The Kenner City Council on Thursday approved a contract for generator maintenance that had become the latest political tug-of-war between Mayor Mike Yenni and critics who questioned the deal's lowest bidder

The Kenner City Council on Thursday approved a contract for generator maintenance that had become the latest political tug-of-war between Mayor Mike Yenni and critics who raised questions about the deal's lowest bidder. But the approval came only after the council amended the contract to impose a $75,000 annual cap, less than the $100,000 maximum the administration had sought.

The council earlier this month had reconsidered its approval of the two-year contract with Mississippi firm Taylor Power Systems to maintain backup generators that power City Hall, police, fire stations and other facilities during emergencies. The delay came after city residents questioned whether the contractor complied with state licensing requirements, among other issues related to the contract.

The answer came earlier this week, when an attorney for the state's Licensing Board for Contractors told the city it could hire the firm -- even though the company lacked a Louisiana electrical license -- as long as the contract included less than $10,000 in electrical work and parts. The city's bid documents listed $7,500 in electrical labor, but listed no amount for parts.

At the urging of Councilman Kent Denapolis, the council on Thursday amended the ordinance approving the contract to make clear that any electrical work above $10,000 must be done by a state-licensed contractor. Denapolis had said he would also seek a $50,000 annual limit on the contract, but changed it to $75,000 a year after the administration said the original proposal was too low, especially if city generators required extra maintenance in case of a hurricane.

"I was not comfortable at $100,000 a year, so we compromised," Denapolis said. "These amendments will keep us out of gray areas."

The council also adopted a proposal by Councilman Joe Stagni, indicating that the contractor can't start billing for hourly services until workers arrives at a job site, thus excluding travel time.

Mike Quigley, Yenni's top administrator, said the changes the council made -- except the lower annual cap -- were already part of city documents dictating the job specifications.

"This is redundant," Quigley said.

Residents Jack Zewe and Walt Bennetti, who often criticize the Yenni administration, had raised questions about the contract, including the issue about the contractor's license. They also criticized the increase in the contract's maximum allowed value in recent years. The contract's cap was set at $14,900 per year in 2009, rose to $43,800 a year in 2010 and reached $80,000 per year in 2012. The increases came as the city expanded the scope of the contract to include minor repairs to water pumps and valves, and "unexpected repairs" to generators.

City officials said actual payments in the contract have not reached $40,000 a year in any of the past two years -- despite the higher caps. Yenni has also said the contract is saving the city money, despite its higher value.

Quigley on Thursday said the value of the contract has increased as the city has added more generators, from 30 under the previous contract to 49 now. But Quigley said the new contract will lower the average cost of service to an individual generator from $811 in the previous deal to $673. He said calculating the expected maintenance needed for 49 generators over two years, that will save the city almost $6,800 over the life of the new deal.

Quigley also said the new contract included mileage as part of the bid, not as a separate item, saving the city another $2,900 a year. He also said the hourly rates to be paid in the new contact are lower than the previous deal.

"The bottom line is we're saving the city more than $10,000 a year," he said.

City Council approves the boost in a 5-0 vote Thursday

Harahan's minimum sewer fees will jump 43 percent for residences, 71 percent for businesses, effective July 1 -- the first such increase in a decade. The City Council approved the boost in a 5-0 vote Thursday, after months of fretting over higher rates.

City officials said the extra revenue is needed to repair Harahan's underground pipes and the 14 lift stations that help move wastewater to the treatment plant. "We're going to have to raise our fees, or we're not going to be able to flush our toilets," Councilwoman Cindy Murray said.

"It should have been done long ago," Councilman Lawrence Landry said.

The ordinance raising fees also requires that they be reviewed annually and adjusted in accordance with the Consumer Price Index for utilities. The maximum increase is 5 percent.

Raising sewer fees also will free money in the general fund to pay for other government services such as recreation and the senior citizen center. Harahan last year spent $190,000 from the general fund to subsidize sewer operations, Mayor Vinny Mosca said.

