Marshall to unveil CATS plan Wednesday

CATS CEO Brian Marshall will publicly unveil his long-awaited plan for upgrading and improving services to the city’s public transit system Wednesday morning at a CATS board committee meeting. Though CATS board Chairman Isaiah Marshall, who is not related to Brian Marshall, has seen the business plan, he won’t discuss details of it until after “everyone has had a chance to get their questions answered tomorrow.” Brian Marshall was originally scheduled to present the plan—which promises to explain how CATS will implement upgrades to the system funded by the 10-year, 10.6-mill property tax voters in Baton Rouge and Baker approved last spring—at a Feb. 22 meeting that was hastily canceled. Isaiah Marshall says all or most of the CATS board is expected to attend tomorrow’s meeting, though no board action is expected. Also on the agenda for the meeting is management response to “staff augmentation suggestion,” which refers to a board consultant’s recommendation that the CATS board replace its top staff with outside experts. Brian Marshall blasted the report in his response. After weeks of controversy and discussion about the report, Isaiah Marshall says the board is starting to warm to the idea of a very limited staff augmentation. “I think you have to have staff augmentation in the right manner—not contract management but outsourcing in very limited bits and pieces,” he says. “That might mean hiring outside help for marketing or IT … but we are not talking about replacing the CEO.” The CATS committee meets at 11:30 a.m. at the CATS Administration Building, 2250 Florida Blvd. The meeting is open to the public. —Stephanie Riegel