ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — There are three T's St. Tammany Parish President-elect Mike Cooper wants to cross as soon as he can: traffic, taxes and trust.
Cooper spent part of his day Thursday in Mandeville having lunch with mayors from cities across the parish.
It's part of his efforts to organize his administration before he takes office, after he defeated incumbent Pat Brister, taking 61 percent of the vote.
"I was surprised at the size of the margin," Cooper said.
He's organized a transition team of 20 people. Among their goals: to figure out the most pressing needs for the parish.
“This is a beautiful parish, and it is a prosperous parish,” Cooper said. “We've got to address some of the growing pains that we have.”
Cooper, who served eight years as mayor of Covington, already has a rough blueprint for his time in the parish president's seat.
"We've got a growing population here, which means we have growing traffic and transportation needs," he said.
Cooper says he will work toward getting more state funding to help with that.
“Second is taxes,” Cooper said.
Cooper says he will review what money comes in and how it's spent. "And making sure that we're spending the money where it needs to go."
Cooper says he believes residents lost faith in parish leadership in part after recent efforts to raise sales taxes in some areas.
"I believe a number of these things put the parish leadership in jeopardy,” he said. “The citizens lost trust."
Cooper will be sworn in on Jan. 13.