Too fast for comfort

Mayor Pro Tem Mike Walker brags about how tech savvy he and his fellow Metro Council members are, even though he personally admits to being among the Web-challenged. That’s where political aide Chris Boudreaux comes in. While Walker smacks his gavel through council meetings, Boudreaux (Walker calls him the official “Tweeter”) fires off pithy text updates on the proceedings via Twitter.

Motion adopted to approve Final Acceptance of River Center Theatre Restroom Partitions for $45,827.

2:48 PM Mar 25th from web

Since taking over the No. 2 spot in city-parish government in January, Walker has overseen the merger of online social networking and local government. Modern Web services like YouTube and Facebook, as well as Walker’s own site, are routine channels for updating residents on what the council is cooking up.

He refers to these Internet technologies as “futuristic,” and he still marvels that they’re practically free. “This is adding to the transparency of parish government and we’ve all worked on it together,” Walker says, leaning back in his chair just moments before Boudreaux will take his place. “You should see the e-mails when I get home. I have a galore of e-mails on Twitter and Facebook. And what’s got me is that older folks are following us this way. You should see some of the names. These are leaders in our community.”

Pointing to the flat-screen on his office wall, Walker adds that council meetings are also still broadcast live on Metro 21, a 24-hour cable channel that also screens the arrival and departure times at Metro Airport.

Some of the Metro Council’s most important action, however, takes place off camera and beyond the purview of Web and TV watchers. The real action unfolds in and around Walker’s office, which becomes a sort of bureaucratic rumpus room in the hours leading up to council meetings.

On a recent afternoon, city-parish employees file in and out, tweaking the March 25th agenda and dispensing information to Walker’s fellow council members. There’s an unmistakable open-door policy here, which is a far cry from previous administrations when no one occupied the pro tem’s office, despite the fact that there has always been a pro tem. “We try to have all questions answered before 4 p.m.,” which is when meetings begin, Walker says. “It’s our job to communicate with each other before voting.”

It’s all part of the new feel and look of the Metro Council. Its only holdovers: Walker, who’s been in the public eye for nearly 40 years; and District 2 Councilman Ulysses Addison, who has the snazziest nickname in all of city-parish government (he’s better known in the community as “Bones”).

But the new technology and haste comes with a price. While the new council members’ approach is efficient and savvy, it may inadvertently—or intentionally—conceal key information or discussions from the public.

Walker is a large man with a shock of gray hair. He’s a down-home kind of guy—his eyeglasses are more practical than aesthetic, he keeps a Bible on his desk and he likes handing out campaign fingernail files to anyone who drops by his office, which is right behind the council chamber.

The majority of his Metro Council colleagues are fresh meat, elected last year after promising to bring reform to an institution that’s been bogged down by racial divides, sweetheart deals and the narrow-mindedness of Baton Rouge’s landed gentry.

Munching on grapes behind his desk (late-night meetings blow any chance of a normal dinner time), Walker pontificates on this “new generation” of lawmakers with their “clean political hearts.” As if on queue, freshman Councilman Chandler Loupe walks in and helps Walker make his point.

The new council members, Loupe says, made a promise to voters and to each other to be more transparent and responsive than ever before. Chuckling to himself, he slices his finger with an imaginary blade. “We took a blood oath.”

Nonetheless, the first official act of the new Metro Council was to abolish—practically behind closed doors—a slew of committees that met every other month. Members say bylaws dictated that they reinstate the committees every four years, and they simply decided against renewing them. It’s clear there was at least some discussion before the public vote, although that exchange wasn’t so public.

It’s not that this new group is too shy to weigh in. Councilwoman Ronnie Edwards, the first woman ever elected to represent District 5, says it’s a better system because now matters are taken up before the entire council only once, rather than two or three times. In previous years, the council went into autopilot during committee reports and adopted whatever course might be recommended—following sometimes-intense debates that had already been held once before. “It was duplicative,” she says. “And even after eliminating all the committees, I still think we have other duplications to work on.”

Most of the council members seem to embrace the idea of hastening procedures and meetings. And Walker does his part as disciplinarian. He keeps fellow council members’ comments short and just a stone’s throw away from grandstanding (don’t forget that meetings are televised). He also encourages council members to attend informational gatherings with city-parish employees in his office before regular meetings. In doing so, he says the council can vote without delay and keep the agenda moving. “We’re not here to put on a show on the council floor,” he says. “We need to get down to business.”

Edwards has come into Walker’s office, along with Councilwoman Donna Collins-Lewis, for a pre-meeting briefing from Sandra G. Gillen, the city-parish director of purchasing. Gillen has an agenda item scheduled for the meeting requesting the Metro Council allow her department to approve certain contracts on its own, instead of constantly seeking council approval. Huddled around a small table, Gillen ticks off figures and numbers, concluding that the proposed change would shift millions of dollars of new oversight to her department.

Until now, the Capital Improvements Committee would have handled such matters during a public hearing. But the committee, along with all the others, was eliminated.

When the agenda item is taken up later in the evening, the council swiftly votes to approve it, with only limited background offered to the public. The decision was certainly expedient, but far from transparent. Watchers relying on Twitter received only a cursory text:

Motion adopted to approve agenda item 9B.

2:12 PM Mar 25th from web

Still, Walker and the council are winning support with their new, streamlined process. Alfred Williams, a local attorney and former assistant chief administrator under Mayor Kip Holden, says it’s actually a service to the public. “I can remember when we had committee hearings on hot topics, people would have to come up and testify twice, once for the committee and again for the council,” Williams says. “I think this new style is advantageous for everyone.”

