Baton Rouge voters have a proposition on their ballots this election to amend the parish's Plan of Government.
And while almost 40,000 people have already cast their vote, the single yes or no decision over an initiative that would make dozens of changes is still raising questions among residents.
The majority of these changes are updated references in the Plan of Government. Terms like "rural" and "urban" areas would be changed to "incorporated" and "unincorporated." References to the mayor-president using "he" would be changed to repeated use of the office's title.
Beyond that, the new plan would also require Metro Council candidates to live in their district for at least one year before qualifying to run. For mayor-president, candidates would need to reside in the parish for at least two years before running.
City-parish manager
Of all the changes included, the creation of a city-parish manager position is the one that appears to cause the most confusion among voters.
While most American cities of Baton Rouge's size have a city manager, the city-parish currently does not. Instead, the mayor-president appoints someone to a chief administrative officer position that oversees much of the duties a city-parish manager would, like being the acting chief of the city-parish's many departments.
But the position also manages many of the mayor's policy decisions, making the role somewhat undefined in its current state.
If the proposition is approved, it would create a city-parish manager who would be appointed by the mayor-president, the way the CAO is now. However, the appointment would need to be approved by a majority Metro Council vote before the person began the job — something absent from the current procedure when a CAO is hired. The CAO position would be removed.
The proposition includes specific qualification requirements for any city-parish manager candidate, like five years of administrative experience in municipal or state government or executive management, as well as a degree requirement.
The position of chief of staff for the mayor-president — which currently exists but is not listed in the Plan of Government — would be added to handle the policy development and communication with Metro Council members, something the CAO does now.
Other changes
Currently, Metro Council compensation in the Plan of Government is capped at $1,000 per month. One of the proposition's amendments removes that specific reference and instead adds a procedure for the Metro Council to adopt and approve its compensation at least one year prior to the beginning of each term. This is the same way compensation is currently set for the mayor-president, constable and other constitutional officers.
Other non-language changes include moving up the deadline one month for the annual budget to be submitted to Metro Council for review from November to October.
The amendment also creates an executive council position to provide legal expertise for the mayor-president's office.
Why the changes?
Many have asked why these changes are being proposed and why it is all being done with a single yes or no vote.
The changes are what the people wanted, said District 4 Metro Council member Aaron Moak.
"This process actually started eight years ago," Moak explained to an audience Tuesday at an East Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
It was then that a committee was formed to review the Plan of Government and meet with the public to see what changes needed to be made. The many changes are directly informed by what the public told that committee and current Metro Council members.
"Out of all the recommendations, this is what we ended up with," Moak said.
The reason this proposition is on the ballot now is also based on public input.
"One of the things that came up in the public meetings ... was 'we want you to put it on the ballot that you're going to be running for election on,'" Moak said.
All 12 Metro Council seats are set for election this November.
Moak said the options to add these changes on the ballot were proposed as either including them as a single item or separating the dozens of amendments as individual items, which could have added pages worth of content to voters' ballots. Grouping handfuls of the changes together in several propositions was not brought up, he said.
"When speaking to (the public) and showing them these things, it was the general consensus that it would be best to condense it into one (item)," Moak said.
Early voting runs through Oct. 29. Election Day is Nov. 5.