Several Metro Council members will be attending the Annual Legislative Conference hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C., likely further pushing back the search for an airport director.
In an email, Assistant Council Administrator-Treasurer Justin Mayers says council members Lamont Cole, Chauna Banks, Donna Collins-Lewis and Erika Green will leave for the conference early Wednesday morning and return Sunday.
“These trips will be paid for out of their council budgets travel/training funds,” he says in an email
The five-day trip overlaps with the Metro Council meeting on Wednesday, where an already twice-deferred item to consider and appoint a new director of the Baton Rouge Metro Airport is still on the agenda. Councilwoman Barbara Freiberg, who is sponsoring the legislation, says she will most likely defer the vote again to avoid controversy.
“Even if we have the votes, we’ll probably defer it because I know that those members feel that it’s important it be deferred until they are there,” Freiberg says.
Billed as “the leading policy conference on issues impacting African Americans and the global black community,” the conference typically attracts more than 9,000 people to some 70 public policy forums, according to the foundation’s website.
Cole says every year he attends the conference, which usually happens the second week of September. Banks, who in a phone call Friday would not confirm whether she was going to the conference, nonetheless says equity in minority communities, particularly as it relates to small businesses, tops her priority list.
“Hopefully, I’ll be networking to help grow our community,” Banks says. “Networking should always be on my calendar.”
Donna Collins-Lewis declined to comment, and Erika Green could not be reached for comment before this morning’s deadline.
Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Veneeth Iyengar will also head to the conference on behalf of Mayor Sharon Weston Broome, who will stay in Baton Rouge to mark the start of new direct flights to Orlando and Austin from the Baton Rouge Metro Airport.
