By noon on Saturday, Dec. 31, Shreveport will have a new mayor and a new council.
Tom Arceneaux, the new mayor, is no stranger to city hall, having served eight years on the council.
Grayson Boucher, James Green, Tabatha Taylor and Alan Jackson served on the 2022 council. Joining these holdovers are newbies Gary Brooks, Ursula Bowman and Jim Taliaferro.
Mayor Tom has met with all the incoming council members before taking his oath in an effort to establish repertoire from day one.
Mayor Tom starts off with the three key city positions filled with interim people: chief administrative officer (CAO) Tom Dark, financial director Sherricka Fields-Jones and city attorney Zelda Tucker (part-time basis.)
Mayor Toms has said he will conduct a nationwide search to fill the CAO position. He does not intend to fill the chief financial officer (CFO) position because he wants that position revoked by the city council. He has offered the financial director to Fields-Jones as a permanent position, which she is considering. Mayor Toms wants to do a statewide search to find a full-time municipal law expert to be his city attorney.
The new leadership team of mayor and council has many important issues that should be addressed. The list is long, but here are some of the most pressing:
1. The dwindling Shreveport police force and its impact on crime prevention and crime resolution.
2. Compliance with the EPA consent decree on sanitary sewage overflows.
3. Continuing problems with the city's water and sewer lines that were exacerbated during the recent Arctic winter blast.
4. Funding the 13% pay raise for city employees enacted in January 2022 and underwritten with American Rescue Funds.
5. Planning/construction of the new Shreveport Police headquarters on Texas Avenue and three police substations.
6. Prioritizing the much-needed, and substantially underfunded, resources for street repairs.
7. Deciding the plight of Fair Grounds Field, which has been partially demolished.
These issues are not new. Some started with the outgoing council, and some were inherited by that group.
Mayor Tom will need council approval for his permanent hires for CAO, financial director, repeal of the CFO ordinance and city attorney. Hopefully, the council will vote unanimously to approve these appointments plus all others that need council approval.
There have been some quiet talk that a majority of the council consisting of the four African American members may dig in their heels and block some of the new mayor's actions. Hopefully, this will not be the case.
Shreveport has not had a "strong mayor" since the days of former Mayor Keith Hightower. He first tried to work with his council and only when needed exercised his inherent powers to coalesce a majority of the council.
Former Mayor Ollie Tyler understood the power of the mayor's office much better than Mayor Perkins. None of them, including former Mayor Cedric Glover, were as adept as Hightower.
The holdover council members, and the incoming as well, should be cognizant of the need for peaceful coexistence with the mayor, who can make council members look good or not so great.
The mayor can instruct department heads to refer requests from council members to his office. Council members do not have the right to contact department heads. including police and fire personnel. as if they were there BFFs (best friends forever). The mayor, not the council, sets the priorities for department heads.
The mayor is not obliged to notify council members of key developments by the administration in their districts before issuing press releases or inviting them to press conferences for announcements.
The mayor has discretion on whether to actually spend the money set forth in the budget for project. Just because the council approves a project in a district does not mean that the mayor must initiate it or sign the contract to implement the project funding.
The mayor, not the council members, decides his calendar and when he will attend events in council districts and when he will meet with individual council members or several council members together.
Traditionally, newly elected leaders have a political "honeymoon period," which is generally considered to be the first 100 days in office. During this interval, the legislative body, which, in this instance, is the council, is very receptive to the leadership initiatives of the new mayor.
In the primary election, Shreveport citizens expressed their opinions on the Perkins administration with their votes that placed him fourth. The vote totals in the primary demanded change on the second floor of city hall. And the vote in the general election reflected a call for an experienced city hall insider.
Mayor Tom has been given a mandate by the citizens of the entire city. The council should honor this mandate and fully cooperate with him for a honeymoon period, which needs to be longer than 100 days. And if needed, Mayor Tom should not be hesitant to twist arms and use his mayoral position to "encourage" cooperation by council members
It will be an interesting few months at city hall come Jan. 1, to say the least.