Bossier Jury maintains charade more transparently

Three-quarters illegal is still illegal, a fact the Bossier Parish Police Jury can’t avoid even as it takes a small step towards transparency.

At its meeting this week, the Jury took inched towards addressing its continued unlawful behavior regarding the parish’s Library Board of Control. Statute requires that a parish seat five to seven citizens of the parish for five-year terms staggered each year, appoint officers annually, every year submit a budget request to the Jury, and meet at least once a year.

None of this happened in 2025. The last time the Jury “appointed” members, in direct violation of the law it tried to place all 12 members onto the Board for 2024, which held one meeting that year. In the interim, one term expired at the end of September in 2024, and another again in 2025.

Entry can't beat Arceneaux but could make him lose

It’s really more spite than serious victory chances with Republican Caddo Parish Commissioner John-Paul Young’s announced entry into the Shreveport mayor’s race.

Young declared himself a candidate after months of speculation and a year’s worth of sniping on his part directed towards GOP Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux. Most of his criticism, which included a lawsuit about a year ago concerning the then-language of laws dealing with squatters, has focused on property standards. Whether that made a difference, Arceneaux in short order worked with the City Council to clarify the legal standard for blight enforcement and launched a campaign to crack down on it. He then amped up the effort with his Block by Block initiative that has made significant inroads into cleaning up derelict properties.

This didn’t seem to satisfy Young, who kept complaining while Arceneaux disputed his assertions. Less in dispute is the practical impact of Young’s entrance, where he won’t win but he could help to deprive Arceneaux of a second term.

Dysfunctional arts group needs BC tough love

Belatedly, Bossier City is getting more guarded about its direction of tax dollars toward private entities, and implementing a little tough love to a long-simmering problem area is a good next step.

This week, the Bossier City Council tees up its 2026 five-year capital budget. This one calls for $188 million in spending, a substantial increase from the $130 million called for in last year’s. Most of that increase comes from transportation zooming from $36 million to $84 million, with the lion’s share taken by new projects to improve Viking Drive, improve Hamilton Road, create a cut-through from Barksdale Boulevard to the arena, and to bump up generic street improvements by two-thirds. Much of the rest comes from engineering projects jumping up from $24 million to $41 million with the addition of a Swan Lake Road to Deen Point waterline and Interstate 20 exit improvements.

Unfortunately, like herpes, this budget has resurfacing the “multi-purpose indoor sports venue.” This is shorthand for a city taxpayer gift to the YMCA, which the city would allow the Y to run and derive revenues from in exchange for giving residents the chance to pay dues to the Y to use the facility their tax dollars built. As previously noted, given the wide availability of recreation options available already for residents there’s no reason for this, yet it has appeared in all but one budget beginning in 2021. With a pair of reform-minded councilors in their second terms and four like-minded new ones, there’s no reason this Council should let stick around this $20 million waste, especially as the city tries to crawl out from under a mound of debt and has made this mistake before with the city’s tennis center.

Remove useless requirement to empower families

With a needless requirement teed up for removal, parents in Louisiana will gain greater say in the future of their children’s school that particularly will assist some in Monroe.

HB 83 by Republican state Rep. Mike Echols would excise from statute a stricture mandating double majorities for parents and school staff to request that a school serving their attendance zone be converted into a Type 2 charter school. That designation means administration would occur by a charter association aligned with the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, rather than with the local school district or a Type 3 school, which requires approval by the local school board or, failing that, BESE, then approved by the double majority if the local authority wants that (by administrative code), which the bill effectively also would remove. (A Type 4 conversion, or a local board running a school under a charter with BESE, also has this requirement.)

A double majority is where not only a majority of those voting must approve of something but also a majority of the relevant electorate must vote in the election. These are not uncommon in countries around the world but almost always apply to large jurisdictions and questions, such as amending constitutions or having citizens pass a law. The concept sporadically exists in America, dealing only with forced annexations into different governments.

GOP BESE candidates need to explain positions

Voters in Louisiana’s boot are going to suffer off-year overload with not only hotly-contested U.S. Senate and Fifth Congressional District races but also a slew of state-level elections that may prove as vigorously contested.

 Elections for the Public Service Commission and Supreme Court will end up putting a Republican in office, but will test voters on their abilities to distinguish among candidates more aligned with consistent conservatism and others less so. By contrast, the special election for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education features a lineup blasting from the past without obvious and clearcut differences.

After a number of years out of the political limelight, when past member Republican Paul Hollis received confirmation as GOP Pres. Donald Trump’s director of the U.S. Mint, Republican Anh “Joseph” Cao was appointed by GOP Gov. Jeff Landry late last year to hold the seat on an interim basis. He signed up to finish the last couple of years of Hollis’ term.