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The ceiling is crumbling and mushrooms are growing on the walls of Baton Rouge Police headquarters.

The city-parish forks over $3 million a year to feed and house prisoners in other parishes because our own jail is too small.

And we all know what happens in a hard rain.

But if Baton Rouge voters want to spend millions of their hard-earned cash to fix public safety, drainage and traffic, they’re also going to have to spend millions more erecting parking garages for a hotel developer, as well as the largest tourism attraction the city has seen.

For Mayor Kip Holden, it’s all or nothing. And it’s a billion-dollar gamble he’s willing to take.

After days of political posturing, the Metro Council finally agreed on July 23 to put a $989 million capital improvements proposal on the November ballot. It now comes down to this: Gas and grocery prices and utility fuel adjustments being what they are, will the people be willing to tax themselves to the tune of $1 billion, not only for a place to put criminals away and waterways that drain, but for bigger parking garages and a tourist attraction as well?

This is the first major capital improvements bond program for East Baton Rouge Parish in nearly half a century. It comes at a time when the parish is experiencing a boom of sorts, given population and economic shifts brought on by Hurricane Katrina, and the current administration is rethinking longstanding, safe-but-sluggish, pay-as-you-go fiscal practices to bring long-neglected infrastructure up to par.

But it also comes on the heels of two other major bond issues to repair the sewer and roads. A number of other government entities plan to roll their millages forward to collect even more money. Gas is approaching $4 a gallon, and Entergy’s recent fuel adjustment apparently rivals some homeowners’ mortgage payments.

If July elections are any sort of indicator, parish voters are in no mood for added expenses. Perhaps most telling is that Central voters—who will consider this bond issue as well—nixed a 29-mill property tax and sales tax to pay for a $98 million complex for their new school district, even though their concern for education prompted them to go independent in the first place. The talk-radio crowd also has taken to calling Holden “Mayor Tax-A-Lot.”

Several Metro Council members have pounced on the bond proposal like leopards on a wildebeest, ripping at the administration’s insistence on an all-or-nothing package; the decision to slate the election for November, when record numbers of African American voters—who typically support property tax increases—are expected to vote; and waiting until the last minute to unveil a project that was at least a year in the making. Their decision to pass it along for voters does not necessarily mean they will support its passage.

Wayne “Spider” Carter, who is challenging Holden in the mayor’s race, predictably was first in line for the smackdown, proclaiming himself to be a “no tax kind of guy” and questioning the administration’s wisdom in mixing tourism with public safety. “I’m all for new stuff, but I’m also for getting what you can afford,” he says. “I don’t think we can afford this.” He wants to know why the city-parish’s $180 million surplus hasn’t been spent on some of the wish list in the plan.

Tim Mueller

SMACKDOWN: Metro Council member and mayoral candidate Wayne ‘Spider’ Carter proclaims himself a ‘no tax kind of guy’ and questions the Holden administration’s wisdom in mixing tourism with public safety.

Pat Culbertson, who is rumored to be gunning for state Sen. Bill Cassidy’s seat should Cassidy win the 6th District congressional race, tried but failed to split the package in half, allowing voters to support public safety and drainage but snub economic development if they want to.

Chief Administrative Officer Walter Monsour admits there’s no good time to ask people to tax themselves. But he insists these needs aren’t going to go away and will only get more expensive down the road. The economic development components that some perceive as “luxury items,” he argues, are needed revenue-generators and job-creators that will help the parish retire the bond debt early.

“Two-thirds of this is to take care of things that should have been taken care of a long, long time ago,” Monsour says. “In 1987, voters rejected a $234 million proposition to take care of sewer problems, and look at the cost now. These problems aren’t going to go away. The police station is going to continue to be dilapidated. The parish prison is going to continue in its state. Those are not things we can walk away from. The people in this parish have suffered far too long with drainage problems. If not now, when? If not this, how?”

Luxury or necessity?

By far the most controversial items are the proposed renovation and expansion of the River Center and the Audubon Alive riverfront development, which carry a combined price tag of almost $400 million. A measure to give $25 million to a Pennington Genomics & Molecular Biology Complex was scrapped just days before the official unveiling of the capital improvements program after Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration made it clear a $100 million matching grant from the state was unlikely.

The River Center component calls for adding 14,000 square feet to the exhibition hall and as many as 22 meeting and breakout rooms. The West Garage and Attorney’s Building will be torn down, and the East Garage expanded by 750 spaces. A new 1,300-space garage also will be built on the corner of Government and St. Louis streets.

