BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) -- East Baton Rouge Parish voters will have to decide on an amendment that has several changes for city-parish government attached to it. It will appear on the ballot as the “Home Rule Charter Amendment.” The language of it is – admittedly by council members – confusing. “You will not find me disagreeing that the language of this proposition could use some severe improvement,” said Metro Council member Rowdy Gaudet. As it will read on the ballot, it says: “Shall the Plan of Government of the City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge (the "Plan of Government") be amended pursuant to Article VI, Section 5 of the Constitution of the State of Louisiana and Section 11.09 of the Plan of Government, and be renumbered as necessary, as further described in the Summary of Proposed Amendments to the Plan of Government, which may be reviewed on the official website (http://www.brla.gov/planofgovernment) of the City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge or may be obtained from the Council Administrator for the City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge, and which proposed amendments are hereby incorporated by reference and made a part of this Proposition?” The amendment to the city-parish constitution aims to restructure parts of EBR city government by changing the chief administrative officer to a city-parish manager role that would focus on the day-to-day operations of the parish. A chief of staff position will be created to handle policy and a city attorney would be hired to advise the mayor-president on legal issues. The mayor-president would be tasked in their budget to determine how to pay for the two new positions. “The services that are being delivered to all of you and to all the residents of our parish are critically important and we should have a qualified and professional manager who solely focuses on the improvement of those services and how they are delivered,” Gaudet said. Can you stop calls and texts from political campaigns? The council will remove restrictions around their own salaries. Currently, the constitution states council members can only make $1,000 a month. The council wants to be able to alter that as a body in the same way the mayor-president’s salary is voted on. Among some simple language changes and removing outdated references, the amendment would give the council an additional 45 days to review the mayor-president’s proposed budget to have more time to discuss how money is spent. “To have transparent meetings around what those budgets look like, hear from department heads on what their metrics are, how they're meeting them or not meeting them,” Gaudet said. Some of the biggest changes are that it requires someone to live in the parish for two years before they can run for mayor-president and council member candidates will have to live in their district for at least a year to run. Voters have to vote for all of those changes – or none. This is part of an effort that had wide community involvement starting back in 2017. The timing for the amendment now is to be on the ballot of an election with projected high turnout. Louisiana delegation weighs in on call for FEMA funding, flood insurance reform There are a number of community meetings set up around the parish to answer questions about the proposed changes. All meetings are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.  Tuesday, Oct. 8: Main Library, 7711 Goodwood Blvd. Tuesday, Oct. 15: Fairwood Branch Library, 12910 Old Hammond Hwy. Thursday, Oct. 17: Zachary Branch Library, 1900 Church St. Thursday, Oct. 24: Baker Branch Library, 3501 Groom Road. Monday, Oct. 28: Bluebonnet Regional Library, 9200 Bluebonnet Blvd. Latest News Join NASCAR and Nexstar in supporting hurricane recovery Social Security COLA for 2025 predicted to be lower than 2024 LSU football hopes defensive changes show vs. Ole Miss Amid cyberattack, nation's largest water utility pauses billing Multiple people report odd symptoms from mosquito bites in Oklahoma