Opelousas is a once grand old city rooted in grit, creativity, decay, and resilience. However, our potential is limited by a pattern too few confront: the people in city government making many of the most important decisions and earning the highest salaries don’t actually live here.
Our city attorney’s office is located in Lafayette. And, according to my sources, the Chief Administrative Officer, Public Works Director, Fire Chief (and his top assistant), as well as the head of parish economic development, all live outside the city and parish.
Exactly how many Opelousas public servants live elsewhere is yet to be fully disclosed. At the most recent Special City Council meeting, questions were raised, and answers are slowly leaking out. Comprehensive transparency remains elusive.
Some of these administrative leaders take home city vehicles. Some have special monthly car allowances. Some have both. All of them take home city or parish-funded paychecks. What they drive away from is a commitment to a fully vested stake in the well-being of Opelousas.
This is what you might call “administrative colonization”: a model in which public leaders extract salaries from a struggling, poor city while investing their lives and dollars elsewhere in a wealthier, better-run community. It’s not just problematic, it’s corrosive.
These are essential jobs, and we need the best people for them. But when those individuals don’t live in Opelousas, it disrupts the feedback loop that keeps local government accountable. They don’t commute on our streets every day. Their children aren’t enrolled in our schools. Their property taxes don’t support our parish or community. Their lawn signs aren’t visible during local elections.
That distance signifies a disinvestment in the community they serve. It represents a lack of faith in the people whose hard work and taxes fund their paychecks.
This isn’t about punishing individuals. It’s about exposing a system that rewards disconnection and undermines our progress. The fact that some of our highest-paid public servants don’t live here isn’t just a staffing problem; it’s a crisis of confidence and trust.
Would Lafayette tolerate this? Would any self-respecting city allow its leadership to be so externally rooted?
There are ways to change this. We can prioritize local residency in our hiring practices. We can offer assistance in helping city staff relocate. We can invest in leadership pipelines that lift up local talent. But first, we have to admit that it’s a problem.
We say we want Opelousas to grow, but growth doesn’t happen when we outsource belief. It occurs when people who love this place step up and make a commitment to living in the city they’re paid to lead.
If the highest-salaried positions in city and parish government are held by people who live, pay taxes, vote, and send their children to schools elsewhere, Opelousas taxpayers are unknowingly double-burdened and on the hook for supporting another community and parish. That kind of leadership results in fiscal and moral slippage, regardless of the qualifications of the people involved.
It is often said that if you want others to love you, you must first love yourself. Opelousas is the same way. If we want people to love our city, we need to love living here, and so do our highest-paid leaders. As we face an increasingly daunting future, this situation represents yet another investment that falls short of what is needed in the moment. We can and must do better.
We are all in this together, at least those of us who live here!
NOLAmotion Blog 