As the gavel was passed from the outgoing president to the new, history was made as the Evangeline Parish Police Jury named its first African-American president.
“It feels pretty good to be able to just become the first African-American president, and it’s something I saw in the near future being that I served as the vice president under Mr. (Ryan) Ardoin for four years,” said Ryan “Leday” Williams on the day after he got selected.
Williams said that being the first African-American president is big for the community and is an honor, but the parish comes first. He said, “It’s a pleasure to be the first one, and I just want to continue working and move Evangeline Parish forward.”
One advantage for Williams as president is the fact that he previously served as vice president. “Ryan Ardoin and I worked real well together,” he said. “He would get my input on pretty much all the decisions that he would make, and we would work together and come up with the best solution possible.”
That same working relationship will continue with Ardoin now serving as vice president.
Williams identified some issues facing the parish that he would like to address as president. “The main ones we have is the sales tax collection,” he stated. “They’re a little lower than we usually get, but we’ve been fortunate throughout the past few years that what we’ve spent lower than what we projected to spend. We were able to keep everything flowing.”
Another main issue is drainage, and, as president of the police jury, Williams will sit on the Acadiana Planning Commission that has received $25 million which was strictly dedicated to flooding. “We’re trying to get a portion of that $25 million for Evangeline Parish,” he said. “We’re trying to find some property to create some kind of retention pond to absorb a lot of water that comes to the parish. It might be multiple sites that we’re trying to seek and get funding for.”
Williams also touched on some ideas to address these issues and to move the parish forward. “First thing first, we want to continue to spend the parish’s money properly and efficiently,” he said. “We want to continue doing work throughout the parish showing people that we are working and getting jobs tackled and done, even though it’s a long list of different projects that we have going on.”
He continued, “Basically, just keeping everything in order with checks and balances and making our work environment safe for all the employees.”
Other ideas to move the parish forward are increasing industry and tourism. For Williams, industry is “a big thing that Evangeline Parish needs to continue to grow and prosper.” He added, “We have our Industrial Board and Mr. Tojo Ward who helps us tremendously reaching out to different parishes and businesses to attract them and get them to come to our parish.”
Williams announced that a few industries are in the making. “It’s not definite, but it’s looking good,” he said. “We will have industries coming to the parish in the near future, and, along with that, we’ll create more jobs and get more taxes.”
He also said what the police jury can do to attract more industry. “We just need to try to offer as much as we can for the businesses that are trying to come here,” he Williams said. “Even if we have to have some type of incentive to attract them to get here, we’re willing to negotiate, and we’ll go from there.”
Williams, who graduated from Ville Platte High in 2003 and went on to attend McNeese State University, did not see politics as something he would get into. “After Ronald Doucet became marshal, I saw fit that I could do a good job as a police juror, and, 10 years later, I’m still doing my job and serving the public.”
The newly elected president reflected on his 10 years on the jury. “One of the biggest things that I did in my district is I had two brand new waste water systems in my district,” Williams said. “I overlayed plenty of roads that were gravel into blacktop, and, as far as the drainage, we tackled pretty much all the issues that we could to keep the drainage flowing.”
Williams concluded by saying that he is comfortable and humbled by being named police jury president. He also reiterated his vision for the parish by saying, “I’d like everybody to be in one accord and work together to continue to move the parish forward.