After delivering a speech at the Atlas Foundation’s Annual Friendship and Dialogue Dinner this week, East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority President and CEO Walter Monsour told Daily Report that “I have a lot to think about” regarding his future with the agency.
The effectiveness of the RDA and Monsour’s role as its leader has been called into question in recent weeks, with Mayor Kip Holden criticizing both the agency and Monsour, his one-time chief of staff and political ally. The controversy began after the RDA board of commissioners voted to ask the Metro Council for an annual $3 million appropriation to keep the agency afloat.
Holden responded by criticizing Monsour’s reported $365,000 annual salary and benefits package and questioning his effectiveness as the agency’s leader. More recently, allegations of impropriety also arose regarding the relationship between the RDA and Butler Snow law firm, where Monsour’s son, Jordan Monsour, is an attorney. Butler Snow represented clients that received funds from the RDA.
Earlier in the week RDA Board Chairman John Noland told Daily Report that he has been “sounding [out] board members one on one” and that the board is “evaluating our course of action.”
Also this week, some Metro Council members told Daily Report that details on a proposed committee to vet applicants for the vacant parish attorney position haven’t been ironed out, while others say they haven’t been included in discussions with Mayor Pro Tem Chandler Loupe, who first sponsored an item to create the committee on Sept. 24. The item has been deferred twice since then.
Councilman Joel Boé asked for the item to be deferred at the meeting Oct. 8 because of unanswered questions, he says.
“What’s their goals? What’s the mission? What are we going to get them to go do?” are among the questions Boé still has. “We need to make sure that we as a council, if we assign a committee, that they know what they are charged with. I’ve asked [Loupe] a couple of questions about it, and we haven’t gotten to the point we have gotten it resolved.”
