Clerk of Court Connie Couvillon leaving office July 2

Avoyelles Clerk of Court Connie Couvillon will retire before the end of her present term and leave office on July 2.

Her present clerk of court term of office would have run to June 30, 2020. The newly elected clerk takes office on July 1, 2020.

Chief Deputy Clerk Connie Desselle -- a candidate for Clerk of Court in the October election -- will assume the clerk’s duties for the remainder of Couvillon’s four-year term. Desselle has been with the clerk’s office for 22 years.

State law provides that the chief deputy clerk becomes the acting clerk of court if the office is vacated less than 12 months before a new clerk would take office.

Couvillon is in her second four-year term as clerk of court and has worked in the clerk’s office for 37 years. Couvillon and Desselle started under long time clerk Sammy Couvillon (no close relation), who endorsed Connie Couvillon when he did not seek re-election in 2011.

Couvillon had previously announced she would not seek re-election in the fall elections.

Three candidates have declared an intent to seek the office: Desselle, attorney Alissa Piazza Tassin and high school teacher/coach Chris Dupuy.

Qualifying for the Oct. 12 election is Aug. 6-8. A run-off would be held Nov. 6 if a candidate does not receive more than 50 percent of the votes cast in the October election.

Couvillon did not give a reason for her decision to retire before finishing her term.

The Clerk of Court’s Office is the parish’s primary record-keeper of legal documents and is the chief elections official in the parish.