Cindy Murray

Lawrence Landry T-P archive  

 Murray and Councilwoman Dana Huete sought to postpone the vote for a month. They said they weren't sure the higher rates would eliminate the subsidy from the general fund and pay the interest on a $4 million sewer-repair loan that Mosca plans to seek from the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Landry and Councilman Eric Chatelain said the numbers had been sufficiently crunched already. Said Mosca: "If we evaluate some more, it can only go up - not down - and I would have to veto something higher."

Sewer fees are pegged to water use and appear on bimonthly utility bills. Harahan now charges $1.20 monthly per 1,000 gallons, based on 85 percent of the water use. The minimum is $5.25.

The new base charge will be $2.50 for residences, $2.75 for businesses. The minimums will be $7.50 for residences, $9.00 for businesses.

The week's activities in and around the U.S. Capitol.

Katrina/Rita loan forgiveness advances

It's been eight years since hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but Congress Thursday finally got around to passing legislation that should ensure Metro New Orleans communities with outstanding disaster loans won't have to repay them. Forgiving disaster loans has long been the tradition for the federal government, according to Louisiana congressional members.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, holding FEMA financial information in this 2011 photo, finally declared victory in getting criteria changed for forgiving Katrina/Rita disaster loans. J. Scott Applewhite, The Associated Press  

The process began in 2005 when Congress voted to authorize disaster loans over $5 million for Katrina and Rita. But at the insistence of House GOP leaders, a provision was put in the bill barring loan forgiveness. When Democrats took control of the House and Senate in 2007, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La, pushed through legislation that authorized FEMA to forgive loans. But about 40 percent of the $1.2 billion in loans for Louisiana communities weren't eligible for forgiveness, under the criteria established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Landrieu thought she had that fixed, with new criteria she added to a Hurricane Sandy relief bill last year. But that provision was stripped from the aid package by House Republicans.

Finally, she added the provision to a Senate spending bill for the remainder of the 2013 fiscal year. This time, the House went along and Landrieu was able to declare victory. Without forgiveness, officials in Jefferson, St. Tammany and St. Bernard parishes  warned that debt repayment would force cuts in services.

Off to Taiwan for Spring Recess

Rep. John Fleming, R-Minden, is one of a host of lawmakers traveling out of the country during the two-week Congressional spring recess.

Fleming is booked on a trip to Taiwan sponsored by Fu Jen Catholic University that, according to the sponsor, will examine national security and economic policy issues. Some who closely follow politics wonder if the trip signals that Fleming isn't going to run for the U.S. Senate in 2014, when Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is up for a 4th term. That's because next week is the deadline for reporting campaign donations for the first quarter of 2013. But a Fleming aide said the trip has been long planned and that it doesn't signal one way or another whether Fleming will run for the Senate.

Is Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, moving further to the right as he considers running for the Senate against not only Landrieu but a field that could include some very conservative GOP candidates, mainly Rep. John Fleming, R-Minden, and former Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia? Some again brought up what they view is his increasingly conservative voting record when he was one of just 104 House Republican members, fewer than half the GOP membership, to vote for the "alternative" budget Thursday offered by the conservative House Republican Study Committee. The RSC is led by Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, who has already said he won't run for the Senate in 2014.

The spending bill was far more conservative than the official Republican budget offered by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., and that already had been labeled draconian by Democrats.

The RSC proposal balances the budget in four year, instead of the 10 years provided for in the Ryan budget. It also includes provisions not in the Ryan package, such as a gradual rise in the Social Security retirement age from 66 to 70 and restoring the Bush era tax cuts for high wage earners that Republican Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama just agreed to three months ago as part of a deficit reduction package.

Here's what Cassidy had to say about his vote: "Although there are portions of the RSC budget that I would prefer to be different, I agree with its overall goal to make government do what families and businesses already do, which is to live within their means. Currently, the Medicare and Social Security trust funds will be exhausted in a decade -- efforts to preserve and strengthen those programs are crucial." His aides said that Cassidy also voted for the RSC budget in 2012, and that the changes in Social Security and Medicare included in the budget would be phased in over multiple years.

