It’s quite clear this author is extremely disappointed in the selection of Cedric Glover as the next Executive Director of the Shreveport Downtown Development Authority (DDA).
One of the most important priorities of the DDA Executive Director is recruitment of new business in the downtown area along with retention and expansion of existing businesses.
Glover lacks the job skills for this task:
1. As mayor he did not grow businesses in the downtown area.
2. He has opposed the I-49 Inner City Connector, an important priority for downtown businesses.
3. His average Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) scorecard for his last three years as a legislator was 31.
4. He does not have a college degree nor any record of success in the private sector. (He has never had a real non-elected job).
5. In his eight years as a legislator, he did very little to help his district which is centered in the MLK area.
Of course, all these factors are basically irrelevant now that he has been selected from a very poor pool of viable candidates.
However, this list does point to additional job requirements that should be included in his employment contract. I listed seven (a.-g.) in the blog "DDA Executive Director Contract For Glover Should Be Tightly Drawn." I suggest these to be added to the list:
h. he take no position on any local political issues without the approval of the DDA Board or Board President:
I. he have no positions with the Louisiana Democratic Party, National Democratic Party or any political caucus.
j. he take no position on any political races and--local, state, national--and have no social media postings on the same.
It’s virtually impossible to draw up a contract that will ensure that a 59 year old lifelong politician with an outsized ego, a poor work ethic, and record of non-meaningful accomplishments to become an effective, dedicated executive director for DDA. One can expect close scrutiny of Glover by downtown business owners and especially the downtown property owners who pay an additional ad valorem tax to fund DDA.