Pro tem changes council’s ways

• By SCOTT DYER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jan 8, 2009 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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When Mike Walker moved into the East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor Pro Tem’s office Wednesday, his first order of business was to get a computer.

The previous mayor pro tem, Joe Greco, did not keep a computer in the office. He also did not spend a lot of time there.

Walker said he plans to be much more hands-on in his role as the chairman of the Metro Council than Greco was. The mayor pro tem also fills in for the mayor when necessary.

Walker said the biggest change will be in the way he conducts council meetings.

Grandstanding and infighting were no strangers to the former council’s meetings.

But Walker said he intends to use his gavel to maintain decorum at council meetings over the next four years.

Greco often allowed council members to exceed their five-minute limits at the televised council meetings, but Walker plans to enforce the time limit.

“As a courtesy, I may give a council member an extra minute or two to speak on an issue, but we’re not going to give anybody 20 minutes of free airtime at a shot,” Walker said.

Walker said he doesn’t think he will have to deal with many of the problems that Greco encountered because the makeup of the council has changed dramatically. Some former council members were term-limited, and 10 of the 12 council members are newcomers.

“This council is going to be easy to lead because they do their homework and are going to be prepared for council meetings,” Walker said.

An example was the contrast in the way that the new council and the previous council elected the mayor pro tem.

The new council took less than a minute to elect Walker as mayor pro tem at its inauguration Friday. The previous council fought over the issue for nearly two months before finally electing Greco in 2005.

Walker said he’s not going to tolerate the personal attacks and the fussing that sometimes occurred at the previous council’s meetings.