City-parish officials have already struck a tentative deal with Virginia developer Armada Hoffler, which wants to spend $100 million building a 300-room, major-flag, full-service hotel between the River Center and the theater, and a 140-room, select-service hotel atop the expanded East Garage.

The development would include retail along a newly two-laned St. Louis Street, a sky bridge across Government Street connecting the River Center and one of the hotels and a shared-entry piazza. The project will bump Baton Rouge from a Tier III to Tier II convention city, on par with Raleigh, N.C., Biloxi, Miss., and Shreveport.

Photo by Marie Constantin

WHEN THE WALLS COME TUMBLING DOWN: The Baton Rouge Police Department currently is housed in a state-owned building on Mayflower Street that quite literally is falling apart. Ceilings and walls have caved in, and exterior struts bind the facility together. If it’s raining too hard, officers can’t use the gym for training.

Armada Hoffler has been involved in at least six such public/private partnerships, in Atlanta, Baltimore, Norfolk, Va., Virginia Beach, Va., Newport News, Va., and Washington, D.C. Armada Hoffler President/CEO Louis Haddad wouldn’t say much about why the developer chose Baton Rouge, other than its demographics were right for downtown hotels. “If you do it right,” he says, “it really becomes the city’s hotel, something that becomes the face of the city.”

Questions already have emerged about Armada Hoffler’s involvement. Carter accuses the city-parish of “building a parking garage for a developer at taxpayer expense.” Councilman David Boneno muses that it is “highly unusual that the developer is already selected,” and asked whether there was an RFP, or request for proposals, from other developers. Monsour says the garage expansions would have to be done regardless of the hotel construction, and that Armada Hoffler approached the city-parish first about the project.

African American politicians are particularly critical about the deal, saying that none of it impacts low-income communities. Ron Johnson, who is running for mayor as well, says the taxes on his $600,000 home off Highland Road will go up significantly, but that it will be a burden “among people that can least afford it. Baton Rouge does not need hotels. What Baton Rouge needs are investments in communities.”

Councilwoman Lorri Burgess went so far as to tell Baton Rouge Area Foundation Board Chairwoman Christel Slaughter that the city “has a large population who can’t even afford to put a roof on their head, and now we’re going to put a tax on them to pay for a hotel they can’t even stay in … we want to be the next great city, but how great are you when your children can’t even eat? I’d like you to go back to your wine parties and talk about that.”

Audubon Alive is a tourist attraction that Holden envisions will be “a facility like no other on earth.” The state will spend $55 million to elevate and prepare the DeSoto Park site directly across from the Pentagon Complex, as well as build an elevated walkway and docking pier. The Audubon Nature Institute, which operates 11 facilities in New Orleans, including the Aquarium of the Americas, Audubon Zoo and newly opened Insectarium, will run it.

The facility will be divided into four venues: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. Among the attractions:

• An aquarium with hands-on activities and walk-through underwater environments;

• Virtual experiences similar to Soaring at Walt Disney World’s Epcot and Disneyland’s California Adventure—an interactive experience with 270-degree IMAX-like view in a glider simulation;

• A fast-paced adventure attraction featuring HD film technologies and virtual reality;

• Weather- and storm-related interactive theater programming providing experiences of hurricanes and global-warming issues in the setting of the wetlands;

• Live animal encounters focused on habitat and species preservation;

• An indoor walk-through swamp with interactive theater;

• Celebrations of local culture and heritage with Rhythms & Blues—a 900-seat theater with animal-centered live shows and performances.

Audubon Institute President Ron Foreman says talks about Alive began very shortly after Hurricane Katrina, when he and his family were living in Baton Rouge. He dined with John Davies of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, Monsour and others on several occasions and they started talking about “shared recovery.” Before then, Audubon had never considered expanding outside of New Orleans.

“We had 10 facilities, and we were doing quite well,” says Foreman, who made an unsuccessful bid for mayor of New Orleans in the last election. “But with smaller population—losing 200,000 people—if we were to continue to maintain our museums at world-class levels, we had to look for a bigger base to work from. A lot of our business already came from Baton Rouge, so it was a natural fit.”

An economic analysis by LSU’s James Richardson and retired UNO professor Wade Ragas projects Alive could attract 578,500 visitors when it opens in 2012. It’s also expected to generate net earnings through job creation of $167 million in its first four years of operation, and prompt as much as $575 million in new spending. Tax collections are expected to rise by as much as $30 million.

But some are questioning the wisdom of packaging the River Center and Alive in the proposal. Says Boneno: “We have true-blue infrastructure, then we have these luxury items. The public may have different views on one versus the other. You’re not giving them a choice, here. It’s all or nothing.”

