Mr. Charles Owens III is one of 17 candidates running to fill 5 Council seats on the Grambling City Council this upcoming election October 2, 2010. He currently serves as the Director of Auxiliary Services for the Lincoln Parish School Board and is a life long resident of Grambling, LA who is married with 3 grown children.
Mr. Owens has worked for the Lincoln Parish School Board for 24 years and is a former Lincoln Parish Police Juror who served from 1984 through 2009. He was responsible for providing parish-wide fire protection, connecting Grambling with a water loop with Ruston, for building and donating the clinic in Grambling, installing fire hydrants and upgrading the water system in the Mt. Olive district and obtaining a grant for installing 10 miles of gas pipeline to rural areas in the parish.
As a police juror, Mr. Owens also set up the bill collection office for the water system in Grambling next to the water tank on the north side of the interstate, and built a fire station in that area which made made lower insurance rates available to homeowners in that area.
His current duties as Director of Auxiliary Services include overseeing a staff of approximately 300 people including bus drivers, lunch room workers and maintenance people. He is also a veteran from the Viet Nam era who specializes in facilities planning.
Mr. Owens’ qualifications include the ability to interpret blueprints, his understanding of infrastructure, utilities rate structure, and he knows where to get any technical engineering information that Grambling might need.
Mr. Owens vowed to help protect the citizens of Grambling and said as a newly elected Council Member, he would initiate an ordinance that puts a stop to the way each Grambling Council Member receives $350 extra pay (for a total of $1,750) every time a Special Called Meeting is held. That ordinance would ensure that the Council gets paid a flat rate salary like all other major municipalities in northern Louisiana no matter how many Special Called Meetings are held.
The Fount asked Mr. Owens: “With all the trouble that the City of Grambling’s administration has been going through both in the media and internally, why are you running for a seat on the Grambling City Council?” Mr. Owens had this to say:
“Given the wealth of brainpower in Grambling, there’s just no excuse to be in this condition. Instead of coming together we’ve been drifting apart over the past few years and the current state of affairs is an embarrassment to our forefathers. I’m not running against anybody, but I’m running for Grambling. I’m not criticizing anybody, but we need to reunite Grambling through mutual respect, brotherly love and a spirit of cooperation. Together, we can and we will do better and I want to do my part to restore dignity to City Hall.”
Candidate Profile #3
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