More than 18 months after voters approved a dedicated 2% hotel motel tax to fund a new Baton Rouge North Economic Development District, the agency is hoping to finalize its strategic plan for how to revitalize the area by the end of this summer.
BRNEDD Board Chairman Ron Smith says Southern University offered to share the services of an Alabama-based consultant, Janyce Fadden, who is helping the university with its own strategic plan.
Under the terms of the agreement, which will be discussed tonight at the monthly meeting of the BRNEDD board, the organization won’t have to pay for Fadden’s services.
Developing a strategic plan is critical to the success of the economic development group and, Smith says, the lack of a plan is holding the agency back.
Woodrow Muhammad, a land-use planner who’s been under contract with the agency since last fall, has worked for months on the draft of a plan. But Smith says an outside facilitator is needed to get input from board members and community stakeholders and pull all the recommendations together.
He hopes Fadden can meet with the board and staff in late June or early July and produce a final strategic plan by late August.
“A strategic plan is important because it sets the bearing, the direction, the focus in a unified manner for the district,” Smith says. “It will make sure we all are moving and guiding and pushing in the same direction for a common goal.”
The BRNEDD has been slow to get off the ground, in part because of funding. Though the agency was officially created when voters approved the dedicated funding stream in late 2016, it didn’t start receiving tax money until December 2017. Since then, it has collected between $12,000 and $16,000 per month.
The BRNEDD has also yet to hire an executive director. In March, the board advertised for two paid positions—an executive director with a salary not to exceed $55,000 and a part time marketing specialist, who would get paid no more than $29,500.
Smith says a board personnel committee that is spearheading the hiring process was slow to get started because one of its members was severely ill. The committee has since vetted several applicants and will make a recommendation tonight behind closed doors to the board’s executive committee.
He hopes by the July meeting to have an executive director candidate to present to the full board for a vote.
