| 1. Should local taxing bodies have input on the ITEP program? Why or why not?
| Yes. If a business is seeking to open in our municipality and is looking for a tax exemption the local taxies bodies should have a say in whether or not they receive the exemptions based on what the business is bringing to the table in terms of investment for our city. I think businesses receiving tax exemptions should at a minimum create jobs if it is a new business or add more jobs if it is an expansion. |
| 2. How should law-enforcement agencies be held accountable to the city and its residents?
| Well, that is a tough question. I think communities should make sure they work together to establish, create, and sustain the type of community, neighborhood, or city it wants. The law-enforcement agencies should exist to uphold the law or address matters when a law is or has been broken. Before a crime is committed there should be a clear understanding between the community and the agencies in terms of what role is to assume and how they are to work together to address matters. We hold them accountable by making sure they know what type of agencies we want and then evaluating how those services are being provided. When there is a mistake made by law enforcement we must demand appropriate action be taken. Those corrective actions may be different depending on the level and type of mistake made. |
| 3. How do you plan to address the discrepancies of public investment around the city, including economic investment, access to primary health care in north Baton Rouge, and issues of blight?
| We have worked aggressively to create equity in terms of the areas listed above. We have been extremely successful in bringing investment to the district, to address infrastructure, economic investment, and access to health care. We have supported the successful opening of new businesses, we have supported the opening of new emergency health care facilities and the reopening of the emergency room at Baton Rouge General mid-city. We also worked to support the opening of The Bridge Center in mid-city as another resource for law enforcement. When I say we, I mean I have led the charge for many of these initiatives, but no one person accomplishes this work alone. My colleagues have supported and we have been successful. We will continue to work with the city-parish and the members of the council to improve our city. Until all residents feel safe and satisfied with where they live we still have a great deal of work to do. I am still hoping to open a grocery store that provides healthy food options in the food desert of North Baton Rouge. |
| 4. How will you address parish-wide flooding?
| We must work with the federal government to secure funds to complete the Comite diversion canal. I think delegation in Washington has secured the funds and the work is in beginning phases. We need to work with the city-parish to conduct a deep cleaning of all ditches, canals, and obstructed waterways. We then have to think about how we address the litter problem we have and possibly helping the citizens understand how careless littering contributes to obstruction of the water flow in our drainage systems. I also think we need to create an aggressive keep Baton Rouge clean campaign with regular city-wide neighborhood clean-ups each month where the local government and the citizens should be working to do this work. |
| 5. What steps would you take to ensure adequate oversight of agencies with dedicated funding to prevent overspending of taxpayer dollars by those agencies?
| Transparency should be at the core of our oversight. The monthly reports should be made public prior to the council meeting. The public should be allowed to voice concerns prior to the meeting and then the agencies should take those concerns and make the appropriate adjustments when there are numerous common concerns. We should create specific guidelines for spending. We should then use those guidelines to monitor any spending each agency is seeking to use to support their organizations. If there is an area that does not meet the guidelines then we as a body should not approve the spending. |