Wait until you see the Ads

Last week, there were lots of votes on measures that won't and can't become law. Why? Both Democrats and Republicans want to force members of the opposing party to cast votes they can use in political ads during the 2014 congressional campaigns. So, Senate Republicans required Senate Democrats to vote on an amendment requiring a balanced budget in 10 years. All but one Democrat voted no, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid saying the plan would require irresponsible reductions in spending -- especially with Republicans refusing to consider any new tax revenues.

But you can be sure Democrats like Mary Landrieu, D-La., who has already announced that she'll seek a 4th Senate term in 2014, will be criticized for that vote in GOP campaign commercials.

Likewise, Senate Democrats forced Senate Republicans to vote on the House Republican budget proposal that includes big cuts in federal spending, including a dramatic reduction in money available for highways and mass transit and major changes in Medicare for people age 55 and under. Democrats believe that bill is unpopular with voters, even people who generally vote Republican, because of changes in Medicare.

Vitter remembers Obama anniversary, but no card

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., isn't one to forget an anniversary. So, he issued a statement Friday marking the one-year anniversary of a speech by President Barack Obama in which he promised to "cut through the red tape, break through the bureaucratic hurdles," and make a decision on the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Last week, in response to a question by Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, Obama said he'd soon decide the matter now that the State Department issued a report that found no major environmental impediments for the pipeline, which would carry Shale gas from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

Said Vitter: "What will it take for the president to follow through on his promise to the American people to make the Keystone XL pipeline happen? The president has had a full year to 'cut through the red tape,' yet we're still waiting for action. We cannot keep the American people waiting for good-paying jobs and lower gas prices when it is reasonably within grasp."

30 times and counting

Last week, the House voted for the 30th time to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The GOP says the measure, the signature achievement of President Barack Obama's first term in office, is overly bureaucratic and expensive and that Congress ought to start fresh on an alternative health reform bill.

Rep. Cedric Richmond of New Orleans, the Louisiana House delegation's only Democrat who voted against the GOP proposal, along with the previous repeal efforts, issued a spirited defense of the law.

He mentioned a recent report by the Department of Health and Human Services that found 60,000 Louisiana seniors saved an average of $704 on medication, and that 1.4 million Louisiana residents no longer have lifetime limits on health coverage as a result of the 2010 law. Also, he said 381,000 seniors have taken advantage of a provision providing free preventative care -- all ahead of provisions that are designed to help low and moderate income Americans obtain health coverage.

"After just three years, Louisianans of all ages have seen lower costs and better coverage," Richmond said.

New Orleans City Councilwoman Stacy Head admits she has been surprised by the extent of the resistance to her effort to liberalize the city's rules for food trucks. It now appears, though, that the councilwoman finally has managed to overcome most of her colleagues' objections. Now all she has to do is overcome the bureaucratic roadblocks. "I thought it...

New Orleans City Councilwoman Stacy Head admits she has been surprised by the extent of the resistance to her effort to liberalize the city's rules for food trucks. It now appears, though, that the councilwoman finally has managed to overcome most of her colleagues' objections. Now all she has to do is overcome the bureaucratic roadblocks.

"I thought it was a no-brainer, but it has been exceedingly difficult," Head said this month. "I didn't think it would take nine months to do just this tiny little section," she added, referring to her desire eventually to rewrite all of the city's rules for "itinerant vendors." 

Head on Thursday introduced the third version of her ordinance to increase the number of city permits for food trucks and expand the areas where they can operate. It replaces the version she introduced last month, which the council clerk's office apparently failed to advertise properly in the city's official journal, meaning the council could not vote on it.

Head is expected to bring the latest proposal up for a vote at the council's April 11 or April 18 meeting.

