JOHN E. SETTLE JR.
Editor
The current terms of the Shreveport mayor and city council end in December of next year.
Qualifying for the 2022 fall races will be in June, with the primary in October and any runoff elections in November. In January, if not sooner, the political hot stove talk will crank up on the upcoming mayoral and council races.
At this writing, Mayor Adrian Perkins is expected to seek a second term. The same can be said for council members Grayson Boucher, Levette Fuller, James Green, John Nickelson and Tabatha Taylor. Council members Jerry Bowman Jr. and James Flurry are termed out, which means their districts will have open seats.
For all practical purposes, the political agenda of the mayor and council for any meaningful actions will end by June, probably much sooner. So what’s ahead between now and, say, March of next year?
Initially, the proposed $236 million bond issue on the Nov. 13 ballot will be a major marker for the political success of Perkins in a second-term bid. His first bond proposal failed, and he pulled a proposed second bond package.
Shreveport’s crime rate will no doubt be an overriding concern of all of next year’s political candidates. What additional actions that Perkins and the council will implement is an unknown at this time. There is no doubt that crime will be a primary campaign issue in 2022, absent a major decrease in the number of violence-related crimes in Shreveport.
Currently, Wayne Smith is the substitute Shreveport police chief. In November, Ben Raymond’s tenure as chief ends. The nomination by Perkins of the next permanent SPD chief will be key for him as well as the council, who must confirm his nomination.
Shreveport Fire Chief Scott Wolverton has announced a November retirement. Although a fire chief’s nomination generally does not invoke as much scrutiny as that of a police chief, the naming of a replacement for Wolverton will have political overtones, and it can be an underlying issue in the 2022 elections.
The mayor will be submitting a proposed 2022 budget to the council, which must be approved by the first meeting in December. The police and fire departments have all but been promised a raise for next year. And there is talk of a raise to all other citizen employees to help offset the increase in health-care costs passed on to them.
Perhaps the most contentious issue the council must deal with its reapportionment of the council districts. The city’s population has sagged south since 2010, which means the district lines of Districts A, B and C will move southward.
Currently, there are four minority-majority districts. There could be five minority-majority districts after the plans are submitted to the council. How each district is realigned will have major political ramifications on the 2022 council elections.
There will, of course, be many other issues for both the mayor and the council between now and the 2022 qualifying, many of which will decide voter preferences for one reason or another. For those that like to keep a political score sheet, the bond issue, crime, next SPD and SFD chiefs and the council realignment after redistricting certainly should be on the list.