But Monsour insists riverfront development is critical because it is the only revenue-earning component of the plan. “We’re the only major city on the Mississippi River that doesn’t have a developed riverfront,” he says. “And every city that has grown and reached its potential has had to seed private development with public monies. And these things then become a magnet, both from an economic standpoint as well as from a confidence standpoint. When developers see a community put up their own money, then they know that community is willing to support development. Think of this as the Sydney Opera House or the St. Louis arch. You will look at it and know exactly where you are.”

Public safety

Photo by Marie Constantin

ALL AMERICAN: Says East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux of the need for a new parish prison and improvements to public safety: ‘If we don’t address these needs along with economic development, the next great American city is going to be anything but.’

More than one-third of the project—$389 million—calls for serious improvements to public safety, one of two components few have argued are necessary.

The lion’s share—more than $135 million—would pay for a new parish prison complex on one of three sites under consideration on 50 acres of land near the North Baton Rouge Landfill donated by the Amite River Basin Commission.

The prison, built in 1962 and expanded in 1988, is a festering problem for the parish. In fact, renovating it carried virtually the same price tag: $100 million. Right now, 1,705 prisoners are behind bars in a facility meant to hold 1,594, and taxpayers spend $2.8 million a year to house another 339 in other parish jails, a price that is expected to double to $6.6 million by 2010. Says Holden: “This is not good business practice.”

The federal courts, Louisiana Board of Health and state Fire Marshal all have cited the city-parish for health and rights concerns, a fact that hardly will elicit much sympathy from voters but could cause regulatory problems down the road. Amazingly, the existing structure also has no camera surveillance. Says East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux: “If we don’t address these needs along with economic development, the next great American city is going to be anything but.”

The new structure will house 2,280 prisoners—more than enough space to meet projected needs of 2,135 beds in 2025. It will also free up airport property for commercial development, meaning razor wire will no longer be the one of the first things out-of-town visitors see when they enter the city.

Another $90 million will buy a public safety complex to house both the Baton Rouge Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office—in separate buildings, but with shared training facilities, auditorium and wellness center. It will be built on the same site as the East Baton Rouge Parish Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness, the Fire Department Administration Building and the new headquarters EMS plans to build, bringing all of the parish’s first responders together.

Chief Jeff LeDuff notes the city has never built its own police administration building. The department currently is housed in a state-owned building on Mayflower Street that quite literally is falling apart. Ceilings and walls have caved in, and exterior struts bind the facility together. If it’s raining too hard, officers can’t use the gym for training.

A complex would go a long way toward coordinating and integrating the missions of the police department and the sheriff’s office in a way that hasn’t been possible before, LeDuff says. “It does so much for the community when there’s a multi-agency approach to fighting crime,” he says. “The whole public safety group in essence grows up together, and that really opens the lines of communication.”

The proposed $208 million in drainage improvements and new bridges—coupled with a $137 million contribution from the Corps of Engineers—is likely to resonate with voters as well. Both Holden and Monsour agree it will take care of every major drainage project that’s on the books. Several of them are in Baker, Zachary and Central, whose support will be critical for passage of the taxes. But the work won’t begin for seven years—after the River Center expansion and Alive are finished.

The proposal also calls for building a new juvenile services facility, also to free up airport property for commercial development; erecting eight new fire stations and a training facility; consolidating city-parish offices and selling the Coursey Boulevard property; and synchronizing 260 intersections to improve traffic flow, finishing out a project started two years ago.

Battle lines

Holden and his administration are planning to take to the streets over the next several months to hawk the bond issue, but initial reaction has been mixed. Internet posts have ranged from, “Go get ’em Kip!” to “Right plan, wrong time,” to “No new sales taxes!!!”

Two of the city’s heaviest hitters—the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and the Baton Rouge Area Chamber—support the measure.

BRAF will have a financial stake in Alive, and is convinced the addition of two downtown hotels will make the city more marketable to conventions, thus improving the profitability of its own Hilton Baton Rouge Capital Center.

“I think this administration has put together a very thoughtful, very appropriate package to put before the voters,” BRAF President and CEO John Davies says. “It’s essentially a question: How ambitious are you for our community? Do you really believe Baton Rouge can be the next great American city? If you do, then weigh in.”

The Baton Rouge Area Chamber endorsed the project almost immediately. BRAC President/CEO Adam Knapp agrees the developments will make Baton Rouge more competitive at the next stage for conventions and tourism and “give us a vision as a place. You have to dream big if you want to be the next great American city. You can’t just be catching up.”