The second version contained a number of changes from the ordinance Head first introduced last fall, and her latest proposal makes a few more concessions designed to answer objections from other council members and the Louisiana Restaurant Association.

It would reduce the number of new one-year permits for food trucks from 100 to 75. It also would require operators to have at least $500,000 worth of commercial general liability insurance and to prove they have access to a public or commercial restroom within 300 feet of any location where they operating.

Rachel Billow, president of the New Orleans Food Truck Coalition, told a council committee this month that the restroom requirement would make it harder for food trucks to serve local "food deserts," or areas -- many of them still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina -- that have few permanent restaurants or grocery stores. But Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell said adding the requirement was important to her and her constituents.

Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson said she wanted more assurance that the state Department of Health and Hospitals has no objections to more food trucks and is ready to enforce state health regulations for them. Head said she had been assured privately that state health officials have no concerns about the trucks but that they were reluctant to speak publicly for fear of getting caught up in a political controversy.

Clarkson eventually appeared to accept Head's and Billow's assurances that the trucks will be properly inspected and regulated. But she said she still was not satisfied with the size of the proposed buffer zone around brick-and-mortar restaurants. At present, food trucks must keep at least 600 feet away from such restaurants. Head originally proposed reducing that distance to 50 feet but then agreed to make it 100 feet, measured from any part of the restaurant, not just the front door.

Clarkson said she thought 100 feet was not enough but wasn't sure what figure she wanted. She finally said she would accept whatever distance the rest of the council decided on.

Billow argued against any distance requirement, saying that courts have found such exclusion zones in other cities to be unconstitutional, but Clarkson warned her against pursuing that line of argument. "You don't want to go there with me," she said, citing her decades as a real estate agent and devotion to private property rights.

The 75 new food-truck permits Head's ordinance would authorize would be valid only during a one-year pilot program, with no guarantee they would be extended beyond then. Sanjay Kharod, executive director of the New Orleans Food & Farm Network, warned that provision could limit the measure's effectiveness. Even though many people have indicated a desire to start new food trucks in New Orleans, it is questionable how many will be willing or able to spend as much as $20,000 or $30,000 on a business that could be shut down after one year, Kharod said.

Head replied that she was trying to craft an ordinance that could win council passage and so was ready to accommodate a lot of objections and restrictions in order to secure more votes.

Thus, the ordinance would prohibit food trucks in the entire French Quarter and the section of the Central Business District bounded by Howard Avenue, Rampart Street, Iberville Street and the river. The three-block-long Frenchmen Street entertainment district would also be excluded.

Food trucks could set up shop in one spot for up to four hours, compared with just 45 minutes at present, but they would be excluded from all residential areas.

The Jefferson Parish Housing Authority has fired Barry Bordelon, the agency's former director whose controversial rehiring last fall ignited a Jefferson Parish political takeover of the agency, according to attorney Robert Garrity, Jr.

The Jefferson Parish Housing Authority on Friday fired Barry Bordelon, the agency's former director whose controversial rehiring to another post last fall ignited a Jefferson Parish political takeover of the agency. Housing Authority Director Pamela Watson fired Bordelon shortly before noon Friday, the deadline a new housing board gave her to oust Bordelon, according to Bordelon's attorney Tracie Washington.

"Barry was a civil service employee whose probation period ended today," Washington said. She called his firing "simply outrageous and maybe illegal. Barry is exploring all his legal options."

Watson didn't return a call seeking comment Friday. Housing authority attorney Wayne Mancuso said: "I don't discuss legal matters of my clients, and the housing authority is one of my clients."

Bordelon's firing is the latest development of the political battle for control of the housing authority, and its $41 million in annual contracts to provide subsidized housing.  Bordelon is not the man of the same name who served in the Jefferson Parish School Board and as a Parish Council aide.

Bordelon was the agency's director until last summer, when a federal audit questioned more than $650,000 in expenses during his tenure. Bordelon and the previous board majority maintained they had done nothing wrong, and the agency has disputed the audit's findings. But Bordelon resigned under pressure, only to be rehired in the fall as maintenance foreman.

