On Nov. 5, East Baton Rouge Parish voters will decide the fate of a set of sweeping changes to the city-parish’s Plan of Government.
Among the most substantive changes is the proposal to do away with the position of chief administrative officer and introduce the positions of chief of staff and city-parish manager in its stead.
But what would those changes actually look like in practice, and how have comparable cities embraced similar models?
HOW IT WOULD WORK
According to District 3 Metro Council member Rowdy Gaudet, the proposal aims to create a distinct separation between managerial and political duties within the mayor’s office. Under the current Plan of Government, the CAO is tasked with a broad range of responsibilities, from managing department heads to maintaining political relationships.
Gaudet says that model can often place an overwhelming burden on the CAO and that splitting those duties up would boost both efficiency and responsiveness to resident needs.
“The current job of the CAO encompasses effectively all things to serve a mayor. … Having one person in that catchall role is an outdated model,” Gaudet says.
If voters approve the Plan of Government changes, the city-parish manager would focus solely on departmental management and service delivery—“running the day-to-day operations of city-parish government,” as Gaudet puts it—while removing politics from the equation. The chief of staff, meanwhile, would be responsible for developing policy, engaging with the community and maintaining relationships with Metro Council members.
The city-parish manager would be appointed by the mayor, but that appointment would be subject to Metro Council confirmation. Currently, council members do not have a say in who is hired as CAO. The mayor would be able to remove the city-parish manager at any time without Metro Council approval.
Notably, would-be city-parish managers would need to meet a set of education and experience requirements: The position would require a bachelor’s or master’s degree “preferably in business administration, finance, public administration or a related field of management or a degree in the field of law” as well as at least five years’ experience in an administrative capacity in municipal or state government or in an executive management capacity. No such requirements currently exist for the CAO.
“To me, this is what a legislative branch should be doing,” Gaudet says. “We should constantly be looking for areas where we need to make improvements to our form of government.”
As for what the city-parish manager’s salary would look like, Gaudet says only that compensation would be decided through a discussion between the mayor’s office and the Metro Council as part of standard budget talks.
District 5 Metro Council member Darryl Hurst says he supports the introduction of the city-parish manager position largely because of the aforementioned hiring criteria.
“When a new administration comes in—whether it be after this election or in the future—I want to know that the person [with these duties] is qualified,” Hurst says.
Another of the proposal’s merits, according to Hurst, would be the Metro Council’s ability to weigh in on who the mayor appoints to the position. This, he says, would allow council members to ensure that the mayor’s appointee has the city’s best interests at heart.
“I want to know that the city-parish manager is willing to listen to us and work with us to make sure that all of Baton Rouge is taken care of, but especially north Baton Rouge, where a lot of the challenges in our city come from,” Hurst says. “My goal is to make sure the next 10 years don’t look like the past 40.”
HOW OTHER CITIES DO IT
The managerial model in question is not a new one and has in fact been adopted by many local governments across the country. The model may date back to as early as 1908, and in the time since, a number of once-small but now-prominent cities appointed their own managers, including Austin, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; and Phoenix.
According to the International City/County Management Association’s 2018 Municipal Form of Government Survey, 40% of local governments with at least 2,500 residents use a council-manager form of government and 38% use a mayor-council form of government.
Under a council-manager form of government, a chief elected official (e.g., mayor) and an elected council are responsible for developing policy while a professional manager runs day-to-day operations. Under a mayor-council form of government, a chief elected official serves as the head of government and possesses significant administrative authority while an elected council serves as a legislative body. Baton Rouge currently uses a “strong mayor” mayor-council form of government.
According to Jason Grant, advocacy director for the ICMA, the council-manager model is designed to minimize political corruption by ensuring that the individual responsible for running the day-to-day operations of government is a professional rather than a political appointee. The idea is that such appointees are less likely to be driven by the short-term political goals that might drive elected officials, meaning they are able to focus exclusively on long-term planning and operational efficiency.
“You’re 60 percent less likely to see corruption convictions under a council-manager form of government versus a mayor-council form of government,” Grant says, referencing data collected by the ICMA.
Council-manager cities, Grant says, also tend to enjoy higher bond ratings and find greater success when implementing cost-saving measures. The model could even have its advantages when it comes to economic development.
“Council-manager cities are more likely to implement incentives that grow jobs and stabilize their local economies,” Grant says. “Mayor-council cities are less likely to implement those types of incentives.”
State Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, fully supports the Plan of Government changes and points to recent CAO turnover as a prime example of the current model’s shortcomings. Current CAO Dante Bidwell is the fifth person to hold the position since Mayor Sharon Weston Broome took office in 2017.
“That [turnover] is unacceptable for a city that is the capital of its state with a top flagship university and top industry,” McMakin says. “We can’t be having people coming here that can’t get the job done.”
According to McMakin, introducing the position of city-parish manager would go a long way toward “bringing Baton Rouge to the 21st century.” The current Plan of Government was adopted in 1947 and has since been amended 17 times.
“Putting a person in place who has the proper credentials would help Baton Rouge become the city that it needs to become,” McMakin says. “It would set us on a path toward competing with other top cities that have this structure.”
THE OPPOSITION
Not every major player in Baton Rouge supports the proposal.
While a majority of Metro Council members did vote to approve the ballot item at the council’s March 27 meeting, two council members—Chauna Banks (District 2) and Carolyn Coleman (District 10)—voted against it. Cleve Dunn Jr. (District 6) and then-Mayor Pro Tempore Lamont Cole abstained from voting.
At that meeting, Banks said she harbored concerns over how much the Plan of Government changes would cost the city. If voters approve the proposed changes, the position of executive counsel would be introduced to the mayor’s office alongside the positions of chief of staff and city-parish manager while the position of CAO would be eliminated.
“What it looks like to me is we’re going to be top heavy,” Banks said. “It does not appear that there is an elimination of many of these positions but there are additions to the positions. What comes with that is salaries and benefits. We have this issue of not being able to bring our workforce into a reasonable pay but yet most of these positions are probably [going to be making] six digits.”
Coleman, meanwhile, said she was primarily concerned about the city-parish manager position stripping power away from the mayor.
“I went to the [Conference of Mayors] and there were some mayors there that had the position of city manager, and from what I gathered, it was a difficult spot to be in,” Coleman said. “That’s because all the mayor would be doing is kissing babies and cutting ribbons and the manager would be running the city.”
In September, two leading Democratic mayoral candidates—Broome and former state Rep. Ted James—both criticized the proposal in separate interviews with Business Report.
Broome said she believes the Metro Council’s motivation is “certainly to move our system of government forward” but also that Baton Rouge’s current strong mayor system is “essential in our consolidated government.”
“The city-parish manager proposal really does bring me some pause,” Broome said. “I’ve always said that the issue … is more about salary than the need for change. I’m committed to building a leadership staff around me that, at the end of the day, will help me deliver and win. I encourage voters to really consider the proposal and its impacts.”
It’s worth noting that Broome expressed her support for the proposal on March 27 after the aforementioned Metro Council vote.
James said his concern over the proposal is twofold.
“First, there are some Plan of Government changes that I would like to propose,” James said. “I’d like the new administration and the new council to have an opportunity to look at the Plan of Government and not ask the people of the parish to accept changes this year and again next year. Second, I don’t need a Plan of Government change to tell me that we need a credentialed hire to help me fulfill my vision for the parish. I’ve already committed to doing that.”
Read more about the proposed changes to Baton Rouge’s Plan of Government.
