Exactly 10 months after Anthony Marino retired from his longtime position as executive director of the Baton Rouge Metro Airport, interim director Ralph Hennessy continues to fill the top post and there’s been no move to conduct a national search for a permanent replacement.
Marino announced his retirement last fall after 41 years at the airport, 21 of which he served at the helm. At the time, Metro Councilman Trae Welch, the council’s representative on the Airport Commission, said a committee would be formed to conduct a national search.
But that committee was never created, and now Welch says he doesn’t think it’s needed because Hennessy deserves the job on a permanent basis.
“Ralph has done well and under him development has continued,” Welch says. “A search is supposed to find somebody who is doing the job somewhere else. We’ve had a 16-year search with Ralph under Anthony. We’ve seen what he is able to do. Why do we need a search for someone who isn’t from here?”
Not everyone agrees. Airport Commission Chairman Andrew McCandless says Hennessy has done a good job and may well be the best person to fill the position permanently. But he believes Hennessy should be vetted alongside other qualified candidates.
“He’s a strong candidate,” McCandless says. “But best business practices for a public body dictate that you do a search and see who is the best candidate for the job.”
As a practical matter, the Airport Commission has little say so in the matter. The Commission serves in an advisory capacity only to the Metro Council, which, with the mayor, acts as the official airport authority for the parish.
Still, the differing views on the role of the leadership at the airport underscores the divergent philosophies about where the regional airport should focus its efforts—on developing its facilities for private and charter service and growing its 650-acre Aviation Business Park, or in trying to attract more direct flights to Baton Rouge for commercial passengers.
“The main job of the airport director isn’t to manage flights but to understand the economic development of the property and the tax benefit there is to being on airport-owned property,” says Councilman Matt Watson, who shares Welch’s outlook.
Councilwoman Barbara Freiberg disagrees, and says the airport, which gets high marks for its service and facilities but struggles with a lack of flights, has room for improvement.
“Ralph’s done some good things,” she says. “But if you’re going to make things better you may need to look for some out-of-the-box thinking—creative thinking—to make our airport better.”
For its part, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber also believes a national search is warranted.
“The airport is a critical asset to the future of the business community and the region’s economic competitiveness,” BRAC President and CEO Adam Knapp says. “BRAC supports that there should be a national search for a new permanent director. We have had a good relationship with Ralph. We’ve worked with him on trying to attract flights, national marketing, and to land new air park tenants. However, we always believe it is important to see the pool of available talent nationally for an important position like this. …”
Welch and Freiberg both say they intend to bring measures to the Metro Council in the coming weeks to move forward on the issue. Freiberg says hers will call for a national search. Welch says his will be more open-ended.
Council Chairman Scott Wilson says he expects the likely outcome will be a measure by Welch to create a committee to study the matter and determine whether, in fact, a national search is needed.
“We’re hoping to put something on the agenda in September to put a broad-based committee together that will tell us how to proceed,” he says. “I’m not out to spend $50,000 to do a national search just to spend money.”
Referring to Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s national search for Chief Administrative Officer Troy Bell, who was forced to resign amidst scandal after five days on the job, Wilson adds, “Plus, with the mayor’s experience you see that sometimes a national search isn’t the best way to go.”
—Stephanie Riegel
