Believing that there are now enough Metro Council votes to hire an outside firm to facilitate the search for Baton Rouge’s next airport director, Councilwoman Barbara Freiberg reintroduced a measure on Wednesday to extend a contract to ADK Consulting and Executive Search.
The measure allocates $34,900 for ADK’s contract and an additional $5,100 for any other expenses arising from the aviation director search like flying candidates in for interviews.
Fellow Councilmember Chauna Banks joined Freiberg in reintroducing the measure, signing on as a co-author. The council read and accepted the introduced measure, advancing it for a public hearing and vote on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
The measure’s passage rests partly on whether enough council members will show up for the vote in two weeks. In January, Freiberg brought two measures to the council, one allocating funds for the contract and another approving ADK’s hiring.
But with two members—Banks and Chandler Loupe—absent from the meeting and two others—Trae Welch and Matt Watson—out of the room, the measures failed. Both measures have been combined into the item introduced this week.
“There were a number of folks that weren’t in the meeting last month,” Freiberg says. “We think that with the number of people who were missing at that meeting last time that in a couple of weeks we’ll get the votes.” It’s unclear if Freiberg actually has the votes.
Based in Florida, ADK Consulting specializing in performing executive searches exclusively for the airport industry. BTR has been without a permanent director since longtime director Anthony Marino resigned. Ralph Hennessey, who worked under Marino, filled in as interim director.
Freiberg, however, has sought to conduct a national search to find Marino’s replacement, fighting to form a seven-member search committee that she sits on with Banks—who’s also expressed dismay about the how the last vote occurred—and Welch.
“This is such a special niche in leadership in this city that I think our community needs experts in this search,” she says, adding that the Metro Council will have the final say in the matter.
Meanwhile, the airport director search committee is moving forward with plans to hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 20, at the airport to gather public input about what people would like to see at BTR and in a director.