Parish officials called for Bordelon to be fired, as they put increasing political pressure on the housing authority. When six housing board members voted against getting rid of Bordelon late last year, Jefferson Parish President John Young fired them. The Parish Council ratified the firing of five of those board members earlier this month, and began appointing replacements. The sixth board member fired didn't appeal his removal. 

Some of those replacements, together with three holdovers from the previous board, met Wednesday and instructed Watson to fire Bordelon by noon Friday. Attorney Robert Garrity Jr., however, has questioned the validity of Wednesday's meeting. Garrity, who represents five former board members, said current board member Lynn Giordano didn't property file her oath of office with the secretary of state, and thus her seat was vacant. If so, the board lacked quorum to meet Wednesday. 

But the Young administration said eight of the nine previous authority commissioners, including Giordano, had not filed the appropriate paperwork. Young said the parish attorneys office administered the appropriate oaths of office to almost all board members Wednesday and Thursday, meaning all but one of the current appointees have now complied.

"The housing authority's attorney was supposed to check that they had filed the proper paperwork," Young said of Mancuso. "This underscores why reform is needed on that board, and we're moving in the right direction."

Far from it, said Garrity. He said all the former board members he's representing, including former board Chairman Patrick Pierson, had taken proper oaths of office and filed the required paperwork. Pierson said the same thing on Friday, rejecting the parish's assertion that almost all the previous board lacked proper documentation.

"That's a complete and utter lie," Pierson said. He said he checked secretary of state records earlier this week and the only member who had not filed paperwork was Giordano.

Former board member William Boada, Sr., also questioned the parish's assertions. Boada said he took a proper oath and registered with the secretary of state.

"The parish is going to do what the parish is going to do," Garrity said. "Apparently, there are rules for everybody else and rules for their people."

A phone message Friday left at the section that handles those records in the secretary of state's office was not answered.

Adding another wrinkle to the controversy, Parish Councilman Elton Lagasse confirmed Friday that his new appointee to the board will not take the post. Lagasse said the Rev. Thomas James Brown, Jr., told him that his elders at Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church asked Brown not to serve because it could interfere with the church's own housing aid programs.

A person who answered the phone at Brown's church Friday afternoon said he was gone for the day and would not be available until Monday.

Lagasse said he plans to appoint Joe Fennerty, former principal a Higgins High School.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Friday night voted 99-0 for an amendment that would bar federal subsidies for what the sponsors referred to as "too-big-to-fail" mega banks. The amendment, one of dozens being considered Friday night to a Senate Democratic 2014 budget proposal, was offered by Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Vitter is one of the Senate's...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Friday night voted 99-0 for an amendment that would bar federal subsidies for what the sponsors referred to as "too-big-to-fail" mega banks. The amendment, one of dozens being considered Friday night to a Senate Democratic 2014 budget proposal, was offered by Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

"This is a really impressive sign that we mean business on ending too-big-to-fail," Vitter said., "Mega-banks are still receiving special handouts that create an uneven playing field -- making it harder for our community banks and credit unions to compete..."

The Vitter-Brown amendment would end federal subsidies and funding advantages from the Federal Reserve for banks with assets of more than $500 billion.

"It's time we stop subsidizing risky Wall Street practices," Brown said. "We've seen how too big to fail is also too big to manage, too big to regulate, and too big to jail," Brown said. "Yet the biggest Wall Street megabanks are actually rewarded with a government guarantee by virtue of their size."

The Senate also voted 62-37 for an amendment supporting the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and rejected an amendment supporting a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse emissions. Vitter and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., cast the same votes - for the Keystone Pipeline and against the carbon tax that they believe would hurt the oil and gas industry.

"Today, the U.S. Senate, chose jobs and improving the economy over a left-wing agenda set to reduce the standard of living for all Americans," Vitter said.

