COVINGTON, La. — By the end of the week, St. Tammany residents will know who will lead the parish for the next four years.
Voters will either choose incumbent Mike Cooper or Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer. Both candidates are Republicans with political backgrounds and strong ties to the parish.
Cooper served two terms as Covington's Mayor before being elected as parish president in 2019. He took the office in 2020. He was at the helm through the pandemic and Hurricane Ida.
Meanwhile, Cromer served on the Slidell City Council for several years before serving three terms in the Louisiana legislature. In his last term as a state representative, he was elected to his current position as Slidell's mayor.
Cromer said, if elected, his top priority is forging strong relationships with the St. Tammany Parish Council.
“Just try to get people at a point where they’ll sit down and talk to each other. Instead of fighting and bickering and suing each other," Cromer said.
Cromer said once they can create 'harmony' they can look at the budget, keeping crime at bay and tackling infrastructure items. Whoever is the next parish president will work with a new council with at least six new faces and possibly as many as 13.
Meanwhile, Cooper said he's looking forward to a new council.
“The parish council may not have always agreed on how I governed, but I was always looking after our citizens," Cooper said.
Cooper said his top priority is infrastructure, and that development has outpaced the parish.
“Roads, bridges, drainage, water and sewage utilities, and even using federal dollars to address flood protection and coastal restoration projects on Lake Pontchartrain," Cooper said.
Cromer said his solution to the parish's rapid growth would be directing developers to where they can build.
“They’re creating runoff problems. They’re creating school problems. So, we’ve got to really get a handle on that and through comprehensive zoning determine where the growth will be, where the growth can go," Cromer said.