BATON ROUGE — The city-parish government wants the mayor-president's chief administrative officer to become a highly paid consultant in an effort to save money, even though the math doesn't appear to be mathing, the mayor's office said Wednesday.

Christel Slaughter had been hired at a salary of $156,000 three weeks ago, but her firm, SSA Consultants, will instead provide "professional services" for $180,000. Metro Council members must agree to the proposed switch.

Despite the higher cost, the city-parish will save money by not providing benefits to Slaughter, according to Mason Batts, an executive director in the mayor's office.

With Slaughter not in line for city-parish-paid benefits, East Baton Rouge Parish should save nearly $70,000, Batts said. Slaughter's firm is expected to perform many of the same duties Slaughter would do if she were a fulltime chief administrative officer, he said.

In an interview with WBRZ, Slaughter said out of concern that East Baton Rouge's plan of government sets certain requirements for a CAO, her role will be "somewhat the same" and also include advising Mayor-President Sid Edwards on policies and decision-making.

The city-parish is facing a funding shortfall that many blame on the creating of St. George, a new city of 80,000 in the southeastern part of East Baton Rouge. Property taxes previously earmarked for the city-parish now go to the new community.

Edwards proposed tapping funds currently dedicated to the library system, pest control and services for the elderly but voters rejected his "Thrive EBR!" plan Nov. 15. He has since directed agencies to prepare budgets to reduce government spending by about 11 percent.