Provides relative to the Recreation and Park Commission for the parish of East Baton Rouge. (gov sig)

Senate Bill 343 amends Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:4570.1 to restructure the Recreation and Park Commission for East Baton Rouge Parish by reducing total membership from nine commissioners to nine commissioners while fundamentally changing the composition. The bill eliminates the previous structure of five ex officio members consisting of mayors from Baker, Baton Rouge, Central, St. George, and Zachary, and replaces it with three ex officio members: the mayor-president or a designee, a school board member designated by the school board, and a planning commission member designated by the planning commission. The bill increases appointed members from four to six, all to be appointed by the metropolitan council for three-year terms, and reduces the quorum requirement from five members to four members. The bill removes existing residency requirements that mandated at least two appointed members be residents of the city of Baton Rouge and at least one from an unincorporated area, along with the provision allowing the commission to reallocate these requirements following the decennial census.

The practical effect of this legislation impacts the governance of recreation and park services throughout East Baton Rouge Parish by shifting appointment authority and changing which local officials serve on the commission. The municipal mayors of Baker, Central, St. George, and Zachary will no longer automatically sit on the commission as ex officio members, reducing direct municipal representation. The school board and planning commission gain formal seats through designated representatives, broadening the perspectives involved in recreation and park decisions. The six appointed members, previously selected by the city of Baton Rouge's governing authority with specific residency requirements, will now be appointed by the metropolitan council, which may include representation from areas previously guaranteed seats. The reduction in quorum from five to four members creates a lower threshold for conducting official business, potentially enabling faster decision-making with fewer commissioners present.

This bill operates within the constitutional framework established by Louisiana's home rule charter provisions, specifically Article VI, Section 5(E) and Section 6 of the Louisiana Constitution, which prohibit the legislature from enacting laws that change or affect the structure, organization, or distribution of powers of local governmental subdivisions operating under home rule charters. Section 2 of the bill references the Home Rule Charter for East Baton Rouge Parish, specifically Section 11.02, which the bill claims previously established the three ex officio member structure now being reinstated. Section 3 explicitly states that Act No. 391 of the 2025 Regular Session violated constitutional requirements by altering this charter-mandated structure, and the present bill purports to remedy that violation by restoring conformity with the charter. The constitutional validity of this amendment depends on whether the referenced charter provision actually mandates the three-member ex officio structure or whether the bill's interpretation of charter requirements withstands judicial scrutiny.