Editor’s note: The headline on this story was updated after its original publication to reflect that Councilwoman Barbara Freiberg will introduce a proposal tonight to increase the pay range for Baton Rouge’s airport director. The previous headline was incorrect. Daily Report regrets the error.
Metro Councilwoman Barbara Freiberg will introduce an item at this afternoon’s council meeting to increase the pay grade for the next director of aviation at the Baton Rouge Metro Airport.
The change, if approved by the council on Jan. 10, would increase the salary from its current range of between $77,000 and $129,000 to between $89,000 and $149,000, which is the highest pay grade for city-parish employees.
Freiberg, who successfully pushed in October for the creation of a committee to conduct a national search for a new airport director, says the idea behind trying to increase the salary range is to make the position more attractive to potential candidates.
“I would like to see us get this information out and begin advertising the position with the higher salary range to make the position more competitive,” Freiberg says.
Interim Airport Director Ralph Hennessy, who took over at the airport last January following the retirement of former director Anthony Marino, is currently making around $125,000, according to airport spokesman Jim Caldwell.
Freiberg, who is one of seven members serving on the search committee, says a new director would not start out making $149,000 or, necessarily, anything close to that.
“But it gives them room to grow,” she says.
Funds for the pay raise would come from airport revenues, which are self generated, not city-parish operating funds. Still, the Metro Council needs to approve changing the pay grade. Mayor Sharon Weston Broome signed off on making the change earlier today.
The item will only be introduced at today’s meeting. A public hearing and potential vote on the matter will take place at the Jan. 10 meeting.
—Stephanie Riegel
