Only a few days into his administration, Republican Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux faces four paramount issues that if he can resolve satisfactorily even just a couple will give him a tremendous leg up in an uphill battle for reelection.

As a white Republican helming a city with a plurality of black Democrats in the electorate, Arceneaux won in part because of frustration that several looming problems seemed unaddressed. They’re substantial, yet because of that success in dealing with them could win him great credit among an electorate inclined to give the greatest support to candidates of a different skin color and party and allow him to double his time in office.

From least to most problematic:

Quelling personnel problems. His predecessor Democrat Adrian Perkins committed a number of unforced errors in this area, from needless controversies in upper management to apparent disregard of city employees. Questionable (and sometimes not legal) political appointments seemed to top the list, a habit which didn’t necessarily begin with Perkins, with perhaps no better example that the Shreveport Airport Authority which in the last few years had overseen a revolving door of airport directors and managed to provoke legal controversies with hangar owners.

Arceneaux will start appointing his upper management soon, and an emphasis qualified and experienced administrators will help his cause. He soon also will begin making appointments to the Authority and might start housecleaning with nominations that speak more to seriousness in governing the city’s two airports than to political alliances or favorites.

Finishing the Connector. The Interstate 49 Connector to stitch the highway’s separated pieces together has languished over money concerns, although GOP state Sen. Barrow Peacock helped to alleviate those somewhat through championing seed money to finish the job. Arceneaux has said he supports the project using it current-contemplated route (in odd irony, Peacock didn’t support Arceneaux in his campaign while to secure the appropriation he had to battle Democrat state Rep. Cedric Glover who did support Arceneaux).

But now the problem seems to be wokeism from the federal government on the larger issue of elevated limited access highways versus greater access ground or expensive subterranean byways, with a preference for the latter due to the belief that elevated expressways damage neighborhoods, even though those areas often are in great distress, and it insinuates racism has something to do with it (these neighborhoods typically have high concentrations of racial minorities as residents). That has given impetus to resisting the current Connector path through Allendale just west of downtown.

Getting the Connector at its present siting started before his term is up might lose Arceneaux votes in Allendale and a few other revanchists around town, but the vast majority of the electorate would be impressed.

Taming the budget. Especially in its last year Perkins embarked on some free spending that the city couldn’t afford. Reality set in when the balancing the 2023 budget meant eating into $42 million of the general fund’s reserves, leaving just $20 million projected at year’s end. And despite rate hikes for trash pickup by Perkins, solid waste funding continues to deteriorate.

Arceneaux said he would scrap subsidization of curbside recyclable pickup, another project Perkins botched, which is a small but good start. But with so much recurring spending baked into the budget and debt-fueled Washington Democrat largesse in the name of combating spillover effects from the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic a thing of the past, he’ll either have to make tough cuts and/or hike taxes/fees or pull a rabbit out of his hat to keep the city out of the red.

Keeping busted pipes from busting the city. Yet that pales in comparison to having the task of passing a camel through the eye of a needle that represents the difficulty in fulfilling the city’s part of a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency, due to be complete before Arceneaux’s term is up. Entered into to tackle persistent water and sewerage quality problems, already the city has spent $450 million and may have to endure two times more than that before project completion.

The latest annual report on it paints a discouraging picture: “ … the City is unable to fund remaining Consent Decree obligations without rate increases that would place an unconscionable financial burden on its ratepayers,” noting that even as sewer rates increased 177 percent between 2013 and 2022 and water rates increased 6 percent in 2020 and 4 percent in 2022 the city is well short of money to complete the project absent bond sales or financial assistance provided by federal and state agencies or other revenue sources. Critically-needed specific projects not even started alone will require $415 million more, for a city already with the second-highest per capita debt in the state (trailing among major cities only Bossier City).

Arceneaux’s team will have fewer than three years to finish the job, with little money presently available. Pulling this off with a minimum of pain for ratepayers and/or taxpayers by itself could earn him reelection. Failing to fix any of these likely makes him a one-term mayor.