatively little ticket-splitting in the two Lafayette Parish races. After his defeat, Weber became the director of the Lafayette Association of Retarded Citizens.

Asked how he won the mayor-presidency as a candidate without previous experience, Durel said: "Having never run for political office, it was a new experience. It was a total family effort in the decision to run and in the race itself. . . . The decision was not easy given the perception (and a little reality) of politics in Louisiana. Our attitude was to become part of the solution; so if we didn't get involved, we had no one to blame but ourselves. It also took the support of the many great people in our community that wanted nothing more than to see Lafayette be given the opportunity to grow and to prosper."

Durel's accomplishments as City-Parish president

Durel pledged himself to "change the culture of government." He has maintained an open-door at City Hall and claims to meet "with anyone, anywhere." A newspaper story described Durel's vigorous activity in office: "He might be the busiest man in Lafayette. City-Parish President Joey Durel’s schedule book is full to the brim with ribbon cuttings, speeches, and policy meetings. Throw in a weekly radio call-in show and television show on Acadiana Open Channel – and a brand new "Have a Cup of Coffee with the Mayor" each month – and you’d think there’d be little time to govern. But Durel’s list of accomplishments in his first year in office are lengthy as well."

Durel's accomplishments include improving the efficiency of local government, streamlining jobs, practicing accountability, and reducing the number of hours that attorneys can bill the city-parish for services. The latter has yielded considerable savings.

Since taking office, he has worked to build a regional coalition of leadership and convened meetings with other municipal leaders to discuss issues facing the entire Acadiana area. After a year of informal meetings, at his direction, the Acadiana Regional Council of Governments was formed as a coalition to attract jobs and improve the quality of life for the region.

Durel appointed the first-ever "chief information officer" for Lafayette Consolidated Government in order to use technology to increase the efficiency of local government, provide savings throughout all departments, and improve customer service. Lafayette Parish residents can now go online to make requests for services as well as to pay utility bills.

Three months into office, Durel, a staunch defender of the free-enterprise system, proposed that Lafayette pursue a "Fiber to the Home" initiative. After a year and half of obstacles and debates, the voters by a 62-38 percent margin authorized the municipal utilities system to move the project forward. Durel explained that the project will use fiber optics, rather than copper or coaxial cable, to bring data into homes and businesses. "It is many times faster and free of static. . . . We will offer television, telephone, and high speed Internet to our citizens at much lower prices", he predicted.

Post Katrina Southern Decadence controversy

After Hurricane Katrina, Durel refused to issue a parade permit for "Southern Decadence", a group of gay activists who had earlier organized an annual gathering planned for New Orleans. "I don't consider anything that's got the word 'decadence' in it to be normalcy", Durel told The "Lafayette Daily Advertiser", in explaining why he rejected "Decadence's" request. When asked by a reporter if they should be given the chance to get some sense of normalcy in their lives, Durel responded, "If they want to have some semblance of normalcy, I would expect them to respect the normalcy of the community of Lafayette."

The non-campaign of 2007

When he announced for reelection, Durel said: "I love my job, because I get to be mayor/president in the best city/parish in Louisiana!" Lafayette, a city known for oil and energy, is the state's fourth most populous metro area, according to the 2000 census.

Durel procured bipartisan support. On December 14, 2006, Democratic attorney Glenn Armentor hosted a $250-per-couple fundraiser which was called the "No Party, Party." Mike Skinner, a former U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana and also a former Louisiana Democratic Party chairman, was among co-hosts listed on the invitation to the event. So was Lafayette Parish School Board member Rickey Hardy, another Democrat.

Armentor described Durel as a great leader for Lafayette during a crucial time: "True leaders are not partisan." Co-hosts included a "who’s who" of state GOP politicians, then U.S. Representative Bobby Jindal of Metairie, thereafter the Governor-elect; U.S. Senator David Vitter, Louisiana's first Republican senator since Reconstruction; U.S. Representative Charles Boustany of Lafayette, and State Senator Michael J. Michot, also of Lafayette.

References

http://www.lafayettela.gov/Presidents/dpt120Bio.asp

http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcpr&rqsdta=11150328

http://www.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcpr&rqsdta=10040328

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/sep/05090902.html

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/4740276.html