He said she encouraged him to run for mayor.Īfter talking the possibility over with his wife, Jean, Marcantel decided to run.
Marcantel said it was Christmas 1988 when he learned Meyer had decided not to seek another term. Things became more challenging in late 1988, when then-mayor Jennifer Meyer decided to not seek re-election. “I was very interested in finding out whether or not Jennings could improve its economic situation by promoting tourism as a form of economic development, because it seemed to me that could be the most immediate help in trying to turn the economy around,” he said. While recognizing the challenges, Marcantel said he also felt there were opportunities. There had been no capital improvements for several years, because the city was conserving as much as possible to operate, Marcantel said. The police and fire departments were the only ones continuing to work-full time, he said. “We had placed almost all the employees on a 32-hour work week, and City Hall was closed on Fridays,” he said. Sales taxes had dropped over $1 million in just 18 months, the city was running out of money and a quarter of the residents were unemployed, he said. Marcantel recalls that the city was in a “pretty dire financial status” following the oil bust in the late 1980s. “It didn’t surprise me when he ran for mayor, because I thought it sounded like him.” “He took a lot of bookkeeping classes in high school and was at the top of the class,” Hebert said. “I’ve always been fascinated by finance,s and that’s the part of government I like most, figuring out ways to use the financial resources of government,” he said.įormer classmate Connie Davis Hebert remembers Marcantel as a “bookworm.” That initial investment made money, which resulted in Marcantel convincing his brother and sister to turn their life savings over to him for investment. “I remember his (stockbroker’s) face just went, oh my goodness, ‘I’ve wasted two hours, and my commission is going to be 52-cents on this sale.’ But he was very polite and very nice and treated me just like I was a little Rockefeller with my $34,” he said. Marcantel’s first investment was $34 in American Research. He actually took me out of school one day and brought me to a stockbroker’s office in Lake Charles, and the stockbroker showed me all the stuff and we watched the ticker-tape. “My father thought that I was weird, and I bugged him so much … I had $30 that I wanted to invest. We had the Times-Picayune delivered to the house every day, and I’d pore over the financial pages,” he said. “I used to read the finance pages of the Times-Picayune. Marcantel said he knew he would become an accountant at age 12, when he made his first stock investment.
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