Joey Durel

Lester Joseph "Joey" Durel, Jr.
Mayor-President of Lafayette, Louisiana
In office 2004–2016
Preceded by	Walter Comeaux
Succeeded by	Joel Robideaux
Born	April 3, 1953 Lafayette, Louisiana
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Lynne Miller Durel (married 1973)
Children	Nicole D. Hébert (born 1975) Jason Durel (born 1977) Natalie D. Broussard (born 1982)
Profession	Businessman
Religion	Roman Catholic

Lester Joseph Durel, Jr., known as Joey Durel (born April 3, 1953), is the former Mayor-President of the combined city and parish government of Lafayette in south Louisiana. Elected in 2003, he became only the second Republican mayor of his city and the second person elected as "City-Parish President." A small businessman, Durel had never before sought political office.

Durel served from 2004 to 2016 for the three terms allowed under the city-parish charter.

Background[edit]

Durel was born in Lafayette to Lester J. Durel, Sr. (1921-2013), who launched the first "Durel's Pet Shop" in Lafayette in 1951. The business remained in family hands until all of the outlets were sold in 2004.^[1] Durel graduated in 1971 from the Roman Catholic 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^[2]

In 1973, Durel married the former Lynne Miller, also a Lafayette native. They have three children. In 2013, Mrs. Durel was seriously injured in a four-car accident but recovered after surgery.^[3]

Business pursuits[edit]

A month after he graduated from college, Durel went to work in his family's pet shop and opened a second outlet in 1976. He met a private payroll every year until his election as Mayor-President. He was also involved in several other businesses, including Arby's Restaurants. At one time, he managed some 150 employees in 8 retail stores. In 1996, he was named the "Sam Walton Small Businessman of the Year."^[2]

Durel is a graduate of "Leadership Lafayette Class X" and "Leadership Louisiana." Without that experience, he said that he likely would have never run for mayor.^[4] In 2001, he was named chairman of the board of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce.^[2] He was appointed by then Republican Governor Murphy James "Mike" Foster, Jr., to the Small Business Task Force. He is the past chairman of the advisory committee of UL Athletics.

Durel becomes a Republican[edit]

Though he registered at age eighteen as a Democrat in 1971, he switched affiliation to Republican in 1978. However, he since indicated that he did not see himself allied with either major party as part of his work as Mayor-President.^[2] the same position taken by Republican Mayor Tom Colten of Minden. The first Lafayette Republican mayor since Reconstruction, Dud Lastrapes, served from 1980 to 1992, when the office reverted to Democratic occupancy. Durel hence reclaimed for his party the mayoralty-parish presidency, which was merged through a popular referendum.

While mayor, he hosted a weekly call-in radio program on KPEL entitled Lafayette Live with Joey Durel through which he brought issues to public attention.^[2]The last segment of the program aired on December 31, 2015, just days before he left office.^[5]

The election of 2003[edit]

In 2003, the then incumbent Mayor-President, Democrat Walter Comeaux, declined to seek a third term, and instead supported fellow Democrat Glenn M. Weber in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 4, 2003.

The only Republican in the field, Durel led the primary with 41 percent of the vote, compared to 29 percent for Weber and 19 percent for Floyd Domingue, a Democrat and a land man, one who obtains land for oil drilling rights. Three lesser candidates divided the remaining 11 percent of the vote.^[6]

Durel and Weber hence entered the general election held on November 15, 2003. 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 Blanco's 32,734 (48 percent). Blanco hence 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.^[7]

Asked how he won the mayor-presidency as a candidate without previous political 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.

Second term[edit]

As he prepared to seek his second term, Durel's hand-picked police chief, Randy Hundley, faced indictment for planting a secret recording device in the department to capture the conversations of subordinates. Voters had also soundly defeated a 1-cent sales tax proposal Durel floated in 2015. Yet Durel was unopposed for his second term, and four years later had little trouble winning a third term with 63 percent of the vote when challenged by Democrat Mike Stagg.^[8]

Durel was presented with the "Distinguished Citizen Award" by the Boy Scouts. The Independent Weekly in Lafayette praised Durel for his support of the arts and cultural community. In an editorial dated August 4, 2010, Walter Pierce said that he had trouble praising politicians and especially Republican politicians, but that Durel has earned accolades. This was a result of Durel's support of the arts and his efforts to preserve one hundred acres in the center of Lafayette for a park.

In 2009, Durel testified before the U.S. Congress about the need for expanded municipal broadband.^[9] In September 2010, Durel removed sitting members of the Lafayette Housing Authority before a public hearing. For his actions, Durel was nearly charged with contempt of court by 15th Judicial District Court Judge Edward Rubin. The LHA board members that Durel dismissed were later re-instated by Judge Rubin in a decision critical of Durel's excessive influence over the process. However, since then, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development took over the troubled housing authority that was wrought with corruption and required to repay $2.9 million in misspent revenues. The Louisiana Supreme Court overturned Rubin's charges against Durel.^[10]

Third term[edit]

Durel became the first person elected to serve as Lafayette City-Parish President for three terms. He presented what he called a “one-year, one-cent, one-project” tax proposal for funding specific infrastructure projects with temporary sales taxes. In particular, Durel hoped that this mechanism would help fund a new terminal at Lafayette Regional Airport. That idea came to fruition as the tax-financing plan to build a new terminal at Lafayette Regional Airport — an eight-month parish-wide sales tax was expected to generate more than $35 million of the roughly $90 million cost of the terminal. Voters embraced the plan 59 percent of the vote in a special election on December 6, 2014.^[11]

In 2014, Durel said that the consolidated government which he headed was "not working" because of a lack of trust between the city and parish. He called for a "taller wall" between the two entities. Durel said that he would not likely support further increases in taxes unless the structural problems of the consolidated government could be resolved.^[12]

CEO of the Year[edit]

In a 2010 business luncheon held at the Lafayette Cajundome and Convention Center, Durel was named "CEO of the Year." This event was hosted by The Independent Weekly, which has both criticized and praised Durel over the years. A surprised Durel gave credit to the business community for much of the success of his administration.

In 2015, Durel received the Moody Award for his work as Mayor-President. He was called the "No. 1 Lafayette salesman." ^[13]

After his mayoral tenure, Durel has been a self-employed Realtor with Keaty Real Estate.^[4]

References[edit]