| Voter's Guide, 2020 Fall Elections, Baton Rouge
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| Position | Mayor-President Metro Council, City of Baton Rouge | | Name | Sharon Weston Broome | | Party Affiliation | Democrat | | Profession | Mayor-President of the City of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish | | Present Employer / position | | | Length of residence in Jurisdiction | | | List of educational institutions and degrees | University of Wisconsin La Crosse (BA)
Regent University (MA)
| | Prior elected and appointed positions | Baton Rouge Metro-Council, Speaker Pro Tempore Louisiana House of Representative, President Pro Tempore Louisiana Senate, Mayor-President Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish | | Civic involvement and affiliations | |
Questions specific to the position
| 1. Should local taxing bodies have input on the ITEP program? Why or why not?
| For decades, local taxing bodies did not have input on ITEP applications being offered within their boundaries. Since the exemptions offered under this program affect the revenue base of districts, local input is certainly appropriate and justified.
| | 2. How should law-enforcement agencies be held accountable to the city and its residents?
| Since taking office in 2017, my administration has dedicated over $27.3 million to bring the Baton Rouge Police Department (BRPD) to 21st Century Policing Standards. This includes equipping all officers with state of the art body cameras, purchasing 300 new vehicles to restore a depleted fleet, and purchasing all new radios which tie into a data-driven Real Time Crime Center.
In addition to providing funding, we have increased transparency within the BRPD to provide greater public access and accountability. These measures include:
Now, the Police Chief issues the“Annual Report to the Community.”
A Chief’s Advisory Council, made up of community leaders, community organizers and members of the faith based community, has been established. They meet quarterly to review issues and policies.
Both police complaints and accommodations can now be done online.
The department now has a critical incident policy designed to release body camera videos quickly.
The Chief and the Mayor hold community listening sessions in various police precincts.
All departmental policies are being placed online for public access.
The Open BRPD data portal is in the process of providing all stats on use of force, internal affairs complaints, and annual pursuit data.
The Department is gearing up a new program called “Meet the Cadets” designed to allow the police cadets to discuss issues with the public as they go through their training program.
The department now has a Victims Assistant Coordinator.
Families are invited in to discuss use-of-force incidents.
The department holds hundreds of community outreach events each year.
The long-standing consent decree over hiring practices has ended resulting in a broader recruitment program that has helped fill vacancies.
Changes made to our use-of-force policy and new training on de-escalation practices, and procedural justice put us far ahead of departments around the country. Our transformative efforts have garnered BRPD over $10 million in grants from the U.S. Justice Department and other federal agencies. An example is the Collective Healing Grant which is designed to help communities develop a preventative and reparative focus to reduce tension between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
Today, the changes we have implemented are resulting in greater interaction between the community and BRPD, which is resulting in a higher solve rate for crimes. As Mayor, I am proud of the changes and accomplishments we have 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 urban blight?
| Investing in disinvested communities is been critical, and I have been consistent with this through policy and action. We cannot have one side of our community operating at a D grade and another part of our community operating at an A grade. According to the National Equity Atlas, based in Washington DC, in 2017, the income for Black residents would have increased the most (95%) among all racial/ethnic groups if racial gaps in income were eliminated in Baton Rouge. This could mean an additional billion dollars plus that is added to our GDP.
We start this process by accelerating our implementation of the Plank Road Masterplan and Scotlandville Community Plan. My administration has spent the last several years laying the foundation at Build Baton Rouge by installing new leadership, continuing to provide funding and helping recruit the private sector to fund the Plank Road Masterplan. We also worked with the council on creating a land bank and will focus my second term of my administration on strengthening our application for an allotment of New Markets while convening a group of investors to look at opportunities along Plank Road.
In addition, we want to do the following in NBR:
When I entered office, there were many food deserts,a 1 mile radius from where a person lives to access affordable and nutritious food, identified throughout the parish. Additionally, we know many residents living in and near food deserts, are food insecure, the ability for someone to provide enough healthy nutritious food for every person in their family to live a healthy life.
Throughout my administration, I identified public-private partnerships to address food deserts and food insecurity. Through my healthy city initiative, EBR partnered with the Humana Foundation and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation to launch the Geaux Get Healthy initiative. We also partnered with the Robert Wood Johns Foundation; Aeta, US Conference of Mayors to address food insecurity. In total, we have received investments of over $3 million dollars.
The Geaux Get Healthy (GGH) program addresses food insecurity on a program and system level. On a system level, we have provided multiple access points for the community to purchase fresh food in food desert areas in north Baton Rouge. On a program level, we have grown over 4,000lbs of food and sold or distrusted over 20,000 units of food. We have engaged over 5,000 people through outreach efforts, and over 1,000 of those people we have connected with have surveyed positive for food insecurity. We know that the number of people we have engaged with who are food insecure is actually higher, but there are barriers to taking the USDA food insecurity survey, which makes it difficult to get an accurate number.
Small businesses and startups are a critical piece of our economic ecosystem. Per BRAC, 88.6% of East Baton Rouge Parish businesses have between two to 99 employees. any of these businesses’ monthly cash positions during normal times are typically 27 days per McKinsey and Company (CXO Report – April 2020). The coronavirus pandemic has caused a significant financial burden, and has significantly decreased cash position.
