DDA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CONTRACT FOR GLOVER SHOULD BE TIGHTLY DRAWN

Shreveport's Downtown Development Authority (DDA) search committee has selected Cedric Glover as its next Executive Director. I was not in favor of Glover or the other finalists. I expressed my opinion in a SettleTalk column--"The Word 's Out on DDA Final Two Candidates for Executive Director--and It’s Not Good." (see below).

I have known Glover since the was first elected to the Shreveport City Council. I followed his performance during this two terms (8 years) on the Council.

I followed his campaign for mayor when he was first elected. I sued his opponent for over-sized campaign signs in his campaign for a second term as mayor.

When he ran for the House of Representatives in the MLK area I followed his campaign, as well as his subsequent re-election campaigns.

Glover then ran for the Louisiana Senate after being termed out. Once he was in a run-off with Sam Jenkins I penned another SettleTalk--"Time to Look At the Records of Jenkins and Glover in the Senate Race "(see below).

Bottomline, I have watched Glover for a long time while he served in political office. In addition to my observations and research I have contacted several people who served in the Legislature with him along, politicos and business people.

Here is my take:

1. Glover is lazy. By that I mean he does not have a work ethic. His past performance in political elected office, most recently the Legislature, is a testament of his workplace behavior and performance.

2. Glover is a great orator, and his long winded self-laudatory speeches sound great but rarely have a factual basis. He frequently confuses his oratory skills with effective work performance. Like several old school persons currently holding elective office, most business people hit the audio "off" bullet when Glover's starts his yapping.

3. Having served in political office for 24 years, Glover has naturally alienated some business leaders and local officials. I will be difficult for both Glover and those persons dealing with him to delineate his DDA hat from his previous representative, mayor and councilman hats--especially for Glover.

Glover will need the help of the downtown crowd and the downtown building owners if he is to have much success in his new position. He may find this much harder to accomplish since he has no control over state dollars.

4. Glover just turned 59 years old, and he has never had a real full time job. As mayor for 8 years, he was rarely seen at city hall before noon and seldom stayed until 5 p.m. The DDA office is open 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. daily and to effectively perform his job he should be at his peak 35 hours a week unless at a meeting involving DDA.

5. DDA currently has six full time employee positions, one of which is now vacant. DDA also has contracts with the City of Shreveport for Streetscape to keep downtown clean and to manage downtown parking/parking meters. Thus, Glover has overall supervisory duties of over 10 staff members.

6. Glover's claim of saving the old federal building to be converted in to a new state office building is not factual. All of the local legislators agreed with the John Bel Edwards" administration that the new building should be downtown on Fannin Street. The only issue was whether a new building would be erected on the site, or the old Waggoner building be re-purposed. That decision was made by Jay Dardenne, who was John Bel's commissioner of administration.

Dardenne's analysis of cost savings for repurposing the building was flawed and the costs are far exceeding the estimates that Dardenne utilized in making his decision. No work has been done on the old federal building shell for many months, and further progress is not expected soon pending additional funding of state dollars.

7. Much like his predecessor Liz Swaine, who started from scratch, Glover has no real experience in real estate development much less business recruitment. At least Swaine had held many high profile full time jobs before going to the DDA-- local newscaster, the Hightower Administration, and Calumet PIO.

Swaine's hard work, usually exceeding 40 hours a week, helped her bridge these experience gaps in becoming a successful Executive Director. (Yes, I know some will disagree with my evaluation of Swaine's performance.) One cannot expect Glover to achieve these skills, or even to seriously attempt to do so.

8. Glover did not serve on any meaningful business related committees in the Legislature. And his "success" such as it was, was due more to his party affiliation with John Bel versus political persuasion or maneuvering. He will not be able to tap into any political stock/favors in Baton Rouge now with Landry administration.

Soo...how does one draft an employment contract that protects DDA and taxpayer money? If truth be known, it should have some very draconian terms, such as the following:

a. a one-year term.

b. compensation less that Swaine who had held the position for many years.

c. requirement to be in the DDA office 35 hours a week, minimum, unless attending verifiable meetings outside of the office.

d. documentation requirements on hours, meetings, etc.

e. a very limited expense account, if any. A review of his financial campaign expenses for his recent unsuccessful Senate campaign reveal substantial charges for auto gas, dining out, etc.

f. restrictions on employment hiring and firing during his initial six months in office.

g. requirements for meeting with downtown business owners, business contacts for downtown tenants, and the like.

It’s a Herculean task to prepare an employment contract to require a 59-year-old man to actually work when real work it’s not in his DNA much less employment history. Perhaps the best thing that could happen for DDA is for Glover to not agree to a tightly drawn employment agreement.

But then he no longer has a government check, his outsized ego would not be satisfied by a good paying job with little to no supervision, and a downtown gig that could further any remaining political office holding aspirations that he maintains.