LMR JUNE 2021

Feature
that we are going through, and we do not
have the same federal response and federal
aid that dozens of other communities
have received over the last 20 years.
“It took 10 days to act after Hurricane Katrina.
It took 34 days to act after Hurricane
Andrew. The most recent example, which
admittedly was too long, was it took 233
days to act after Hurricane Michael yet,
we are here, and we are setting another
record on the amount of time it takes to
get supplemental disaster aid. We’re also
setting a record on the frequency and ferocity
of natural disasters to this city.”
It has been widely publicized that every
level of government - from the president
to our congressional delegation to the
governor - has been in touch with Mayor
Hunter about the status of this important
American city, which is an energy epicenter
in the United States. Lake Charles’
pipeline infrastructure, tourism, port infrastructure,
and industries are vital to the
rest of the country. The nation needs Lake
Charles to fully recover, yet for months,
Hunter has been getting pats on the back while everyone says,
“you’re doing a great job” and “don’t worry - help is on the way.”
But to-date, tangible results have not materialized. When President
Biden’s budget came out in late May, supplemental disaster
aid was not included in the budget, and to Hunter, “that was
recently a pretty big wake-up call that something’s not right.”
“Residents of southwest Louisiana are just as much American as
any other citizen that was affected by a wildfire or earthquake
or hurricane or a flood in the past. There’s real suffering in this
region that equates to the level of suffering that has been in
the aftermath of other natural disasters.” Mayor Hunter has
asked repeatedly about the delay in aid and lack of urgency
by the federal government. The answer that he has consistently
received is that Washington DC is now more dysfunctional,
more polarized, and more stagnant than it has
been in generations.
Built on a Strong Foundation
Reflecting on the city’s historical fiscal management, Hunter
has proudly set the record straight that despite the unfortunate
national narrative and partisan talking points, the current
request for disaster aid is not tantamount to a poorly run city
looking for a handout or trying to stuff coffers. Lake Charles
is quite the opposite, with decades of transparent accounting
to establish that it has been extremely well run – and yet, their
pleas for disaster aid still seem to fall on deaf ears.
“I invite anyone to look at our budgets over the last 20 years
and I include my predecessor Mayor [Randy] Roach in this
conversation,” said Hunter. “We don’t run deficits in the City
of Lake Charles. We are a fiscally responsible city. We manage
our business well. The help that we are requesting, the aid we
are requesting is not to make city government more resilient
or recover from any type of issue pre-Laura. This is absolutely
in response to natural disasters that have wreaked havoc upon
our population and our citizenry. We have healthy reserves. To
date, we have not had to raise taxes, go into amounts of unhealthy
debt, do mass layoffs of public safety or other agencies
- and that was in the wake of COVID-19 and these natu-
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LMR | JUNE 2021 Page 11