Baton Rouge, Louisiana

==Government==
[[File:East Baton Rouge Parish District Map.png|thumb|A map of East Baton Rouge Parish districts]]

The city of Baton Rouge and the Parish of East Baton Rouge have been run by a consolidated government since 1947. It combined the Baton Rouge municipal government with the rural areas of the parish, allowing people outside the limits of the city of Baton Rouge to use city services. Though the city and parish have a consolidated government, this differs slightly from a traditional [[consolidated city-county]]{{NoteTag|Because the Louisiana uses [[List of parishes in Louisiana|parishes]], the equivalent of a county in other states, in the state this form of government is called a "consolidated city-parish".}} government.

The cities of [[Zachary, Louisiana|Zachary]], [[Baker, Louisiana|Baker]], and [[Central, Louisiana|Central]] operate their own city governments within East Baton Rouge Parish. Under this system, Baton Rouge has the uncommon office of "mayor-president", which consolidates the executive offices of "mayor of Baton Rouge" and "president of East Baton Rouge Parish". Though Zachary, Baker, and Central each have their own mayors, citizens living in these municipalities are still a part of the [[constituency]] who can vote and run in elections for mayor-president and metropolitan council.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url = http://brgov.com/govt/ |title=Baton Rouge Government |publisher=City of Baton Rouge |access-date=June 12, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130728100632/http://brgov.com/govt/ |archive-date=July 28, 2013 |df=mdy }}</ref>

The mayor-president's duties include setting the agenda for the government and managing the government's day-to-day functions. They are also responsible for supervising departments, as well as appointing the department heads. The mayor does not set the city's public policy because that is the Metropolitan Council's role, but the mayor-president does have some influence on the policy through appointments and relationships with council members.

The current mayor-president of Baton Rouge is [[Sharon Weston Broome]], a former [[Louisiana State Legislature|Louisiana State legislator]]. A [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]], Broome succeeded [[Kip Holden]], also a Democrat, on January 2, 2017, after defeating [[Bodi White]] in a close runoff on December 10, 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|last=GALLO|first=ANDREA|title=Sharon Weston Broome sworn in as Baton Rouge's mayor-president|url=https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_b9d9212c-cd19-11e6-8d98-878bf03790b5.html|access-date=2020-07-31|website=The Advocate|date=January 2, 2017 }}</ref> She served in the [[Louisiana House of Representatives]] from 1992 to 2004, and in the [[Louisiana State Senate]] from 2004 to 2016. She was elected by the senate to serve as the [[President of the Louisiana State Senate#President pro tempore|Senate President Pro Tempore]] from 2008 to 2016.<ref name="br-mayor" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Metropolitan Council|url=http://brgov.com/dept/council/|access-date=June 12, 2013|publisher=City of Baton Rouge}}</ref>

===Metropolitan council===
[[File:Baton Rouge City Council partisan map 2019.svg|thumb|A map of Baton Rouge City Council partisanship|alt=]]

When the city and parish combined government, the city and parish councils consolidated to form the East Baton Rouge Parish Metropolitan Council. The Metropolitan Council is the [[legislative branch]] of the Baton Rouge government. Its 12 district council members are elected from [[single-member districts]]. They elect from among themselves the [[Mayor pro tempore|mayor-president'' pro tempore'']]. The mayor-president pro tempore presides over the council's meetings and assumes the role of the mayor-president if the mayor-president is unable to serve. The council members serve four-year terms and can hold office for three terms.

In the late 1960s, Joe Delpit—a local African American businessman owning and operating the Chicken Shack<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Maker of Baton Rouge's Best Chicken Also Fought for Civil Rights |url=https://www.foodandwine.com/travel/restaurants/chicken-shack-baton-rouge-civil-rights |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Food & Wine |language=en}}</ref>—was elected as the first black council member in Baton Rouge. As in other cities of Louisiana and the South, African Americans had been largely [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised]] for decades into the 20th century.<ref name="johnson">[https://www.nytimes.com/1971/09/29/archives/louisiana-negroes-seek-power-in-one-parish-they-run-for-22-of-27.html Thomas A. Johnson, "Louisiana Negroes Seek Power"], ''New York Times,'' 29 September 1971; accessed 20 March 2019</ref> The Chicken Shack, with multiple locations, in 2015 was reported as the oldest continually operating business in Baton Rouge.<ref name="landry">[https://www.businessreport.com/business/delpit-familys-chicken-shack-still-going-strong-eight-decades Annie Ourso Landry, "The Delpit family's Chicken Shack is still going strong after eight decades"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622084731/https://www.businessreport.com/business/delpit-familys-chicken-shack-still-going-strong-eight-decades |date=June 22, 2018}}, ''Business Report'', 22 July 2015</ref>

The Metropolitan Council's main responsibilities are setting the [[government policy|policy]] for the government, voting on [[legislation]], and approving the [[government budget|city's budget]]. The council makes policies for the following: the city and parish general funds, all districts created by the council, the Greater Baton Rouge Airport District, the Public Transportation Commission, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sewerage Control Commission and the Greater Baton Rouge Parking Authority.<ref name=":0" />