The Shreveport City Council will have its first regular meeting of the year on Tuesday, Jan. 14. A key agenda item will be the election of officers for the year.

Currently, Jerry Bowman Jr. is the council chairperson. John Nickelson is the vice-chairman. In the past, the council generally bumped up the vice-chair to the chairmanship.

In 2018, Bowman was the chair and Oliver Jenkins was the vice-chair. Jenkins was termed out at the end of that year.

Reportedly, James Flurry will be elected the chair. He has the support of the other incumbent council members — Bowman, James Green and Willie Bradford.

Who will be elected the vice-chair is an open question. Historically the chair and vice chair are different races — i.e., one officer was white and one was black.

In other significant news, Nickelson is rumored to be the leading candidate for the potential vacancy for the U.S. Attorney of the Western District of Louisiana. Current U.S. Attorney David Joseph is considered to be the top candidate to become a new federal judge in Alexandria.

If that scenario plays out, Nickelson would be required to resign his council seat. Under council rules the remaining six council members would elect an interim council representative of District C. The interim appointee would hold office until an election was held, which would probably on the same date as the November presidential election.

Patrick Kirton ran for the open council seat against Nickelson in the fall 2018. If interested, Kirton would be a strong candidate for the interim selection.

This Article was published in the January 3rd issue of The Inquisitor.