By the time this is published, Governor John Bel Edwards may have made his appointment for the Shreveport City Council District E open seat. This new member will be welcomed to the Big Show with a plateful of upcoming votes, most of which will not be easy ones.
For starters, the new player will join a divided council that will be trying to recover from the split vote on a pay raise for Shreveport first responders at Tuesday's council meeting. Unlike other issues which have deadlocked the council, several council members made statements that will pose challenges for future compromises on pay raises for all Shreveport employees, not just first responders.
Another issue that must be resolved in the upcoming months will be the approval of redistricting of the council districts as required after the 2020 census. The threshold question will be the number of African-American districts. Currently, there are four, and many observers expect a push for five majority African-American districts to be approved by the council.
The council will also be dealing with the proposed rental housing standard ordinance that was remanded to the Shreveport Caddo Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) for citizen input. All parties acknowledge the need for minimum standards but the proposed ordinance is troublesome with the lack of meaningful enforcement options against slumlords while burdening all landlords with permit fees.
Another look down the gun barrel issue will be the requested revision of the Shreveport liquor store ordinance. The MPC board, at the urging of the council, voted a six-month moratorium on the issuance of new liquor store permits. It’s unlikely that a new ordinance can be adopted within that timeframe, and a request for moratorium extension could be a controversial issue.
The proposed recycling contract has been delayed many times at the request of Councilman James Green, who is opposed to the council-added requirement of a $1 million performance bond. One can expect the new player to be lobbied to delete this contract term, which would then open the door for the minority bidder with no experience and no equipment to get the contract.
The Shreveport Caddo Metropolitan Planning Commission becomes the Shreveport Metropolitan Planning Commission on Jan. 1, with four of the nine board members appointed by the Caddo Commission and one joint appointee of the council and the commission. One of the parish appointees lives in the parish, not the city. The council will be pushed to adopt an ordinance that provides that all nine appointees be made by the city.
The city of Shreveport is expected to receive at least $24 million as its second payment of the American Rescue Plan moneys in 2022. And if President Biden's infrastructure bill is passed by Congress, additional federal dollars will be received by the city. The council's determinations of how these city moneys will be expended could provide for more difficult council decisions.
Next year, the council will also be asked to approve the nominations of Mayor Perkins’ selections for the permanent police chief and fire chief. Generally, these have not been controversial, although Perkins' selection of Ben Raymond did result in much council discussion noise after his selection committee differed in his nomination.
The new council member will serve until Dec. 31, 2022, and will not be prohibited from seeking election for a four-year term in November of next year. The upcoming issues that will come before the council in the first few months of service will provide many challenges.