As the 4 p.m. call to order approaches, council members gather near the doorway of Walker’s office. Among the last to arrive is Councilman R.J. Bourgeois, known to most as “Smokie,” or the guy who owns George’s Restaurant. If there’s an outsider on the council, it’s Bourgeois, chiefly because you never know what’s going to come out of his mouth. This afternoon, he’s sporting a Mickey Mouse necktie, which is apparently more stylish than the red-and-green number Loupe is wearing. “What is this?” Bourgeois asks, grabbing Loupe’s tie. “Is it still Christmas or something?”

Loupe laughs and joins Bourgeois down the hallway outside the council chamber. As they pass a set of framed pictures of council members, Bourgeois points to the smiling face of Scott Wilson, another freshman from the Central-Greenwell Springs area. “Man, he is wearing me out on this appointment thing,” Bourgeois tells Loupe. “But I don’t care how many votes Tommy [Marino] gets, I’m still voting for him.”

It’s the top agenda item of the evening: the appointment of a new member to the Greater Baton Rouge Airport Board of Commissioners. There are nine candidates, but it’s obvious—even at this early hour—that a vote is unlikely to happen. Everyone seems to have their own horse in the race and, on top of everything else, there’s a move afoot to change the way appointments are made. “The way we appoint people has the tendency to be flawed,” Councilman Trae Welch of Baker-Zachary says later that night.

The appointment system now is pretty much a free-for-all. Welch wants the council to explore a lengthy application process and maybe even public hearings, which is similar to the vetting process used on the state level. Other council members have called for grading systems or personal interviews, but it has only been discussed at length behind closed doors and through a secure Internet connection. “We’ve had a lot of conversations and e-mails going back and forth about what to do with this process,” says Councilwoman Tara Wicker.

These kinds of private exchanges don’t pass muster with Welch. “We need something where everybody has the opportunity to hear what’s being said, instead of just in our offices,” he says.

Council veteran Addison says as long as potential appointees can draw a majority of votes from the panel there will be no urgency on the issue. He also points out that the new council members are not necessarily to blame. “This process creates a lot of challenges for us,” he says. “[They] inherited a problem that should have been put on the ballot a few years ago for voters.”

Barry Erwin, president of the Council for a Better Louisiana, a good-government group, says the Metro Council will eventually have to tackle the issue of transparency, and board and commission appointments are an excellent place to start. “The more information that the public can have, the better,” Erwin says. “Oftentimes, appointments are a political thing. If you can remove at least some of the politics and let the public see who the candidates are, that’s always positive.”

When the Metro Council finally convenes its meeting this evening, among the first actions is to eliminate an item from the agenda, at the request of Holden’s office. The council did not discuss it during the meeting, but there was some chatter beforehand [Walker complained that a group of contractors was holding up the process]. The proposal would have given the director of Public Works greater discretion over some city-parish contracts, but no further information was provided during the meeting as to why it was eliminated.

When asked if such discussions should be put on hold until the public meetings, Walker concedes it’s a fine line. “You have to be careful, I know, but I’m not sure how we can avoid it,” he says. “You have to reach conclusions somehow, and this is how we do it.”

Maybe the information just isn’t that important. Maybe it’s better to have leaner, meaner meetings. Jim Ellis, former chairman of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and an attorney with Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips, says it’s a breath of fresh air. “It takes 12 to tango on that board, but Mike Walker has done a wonderful job getting things in order and working those meetings in an efficient way,” Ellis says. “It’s still early in the process, but there is a noticeable difference.”

There’s also more accountability when it comes to placing items on the official agenda, Ellis adds. There was a time when pretty much anyone could slip something onto the agenda, but now staffers have been directed to only allow those with official business to make an addition, and they must fill out forms explaining the item before permission is granted. This naturally keeps agendas tight and steers the meetings away from unnecessary politics. Yet it still doesn’t address the need to let the public in on why changes to the official agenda are often made.

Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle, another freshman, says she wouldn’t mind slowing things down every now and then. “I’m still kind of feeling out this new process and I feel like there’s always room for improvement,” she says. “I sort of feel like I would like to see some of the aspects of the old committee process in here, but I’m told that it wasn’t effective. I do want more transparency, though, and we’re just going to have to wait and see how this works out.”

Tinkering with public meetings laws and access to information can be treacherous. For instance, council members must be careful not to spontaneously gather outside of regular meetings and risking violations of Louisiana’s open meetings laws.

According to an interpretation offered by the Public Affairs Research Council, the Louisiana Constitution defines a meeting as the “convening of a majority of the total membership of a public body to deliberate, act or receive information on a matter over which the body has supervision, control, jurisdiction or advisory power.” The law, however, does not apply to chance meetings or social gatherings at which no vote or other action, including the polling of members, is taken.

Still, council members continue to visit and shuffle between their offices before meetings. And for now, it appears most of them like the new approach. Moreover, few, if any, are pushing for real changes. To the point, Walker says no changes are needed, plus the council is getting along as a group better than any other in recent memory.

Of course, they’ve only been working as a collective for four months. They’ve yet to tackle the kind of controversial issues that split previous councils. Is the new council still in a honeymoon period? “You know, I hope this is a honeymoon period,” Walker says laughing, “and I hope it lasts forever.”

Click here to see a snapshot of public opinion.