Naming names: Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s cabinet is starting to take shape as the administration on Monday announced the appointments of staff to several key positions. Three of the appointments are holdovers from former Mayor Kip Holden’s administration. Eric Romero has been named the city-parish’s director of information services, a role he held in the interim under former Mayor Kip Holden. Carey Chauvin will reprise his role as the city-parish’s development director, a position he’s held since 2015. Brian Bernard, who’s worked as the interim human resource director since 2012, will assume the position full time under Broome. Three new faces—Rowdy Gaudet, James Gilmore and Tamiara Wade—will serve as Broome’s assistant chief administrative officers.
Changing hands: The property at 2415 S. Acadian Thruway that’s currently home to Outback Steakhouse has changed ownership, but it won’t have any impact on the restaurant’s operations. According to paperwork filed on Friday with the East Baton Rouge Clerk of Court, Delaware-based New Private Restaurant Properties LLC sold the property to Wendy L. Archibald of Irvine, California, for $3.5 million. The entire site is less than one acre. Archibald says the buy was solely for the property, which is located near Interstate 10, and nothing will change with Outback Steakhouse’s operations on the site.
Slashed: A plan that includes cutting nearly $29 million from the state’s constitutionally protected Minimum Foundation Program could impact Louisiana’s more than 7,000 K-12 public school students if approved, The Shreveport Times reports. The plan by Alexandria Rep. Lance Harris relies on a special clause that allows the state to cut the MFP in extreme circumstances, in this case the $304 million midyear budget shortfall. The Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Larry Carter calls the proposed cut “shameful,” saying “this is the first time in our history that serious proposals have been made to actually reduce funding for public education.” Read the full story.
