Baton Rouge will become the first mid-sized city in the country to launch a new training program for recent college graduates who want to pursue careers in local government.

Both Houston and San Francisco have been participating in the City Hall Fellows program since its inception in 2008. Baton Rouge plans to kick off its City Hall Fellow Program in August with five to six Fellows.

Founded by Baton Rouge native and Episcopal High School graduate Bethany Rubin Henderson, City Hall Fellows grooms America’s best and brightest college graduates for careers in local government.

The nonprofit City Hall Fellows program offers paid Fellowships to outstanding recent college graduates with ties to its partner cities, Henderson said.  Fellows work full-time for 12 months on high-need, high-impact projects while serving as special assistants to senior city administrators and officials. Each Fellow also receives more than 300 hours of training through the program.

Henderson said she established City Hall Fellows in 2008 in response to the looming leadership crisis facing our cities.  A recent study by the International City/County Management Association showed that, within a decade, more than half of our country’s local government workforce will be of retirement age, she added.

Henderson will be in the Baton Rouge February 8-11 to recruit seniors and recent college graduates from local colleges and universities for Baton Rouge’s first group of Fellows. She will be joined by Niiobli Armah, a Southern University graduate and former student body president, who was a participant in the City Hall Fellows’ program in his native Houston. Application materials and instructions for applying to become a City Hall Fellow are available online at www.cityhallfellows.org. The deadline to apply for a position in Baton Rouge is March 10.

Now Baton Rouge residents have convenient access to community and government information 24 hours a day and 7 days a week!  Dial 344-INFO or 344-4636 from a touch-tone phone for answers to the most frequently asked question about government issues.

How to Use AskBR

1. Dial (225) 344-INFO or 344-4636.  Have paper and pencil ready to jot down the information you need.
2. Press the four-digit message number of your choice. You may access up to four messages each time you call AskBR.

Why AskBR Was Created

AskBR is a service from the East Baton Rouge City Parish Government that can help you, the citizen, by either providing the information you need or giving you the correct office and telephone number to address your concern.

At the end of each message, AskBR provides you with a telephone number for your personal service.  The system does not take the place of individual customer service, but rather offers you a 24-hour option.  You may find the system most useful in the early morning, late evening and weekends or holidays when our offices are closed, or it may help you find the correct office and extension for your question.

Avoid Busy Signals

When calling, an occasional busy signal may occur.  Please wait for a few moments before re-dialing AskBR.

Have paper & pencil ready to write down information.  Your readiness will help keep the lines available for other callers.  Everyone will benefit!

Quick Tips

You may press a new message number at any time.  For example, if you get the wrong message, you may immediately enter another without waiting for the first message to finish playing.

Links:

AskBR Brochure (Requires .pdf document reader)
Access AskBR Now (Not working at the time of this post)

As part of his Healthy Cities Initiative, Mayor President Melvin “Kip” Holden has released a new public service announcement that promotes bicycle safety by reminding motorist to “share the road” with bike riders.

“We’re building more bike paths in our city and parish because more people are riding for recreation and transportation,” the Mayor says in the 30-second television spot.

The spot features testimonials from several cyclists about their reasons for riding bikes: to help the environment, to promote fitness and because it’s fun.

“It’s important to share the road and respect our friends and neighbors on bikes,” Holden says in the PSA.

The spot concludes with a member of the City Police Bike Patrol reminding motorists that sharing the road with bicyclists “is not just the right thing to do, it’s the law.”

A new state law requires motorists to give bicyclists at least three feet clearance when passing them. The law, known as the Colin Goodier Act, also protects cyclists from physical and verbal harassment by motorists.

Dr. Colin Goodier was a cyclist who was killed in an accident last year on River Road in Baton Rouge. He was 28.

According to statistics compiled by LSU’s Highway Safety Research Group, 10 Louisiana bicyclists were killed in accidents last year and another 640 were injured in accidents. According to Baton Rouge City Police, there were 94 crashes involving bicycles in the city last year.