To see a video on the mayor-president candidates debate, click here.
Racial divide, crime, traffic, public transit and the East Baton Rouge Parish School System were hot-button topics of debate at Thursday’s mayor-president of East Baton Rouge Parish debate.The four mayor-president hopefuls include incumbent Kip Holden, District 1 Metro Councilman Wayne Carter, former EBR Parish School Board member Ron Johnson and former state legislative auditor Dan Kyle. The four candidates faced off in a two-hour debate Thursday morning at Southern University.Holden is seeking his second term as mayor-president of EBR Parish. He said he wants to keep LSU and Southern graduates in the state.He said he is working to “let [college students] know that they don’t have to go out of this city, out of this state to get a quality job.”Holden met with the ambassador to the U.S. from France to discuss bringing digital companies to Baton Rouge. Holden said he is working to let graduates who have already left Baton Rouge know about available job opportunities.”We need all of our talent, as much as we can to stay home,” Holden said.Carter has been in the Metro Council for eight years. He has 30 years of business experience.”I need no training. I know what the issues are, I know where the agendas are at, and I know where the bodies are hidden,” Carter said. “It’s something I’ve been a daily part of for the last eight years.”Carter said college graduates are leaving because of limited job opportunities, crime and traffic.”Our brilliant students are leaving here … and we’ve got to stop that,” Carter said. “We need them to be here in the city to help build jobs [and] help grow this city, and the only way to do that is to open up economic development.”Carter suggested utilizing low-security buildings to rehabilitate people convicted of misdemeanors to separate them from felons.Johnson, a candidate boasting a background in both law and engineering, plans to give the families of college students “tax credits from the local standpoint to help them with the cost” of schooling,” he said.Johnson said Baton Rouge remains segregated, and he called for north Baton Rouge funding to equal that of southeastern Baton Rouge.Kyle said his financial experience will help his intentions for improving college students’ “quality of life” through law enforcement, better education opportunities, improving traffic and reducing taxes.Improving the public transportation system is a critical part of improving the city, Kyle said.”I would much rather ride the bus to work than have to drive my car and look for a place to park it,” Kyle said.—-Contact Lindsey Meaux at [email protected]