Lame duck council to consider approval of largest bond proposal in Shreveport history
By: Nancy Cook
Updated: November 9, 2010
Shreveport City Council members today will have a choice whether to give final approval to the $165 million bond proposal – Ordinance 219 of 2010 – or leave it for the incoming City Council to decide, according to Joyce Bowman, council president.
Five of the seven city council members who will vote this afternoon are lame ducks, in that they either were term-limited out or elected not to run for re-election. Only Councilmen Joe Shyne (Dist. F) and Ron Webb (Dist. E.) will be on the incoming Shreveport City Council. Lame duck members who will vote today are: Calvin Lester, (Dist. A), Monty Walford, (Dist. B), Michael D. Long (Dist. C), and Bryan Wooley, (Dist. D.) and Joyce Bowman (Dist. G).
The proposal, submitted by the 2010 Citizens Bond Study Committee, is the largest bond ever proposed in the City of Shreveport, but will not require a tax increase, according to the report submitted by the committee. The committee was comprised of members selected by members of the city council and the mayor. The mayor and each council member selected two committee members from their district. Committee members then consulted with city department heads to learn of their needs.
This bond issue is unique for Shreveport in that rather than being decided by the mayor, approved by the city council put to the voters for a vote, as has always been the case in the past.
Rather than a straight up or down vote on the bond issue on Nov. 9, the vote will be to take the issue off the table where council members voted to place it at their Sept. 28 meeting. If they do that, the next step will be to vote to present it to the citizens of Shreveport. That vote will be followed by setting the date, April 2, 2011, for the special election.
If present council members decide to leave the issue on the table, it will be up to the next city council to take it off the table, approve it and set the date for the election. They will be sworn into office at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 23, will meet at noon that day to select a chair and vice chair, and will convene in a regular business meeting 3 that same afternoon. If still lingering, the bond issue could be take up at that time.
The council also plans to pass the city’s 2011 budget at today’s meeting, though passage isn’t required by the city charter until Dec. 15 of each year.
Ordinance No. 219 of 2010
