Donaldsonville Council bids farewell to Brent Landry, Sandra Capone

Longtime council clerk Sandra Capone and council member Brent Landry completed their last regular meetings with the Donaldsonville City Council on Dec. 22.

Capone plans to retire from her position as clerk. Landry did not choose to run for his District 5 seat this year.

Voters elected Michael Sullivan over Thomas “Moose” Pearce to fill the council position in the upcoming term, set to begin in 2021.

Previously, the seat was held by Emile Spano, who passed away May 22, 2016 at age 68. He originally took office in 2007.

During a special meeting held May 31, 2016, the council unanimously approved the appointment of Landry to serve the remainder of Spano’s term.

In the closing moments of the Dec. 22 meeting, Landry said he was humbled to serve on the council.

“It’ll be an experience I’ll never forget,” he said.

Council members Raymond Aucoin, Lauthaught Delaney, and Reginald Francis all thanked Landry. Charles Brown was in attendance earlier in the meeting, but said he had to leave due to a death in his church family.

“We appreciate you for all you did,” Aucoin said.

Mayor Leroy Sullivan also hailed Landry’s work, saying he served with passion and always “stuck to his guns.”

In other matters:

-- Finance Director Sandra Cost Williams provided a report on sales tax collections.

She said the overall growth in year-over-year collections were “tremendous” for November, which represented October figures. 

The overall year-to-date increase has been 23 percent.

“We haven’t had any decreases. Everything has been an increase,” Williams said.

-- The council approved several invoices from GSA Consulting Engineers, which were analyzed during the previous Committee of the Whole meeting.

Sullivan said Barriere Construction, the contractor for the road project, has been finishing patch work at several locations around the city.

“They’re moving along very well,” the mayor said.

The contractor asked for an additional ten days due to weather issues, he added.

The estimated date for substantial completion is Jan. 9.