BATON ROUGE, LA – Mayor-President Sid Edwards is facing criticism after abruptly ending Baton Rouge’s long-standing City Hall tradition of hiring a Chief Administrative Officer with little to no relevant experience.
Instead, Edwards shocked political observers by appointing Dr. Christel Slaughter, someone who appears to not only understand the job, but has already been performing it competently for months. The move has drawn outrage from local reporters who were preparing for a six-month “national search” to produce another colorful hiring fiasco.
It’s a sharp departure from the city’s rich history of CAO drama. In 2017, then-Mayor Sharon Weston Broome made headlines after her newly appointed CAO resigned within days, forcing her to appoint an interim and publicly admit the hire was a “mistake.” For many, it marked the beginning of a proud local tradition: appointing first, Googling later.
“We were promised a full search with confusion, committee infighting, and maybe even a candidate scandal,” said one visibly disappointed journalist. “Now we’re just left with a functioning administrator. Where’s the fun in that?”
Critics accuse Edwards of undermining the democratic spirit of Baton Rouge bureaucracy by hiring based on ability rather than other factors. Some fear this could set a dangerous precedent of competence at City Hall.
Longtime residents fear this could spark a wave of qualified hires across Baton Rouge, destroying the city’s delicate balance of dysfunction.
