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W e d n e s d ay, M ay 6, 2026
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Raises for EBR workers proposed
Council to consider $8M plan BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer
Three weeks after the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council approved the largest single pay increase for Baton Rouge police in department history, the group will vote on another plan to increase government employee salaries. If approved on May 13, the proposal would institute a 3.5% raise
for employees of all city-parish departments — though the district attorney, coroner and public defender offices are not included. The plan, crafted by Mayor-President Sid Edwards, comes in tandem with Democrats’ push ahead of the police pay vote last month and calls for sweeping raises recommended in a 2024 compensation study. “In the way we kind of aligned
things and made sure the Police Department is competitive and can recruit the best and brightest, I think we need to do the same now for city parish-workers who do essential services for the parish,” said Democrat Metro Council member Anthony Kenney. If approved, the salary increase would take effect June 27 and would cost the city-parish $4.2 million for the rest of this year and $8 million annually. Of that yearly cost, $4.8 million would come from the city-parish’s
general fund. According to a recent memo detailing the raises, the funding will be supported by benefit plan savings and a hiring freeze that will redirect funds from salaries of vacant positions. Reached Tuesday, Edwards’ of- Kenney fice said it is planning to release more details later in the week.
E LEC T ION 2026 U.S. SENATE
Letlow, Fleming have sharp words
“Many of our city-parish workers have been working, probably half of my lifetime,” said Kenney, the council’s youngest member. “They just feel like they have been overlooked for a very long time. It’s time they’re part of the conversation.” Shortly after a March news conference announcing his plan to give police a historic raise, others quickly voiced that all employees are deserving of a raise.
ä See RAISES, page 6A
Race to redraw map poses problems La. Republicans in uncharted legal waters BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
Ronald Reagan made famous in a 1980 nationwide, televised debate with thenPresident Jimmy Carter. Letlow said Fleming distorted her opposition to vaccine mandates and to diversity, equity and inclusion policies and didn’t acknowledge that she self-reported her failure to report stock trades on a timely basis as a member of Congress. “That’s another desperate claim you make,” she said at one point to Fleming. Letlow also said Fleming hit her with a “low blow” by noting that her fiance, Kevin Ainsworth, promotes carbon capture sequestration companies as a lawyer/
As Louisiana Republicans scramble to redraw the state’s congressional map by month’s end, they are grappling with whether to draw a map with one majorityBlack, Democratic district — or one with none at all. A thorny question com- ä Supreme plicates that Court decision: Under fast-tracks the Supreme Louisiana’s Court’s new interpretation congressional of the Voting map redraw. Rights Act, in PAGE 8A which it’s nearly always unconstitutional to use race to draw district lines, is creating a majority-Black district still legal? “The Legislature should pass a map that is defensible,” Gov. Jeff Landry said Tuesday. “Defensible means that once we go to court, that we will win and we don’t have to go into this continuous legal vicious legal cycle that we’ve been in.” Any map the Legislature passes will need Landry’s blessing to take effect. Louisiana has six congressional districts. Currently, four are held by White Republicans and two are held by Black Democrats from Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The GOP-controlled Legislature is planning to eliminate either one or
ä See WORDS, page 7A
ä See MAP, page 8A
PHOTO By ROBIN MAy
Republican Senate candidates U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming square off Tuesday in a debate hosted by conservative talk radio host Moon Griffon in the KPEL studios in Lafayette.
Cassidy skips event because host disparages him
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
One thing became clear Tuesday, partway into the only debate in the Republican Senate primary: U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming both want to knock each other out of the race during the first round of voting on May 16. Letlow and Fleming clashed repeatedly during the 90-minute debate, with each claiming to be the most conservative candidate in the election. The two Republicans barely mentioned the man they want to unseat — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy — and had to be prodded to
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criticize him by conservative talk radio show host Moon Griffon, who organized and moderated the debate at his station on KPEL-96.5 in Lafayette. Cassidy skipped the event because Griffon regularly lambastes him as “Psycho Bill.” Fleming accused Letlow of distorting his opposition to illegal immigration and carbon cap- Cassidy ture sequestration and downplaying his ties to President Donald Trump. “There you go again, Julia,” Fleming said several times, reprising a line that
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101ST yEAR, NO. 310
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