Leesville mayor will not seek fourth term

Published 11:44 am Thursday, February 12, 2026

Rick Allen will not be seeking a fourth term as mayor of Leesville after 12 years serving the city.

Allen, who was born and raised in Leesville, began his first term in 2014. He said he decided to run for office when his brother, Mike — who was serving as a Leesville firefighter — told him the fire chief was mistreating staff. Allen said the mayor at the time wouldn’t address the issue so Allen ran for the seat, won and terminated the fire chief.

Allen said when he entered office in 2014, the city was “flat broke.” Now that is no longer the case thanks to department heads and City Administrator Patti Larney, he said.

Allen said when he first became mayor the city was unable to apply for State Capital Outlay because a 25 percent money match was required. Today the city has been in the top one percent of the entire state with a perfect audit since 2019.

“We have something we can hang our hat on here, to have an audit that’s in the top one percent of the whole state of Louisiana,” Allen said.

Allen said he often hears claims that the reason the city doesn’t grow is because of the “the old money people don’t want it to grow.” That’s not true, he said.

“The No. 1 reason is lack of population in the city limits, but no one wants to be annexed to increase the numbers to attract more business,” he said.

With Allen’s background in construction, the city negotiated the largest intergovernmental service agreement in the world with the federal government that generates $3.26 million per year and creates up to 40 jobs. He said the city was also blessed to land Champion Mobile Home that completely filled the industrial park buildings that had been vacant for years and created 300  jobs and brought in healthy rent payments to the city.

Allen said spending public money is a process. He said something such as paving Fourth Street can take up to 12 to 18 months before you even break ground.

“I promise the city of Leesville is more healthy now than it has ever been in its history because we have assembled the perfect team. That’s what I’m good at is building, the right team,” he said.

Allen said he is proud to leave the city in a great financial state with $20 million in the bank and a roadmap to success.

“When I started I wasn’t fortunate enough to have a smooth transition from the incumbent mayor that I beat to my administration, and I’m going to make sure whoever the next mayor is isn’t faced with that because that just causes problems,” he said.

Allen’s last day as mayor will be on June 30, but before he leaves there’s a few more items on his to do list — including the completion of the sports complex and bringing a high-end hotel at the complex entrance. He has several other projects in the works as well, including a possible Bass Pro Shop in the city.

Allen said when his administration ends, he plans on taking a break from politics, spend time with his wife and grandchildren, and see what God has in store for them next.

Allen said over the past 12 years the main thing he learned is that every complaint doesn’t require a response. He said sometimes people just want you to hear them out.

“I said when I was first elected in 2014 that I just didn’t want people to talk about my family or my church, but unfortunately social media has made it normal for people to spread or create lies without repercussions,” he said.

He said believes there will come a day when a slanderous attack on a person’s character will be a chargeable offense and social media will become what it was originally intended to be and that is a way to reconnect with friends and family.