Metro Council members Barbara Freiberg and Trae Welch have proposed dueling measures to determine where Baton Rouge goes from here in the search for a new airport director.
Earlier today, Welch proposed a resolution that would name interim airport director Ralph Hennessy as the permanent director. Hennessy has served in the post on a temporary basis since his former boss, Anthony Marino, retired in January after more than 20 years in the position.
Less than an hour later, Freiberg placed her own resolution on the agenda to establish a committee that would conduct a national search for a new director.
Both resolutions are to be introduced at the Oct. 11 council meeting. Provided a majority of council members approves putting them on the agenda for debate, they will be discussed and voted on at the Oct. 25 meeting.
The dueling measures come one day after council members failed to take action on a Freiberg-sponsored resolution calling for a national search to take place before naming an airport director. Freiberg has been pushing for a national search, with admittedly little open support from her fellow council members. When the matter came up for debate late Wednesday, Welch moved to defer it for 30 days. His motion failed, however, and no additional action was taken, forcing Freiberg to reintroduce her original resolution.
Freiberg has said she doesn’t have a problem with Hennessy’s performance but the position of airport director is important enough to cast a wide net to find the best possible candidate.
“I think there are a lot of people who believe there should be a national search even if Ralph ends up being the best person for the job,” Freiberg says.
Welch, who is among Hennessy’s staunchest supporters, says Hennessy has proven himself, both under Marino and for the past nine months as interim director.
“I’ll put Ralph’s resume up against anybody’s,” Welch says.“It’s not about whether we should do a search, not do a search. I’ve been out at that airport since the late 1980s, and I’ve seen where it’s come from.”
While the airport director issue may seem like a relatively small flap in the scheme of things, it speaks to larger issues of economic competitiveness in the market. Baton Rouge’s lack of direct air service works against it in the site selection process, according to outside economic development experts, though many question whether an airport director can really do anything to attract more direct flights to the market.
Welch says the director should support and manage the airport, which itself is an economic development engine in north Baton Rouge, with a sprawling and successful industrial business park.
Freiberg says given the market’s lack of air service it’s important to leave no stone unturned.
—Stephanie Riegel and Sam Karlin
