We welcome Broussard Mayor Ray Bourque, a lifelong resident of Broussard who has dedicated his career to public service and business. Before being elected mayor in 2018, he served eight years as a city councilman for District 3 and has co-owned Touche Printing and Signs for more than three decades. He also served as board president of the Broussard Chamber of Commerce. Most importantly, he has supported community projects that enhance quality of life for his city’s residents, such as expanded recreational facilities and infrastructure improvements that keep up with Broussard’s rapid growth.
A Growing City with Deep Roots
Mayor Bourque highlighted Broussard’s rapid growth:
“Our recent census estimate from LSU in the state puts Broussard at 17,300 people, roughly. And back in the 2020 census, we were 13,400 people. So we are growing rapidly, exponentially.”
Despite the growth, the mayor emphasizes community values: “I always say to people in Broussard that we’re all neighbors. I’ve grown up there. I have so many lifelong friends that knew me since I was a child that are in Broussard. But we also have so many new residents because we’re a growing community.”
The Three Pillars of Leadership
When making decisions for the city, Mayor Bourque and the City Council focus on “Public safety, quality of life and economic development. When we’re making decisions on a project or an initiative, we try to make sure it checks at least two of those boxes.
“Those three things are very relatable, that one cannot wholly exist without the other. If you’re doing a quality of life initiative, it is generally good for economic development and vice versa. And public safety is just an umbrella that captures it all. If we don’t have a safe community, then all the other things are held back. We can’t invite people to move, or to spend time, or to come spend money in our community without providing a safe community. But it starts with a culture of our employees in Broussard, really focusing on hospitality. If you call city government, do you feel like that person is trying to help you on the other end of the phone? Or if you have a question or a problem and we come out and meet with you, sometimes the answer is no, but you can say no in a professional way. The goal is to try to help people, because everyone deserves to be valued, especially by their city government, because we’re really serving those people. We have to do intentional work, and that intentional work is to grow our community, to invest in our own economy, to control that economy if we can, because it’s the driver to help us fund police departments and fire departments and all the initiatives that we want to do in Broussard. So getting new customers in our city for our businesses to be able to work with is important.”
Business-Friendly Policies
Broussard has long attracted businesses by not levying a city property tax or inventory tax: “It’s worked for us. Sales tax is our driver, which means we have to have people working in our city. We have to have commerce in our city. That’s how we drive our tax revenues and can fund police, fire, etc.”
He sees the city’s role as being a partner to business owners: “Our job is to cultivate an environment where people can be successful and businesses can be successful. Ultimately we win or lose together.”
Infrastructure and Economic Development
Preparedness is key:
“If a business wants to place a facility in your city…and I have to say no, but in two years I can be ready, they’re going somewhere else. We’re not waiting on that. We’re building it now.”
Broussard has master plan underway for water, drainage, and downtown redevelopment. The city recently secured a $3,710,000 grant from the State of Louisiana, Office of Community Development – Water Sector Commission for water system improvements. The Water Sector Program – Phase 2 grant award will be used to help fund the city’s water system improvement master plan. The $10 million, five-part water system master plan was developed in July 2024 and is a blueprint to expand and enhance the city’s water supply system by upgrading storage, capacity, water system modeling, system rehabilitation, and interconnectivity.
To keep up with its growth, a master plan called Envision Broussard has been in the works to refresh and revitalize Broussard’s Main Street and its historic downtown. The plan includes new additions designed to make the city more walkable and bikeable. The oaks along Main Street have been trimmed. “You couldn’t buy a 300 year old oak tree to put on Main Street and put a light on it. When we were doing all this planning, we saw these oak trees overgrown, full of poison ivy.. And we said, why aren’t we doing something this with? We probably have 15 or 20 of them on that drive into Main Street. Let’s light them up at night. Let’s clean them up. Let’s make it look better. And the result was phenomenal.”
Collaboration Across the Parish
“We have some very strong mayors in our parish right now, some of which I’ve worked for with for a long time. There is an attitude of cooperation. You go through a couple of hard times like hurricanes, floods, or Covid, and you see relationships where you can lean on each other. The people that jump up and help each other are the other cities. That is good for the people of this parish. We need to spend our time raising the bar on what’s possible in our area, not worrying about local politics. The level of Broussard’s success is raised higher by the success of the other communities around us. When they’re doing well, we can do better, and that’s an important thing to focus on.”
Quality of Life Initiatives
Broussard continues to be recognized statewide:
Second Cleanest City in Louisiana (Louisiana Garden Club)
Ranked among the Best Suburbs to Live in Louisiana
One of the Top Ten Safest Cities in Louisiana
The city hosts family-friendly events such as the upcoming inaugural Monsters on Main family event coming up on October 10, 2025. “You can be a walking group, a bicycle group, or a golf cart group, going down Main Street. We’re going to give out some trophies for Spookiness and so on.”
Mayor Bourque also praised the Broussard Sports Complex at St. Julien Park:
“When we first built that park, we wanted it to be as clean as Disney World. And that park stays clean. The staff took that very seriously, and they have a lot of pride in their work.”
“Our city council recently funded a $9 million expansion of St. Julien Park, so we’re adding pickleball courts, 16 of which will be under a giant pavilion. We’re adding an observation deck and a pro shop. It’s an expansion of the tennis facility into pickleball. New parking lot and a Veterans Memorial. That is something we’ve been working on for a while. And the council supported it heavily and we just funded it. Phase one is out for bid right now. For more info on St. Julien Park, visit https://www.broussardsportscomplex.com/
“Zoosiana (which is privately owned) is within the city limits of Broussard. What an asset they are. I mean, how many cities can say they have a zoo in their city?”
Looking Ahead
Mayor Bourque hopes his legacy is simple:
“I’d like people to think that I cared about it genuinely, and I did a good job, and I was doing the right things for the community… I would like to leave it better than I found it.”
On advice for future leaders thinking of seeking an elected office: “If you want to help people, it’s a good place to be. But there’s a lot to learn. So listen more than you talk. Respect the ones that are there before you and try to learn something before you get in there. And then go in there and lead with love.”
“I love talking about Broussard. Our city is evolving. People evolve as the years go by. Cities are the same way. They have personalities like people, and it’s the same as our families. What are we? What are we spending time on? What are we investing in? You know, intentional work, right. Those things are very important. So I’m blessed to be here. I’m happy to be here. I’m going do the best I can for as long as I can.”
