Metro Councilman Chandler Loupe has placed an item on Wednesday’s agenda calling for an administrative update on the search for a new police chief, but Mayor Kip Holden says he won’t comply because there’s nothing to report. “I’m not making any report to them,” Holden says. “I have not received test results back from the municipal fire and police board, and I’m not under any responsibility to give them an arbitrary update just because [Loupe] put it on the agenda.”
Loupe says the council has thus far been left out of the search, which began in November after Police Chief Jeff LeDuff announced his retirement, and that an update is long overdue. “We have not been provided with any information or timeline by the administration, and I think the full council needs to be informed as to the process and when we can expect a new chief of police,” Loupe says. “My constituents think it’s urgent, and I tend to agree with them.”
Holden says he’s following the timeline outlined by Baton Rouge Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board guidelines. “I’m moving forward according to rules that have been well established, and I’m not going to substitute my will for a process that’s already been vetted and has worked before,” the mayor says. “Every week [Loupe’s] putting something on the agenda to try to question this administration, but we’re not going to submit ourselves to ambush politics on his part.”
Forty-one of 52 applicants qualified to take the civil service police chief exam on March 1. A grade of 75% or higher is required for passage. Once the civil service board approves the scores and forwards the names of those who passed to Holden’s office, the search will be in the mayor’s hands. The council meets at 4 p.m. Wednesday in council chambers at City Hall downtown. —Steve Sanoski