In addition, small and medium enterprises account for a significant portion of jobs within East Baton Rouge Parish. According to the Disparity Study conducted by Keen Independent Research, 41% of our small businesses are disadvantaged business enterprises (minority, veteran owned, veteran disabled service owned, woman owned businesses).
For small businesses, I think it is critically important to set up a credit line that is indigenous to our local small business community – this credit line should not be stood up in reaction to a crisis but one that builds and grows over time based on the success and growth of small businesses. New Orleans has been a vacuum for these types of revolver credit programs
We need to continue to bring in and accelerate external partners like eBay, Facebook, Google (all of whom have invested time and resources) to “train” up new models of economic growth that helps to drive additional revenue streams for our businesses. For instance, eBay has generated close to $1.2 Million in incremental revenue for businesses that participate in the Retail Revival Program over the past year for the 50 plus participants
For DBEs, helping to level the vendor playing field has been critical to my administration. Over the past several years, we have done the following:
Successful bipartisan passing of the Disparity Study
Worked with BRAC and a dozen or more partners to create BR-POP which has generated over $7MM in new spend with DBEs’ in our parish
Launch of RestartBR with the Urban League to launch $1MM Microgrant Program that will benefit over 240 businesses in Low-Moderate Income Census Tracts – the data collected from these businesses will help to map out needs | | 4. How will you address parish-wide flooding?
| Position Statement
Since the Great Flood of 2016, drainage and water management have been the primary focus of my administration. We know that we have to consider water management in everything we do, and we are actively working to maintain and improve our existing infrastructure. Our drainage infrastructure was not designed to handle the amount of water that our systems are currently mitigating; this is why we have to acknowledge existing issues, while also creating a comprehensive plan for the future.
Maintenance Projects
Strategic Canal Cleaning Program:
The City-Parish has identified “high risk” lined canals across the parish, and began the process of removing unwanted vegetation and sediment from drainage ways.
The following drainage ways are currently on the program’s agenda:
Badley Road (Monte Sano Bayou)
Howell Park (Hurricane Creek)
Catalina (Engineer Depot Canal)
Florida Blvd at Sam Dr (Jones Creek)
Camelot & Percival (Jones Creek)
Balis Dr (Dawson Creek)
Burbank & Lee (Bayou Fountain)
Bluebonnet & Jefferson (Clay Cut Bayou)
Tiger Bend & Timberridge (Jacks Bayou)
Total Spray Program:
The Department of Maintenance is spraying selective herbicides throughout 277 miles of drainage canals throughout East Baton Rouge Parish, grouped into three major divisions-- North, East & South.
The canals and ditches included in the spray program will be sprayed 3 times a year, with drainage improving with each round. The first round will begin the process of reducing undesired vegetation, with improvement expected in round 2. By the completion of round 3, the vegetation is expected to be completely removed from drainage ways.
Improvement Efforts
Stormwater Master Plan
The Stormwater Master Plan is the first project of its kind in East Baton Rouge Parish and will conclude with the preparation of the formal Stormwater Master Plan Report that will include technical and policy recommendations, a 20-year capital improvement program, as well as funding and implementation strategies.
The plan will provide a critical roadmap for current and future projects. It already provides that guidance for some areas of Baton Rouge as sections of the Master Plan are completed.
The plan will define the City-Parish’s overall strategy and guiding approach to managing stormwater and reducing flood risk. It will inform decisions and investments. The plan will ensure that the funds are dedicated to protecting all citizens as well as private and public development. Essential to overall flood risk mitigation strategy is the assurance that any allocated funds are being used in the most effective way possible.
The Stormwater Master Plan is working to collect data and survey the City-Parish’s expansive stormwater system including open-drainage features including rivers, bayous, and streams, as well as all closed-drainage systems including pipes, drains, and structures.
● Commissioned in 2017; $15.6 Million
The Stormwater Master Plan is one of many hazard-mitigation projects currently underway. Mayor Broome instructed HNTB to identify flood-risk mitigation projects throughout the parish that would provide a meaningful benefit to our communities.
The current approved stormwater/drainage/flood risk reduction projects are:
Port Hudson Pride Road Bank Stabilization along Comite River valued at $3.2 million
Hurricane Creek Slope Paving near Plank Road valued at $1.9 million
New bridges at Hundred Oaks & Broussard on Dawson Creek valued at $4.4 million
Removal of channel restriction in Ward Creek at Siegen Lane valued at $1.4 million
Box culvert replacement on Harrelson Lateral at Old Hammond Highway $1 million
Comite River Diversion Canal
This $365 million project will reduce flood potential for most residents living along the Comite and Amite Rivers by up to 2 feet.
The East Baton Rouge Flood Risk Reduction Project, or the Five Tributaries Project
This $255 million project is a collaboration with the US Army Corps of Engineers to reduce flooding along 5 sub-basins throughout the parish, including Jones Creek, Ward Cree, Bayou Fountain, Blackwater Bayou, and Beaver Bayou.
This project consists of improvements to 66 miles of channels, including clearing and snagging, widening, concrete lining, and improvements to existing culverts and bridges to reduce headwater flooding/backwater overflow in the Amite River Basin
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