BATON ROUGE — Just 13 months into his term as mayor-president, Sid Edwards is the subject of a recall petition.

Paperwork was filed Friday with the Secretary of State's office seeking to remove Edwards as the city-parish's chief executive. It alleges Edwards has failed to provide effective leadership, demonstrate transparency and accountability, and act in the best interest of the residents of the parish.

The recall effort, chaired by Aaron Banks and Marian Hills, claims East Baton Rouge Parish residents have lost confidence in Edwards. Nearly 50,000 people would have to sign the petition to put the matter before voters.

Edwards became mayor in January of 2025 and moved quickly to tap library system revenues to help balance the city-parish's books. Ultimately, he backed what was called the Thrive EBR plan that would have let him lay claim to revenue from the library, Council on Aging and parish mosquito and pest control operations.

The mayor-president said those behind the recall effort failed to note his accomplishments.

“This is just the latest attempt to distract from the fact that in my first year in office we recorded the lowest number of homicides in six years, helped more than 100 homeless individuals off the streets and into rehabilitation, and removed more blight than at any point in our parish’s history," he said in a statement released by his office.

Organizers would need to collect signatures from at least 20% of the voting population within the parish in order to remove Edwards from his position, according to the secretary of state. As of Jan. 30, there were 236,484 registered voters in East Baton Rouge Parish, meaning organizers would need a minimum of 47,297 signatures.