BATON ROUGE — Baton Rouge voters will be able to vote on an amendment in the November election that will change the structure of the East Baton Rouge Parish government.

One of the proposed amendments will create the role of a city manager. Metro Councilmember Rowdy Gaudet said the role of Chief Administrative Officer will split into two roles: city manager and chief of staff. Gaudet said the mayor-president will still set and implement the visions of the city-parish. The city manager will run the day-to-day operations of the city government.

"A professional, qualified manager oversees the departments and makes sure we’re transparent with how we’re delivering the services, are we meeting metrics with how we’re delivering the services, and then frankly how do we improve delivering those services," he said.

He said the Chief of Staff role will handle political duties such as public engagement and communicating with council members. Currently, the mayor-president appoints a CAO. Under this proposed change, the East Baton Rouge Metro Council would be involved in hiring a city manager.

Mayor Sharon Weston-Broome and challenger Ted James have said the mayor should have the authority to name their person to the post.
Gaudet said this change will be beneficial to parish residents.

“If we want to improve the delivery of those services, frankly concentrating a manager to focus solely on that adds benefit ultimately to our residents,” said Gaudet.

There will also be an addition of an executive council to serve as the mayor president's attorney. Gaudet said the mayor-president would set the budget for the new office and pay the employees in that office from within that budget. Other changes to the executive branch are adding a residency requirement of two years for mayoral candidates.

The mayor-president will also provide a State of the Parish Address. It will be an open forum that will provide transparency to the public. If this amendment passes, it will take immediate effect.