The Reverend Rodney Nicholas Endorses Lucien Gauff, III, Candidate for Assessor, St. John the Baptist Parish
The Reverend Rodney Nicholas has endorsed Lucien Gauff, III in Gauff ’s bid to become the next Assessor of St. John the Baptist Parish. Reverend Nicholas was, himself, a candidate in the October 24, 2015, election, finishing in a respectable third place and garnering twenty-two (22) percent of the vote. Gauff, who finished second, will face Kevin Prudhomme in the November 21, 2015 run-off. In support of his decision to endorse Gauff, Nicholas has said that “history teaches us that where there is unity there is strength.” Nicholas believes that Gauff is the candidate best equipped to foster unity while working to update technology and render fair and accurate property assessments throughout St. John the Baptist Parish. Nicholas, who currently represents District 10 on the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board, is pursuing a doctoral degree in public policy from Southern University. He retired from Shell Oil Co./Motiva Enterprises and is a professor at River Parishes Community College in Sorrento. Gauff, a twenty-three year veteran with DuPont Performance Elastomers, also owns a small rental property business. Gauff has said that operating that business sharpened his appreciation of the dynamics of acquiring, developing, utilizing and maintaining property. The time he has spent serving as Councilman at Large for Division A for the past five years also strenghtened his understanding of the various governmental divisions landowners are required to navigate to insure maximum return on property use. Gauff maintains that experience is not something that necessarily comes with the number of years a person spends in a position. Instead, Gauff emphasizes the importance of being competent, a trait, which, in the public service sector, comes with knowing a job, openly engaging constituencies and responding to their needs, keeping up with relevant advancements in technology, and embracing and utilizing innovative methods of training and operation. As St. John the Baptist Parish’s next Assessor, Gauff pledges to identify and implement best practices for making up-to-date technology accessible to the public while building public understanding of the processes that promote property use that is beneficial both to property owners and the economic wellbeing and growth of St. John the Baptist Parish as a whole. Early voting for the Assessor’s race begins November 7, 2015 and runs through November 14, 2015. The run-off is November 21, 2015. To promote Gauff ’s candidacy, Gauff and Nicholas will team up to sponsor two events, which are free and open to the public. The first will take place at 750 Hwy 44 in Reserve on Saturday, November 7, 2015; the second will take place at 944 Cambridge Drive in LaPlace on Saturday, November 14, 2015.