But the votes, though symbolically important, aren't going to set U.S. policy. For one, there's still little chance the Republican-led House and Democratic-controlled Senate will agree on a compromise budget. And even if agreement is reached, budget provisions are advisory - they don't have the effect of law.

Opponents of the Keystone XL Pipeline made that point after the bipartisan vote in support of the project, which is now before President Barack Obama.

"It's still true that the Keystone XL project would pipe some of the world's dirtiest oil through the heartland for export through the Gulf of Mexico," said Peter Lehner, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"Their symbolic vote doesn't change the law or the truth about this dangerous project."

WASHINGTON -- For the first time in four years, The Senate Saturday approved a budget -- a Democratic $3.7 trillion spending plan for 2014 that combines tax increases through elimination of loopholes and targeted spending cuts but still leaves the nation heavily in debt 10 years from now. It passed 50-49, mostly on a party line vote. Four Democrats,...

WASHINGTON -- For the first time in four years, The Senate Saturday approved a budget -- a Democratic $3.7 trillion spending plan for 2014 that combines tax increases through elimination of loopholes and targeted spending cuts but still leaves the nation heavily in debt 10 years from now. It passed 50-49, mostly on a party line vote.

Four Democrats, all up for re-election in 2014, joined the Senate's entire Republican delegation in voting against the budget, which passed at 4 a.m. CT after an all-night session.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who is also facing re-election in 2014, voted yes, while Sen. David Vitter, R-La., voted no. Some senators appeared exhausted as the session neared the end this morning, breaking at one point for a standing ovation for the Senate pages who stayed on duty throughout. 

The Democratic budget is dramatically different than the spending plan adopted by the GOP-led House Thursday in another party-line vote.

Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter split on Saturday's budget vote -- with Landrieu voting yes and Vitter joining all Republicans in opposition. Scott Threlkeld, The Times-Picayune archive

The Republican plan includes significant new cuts in federal domestic spending, increases in defense, and imposes lower income tax rates by eliminating loopholes. But unlike the Senate Democrats, the House doesn't use any of the revenue from ending tax breaks to lower the deficit -- all of the money would go to tax reduction.

The House bill also approves changes in Medicare for people aged 55 and younger -- a system in which people beginning at age 65 would get vouchers to purchase private insurance or traditional Medicare, though Democrats say it will be far short of the actual cost for health coverage.

The Senate bill makes more targeted cuts, and includes additional money, $100 billion, for highway and other infrastructure projects to rebuild aging facilities and create jobs. It also reverses $1 trillion in across the board budget cuts over the next 10 years, a process known as sequestration. The bill allows the Senate to pass changes in the tax code without the possibility of a filibuster, and approves some spending cuts. But it would still leave the United States with a $566 billion deficit in 10 years, about half the current total.

Landrieu, a Democrat who is facing a tough re-election challenge in 2014, explained her yes vote Saturday morning.

"I voted for the Senate budget because it takes a balanced approach to reduce our deficit by targeting smart spending cuts and finding additional revenues from closing loopholes in our tax code. Respected economists, including the leaders of the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission and Doug Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, say that while reducing our annual deficit to a much lower percentage of GDP is a very important target, they caution against drastic reductions that would throw ice water on this growing recovery."

"The Senate Budget hits those targets while keeping economic growth and the security of the middle class at the forefront. The Ryan (House Republican) Budget, in contrast, shifts the entire burden of deficit reduction on the backs of the middle class and working poor. It pulls the rug out from this promising recovery while lavishing tax cuts to the top 1 percent. Yes, it purports to 'balance' the budget in 10 years, but at what cost to the middle class? It is an unconscionable and shameful reflection of the values America stands for."

Republicans said the Democratic budget falls short.

"Honest people can disagree on policy," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. "But where there can be no honest disagreement is the need to change our nation's debt course. The singular truth that no one can escape is that the House budget changes our debt course while the Senate budget does not. The Senate budget increases taxes, increases spending, and adds $7.3 trillion to our debt. It has zero real deficit reduction."

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, said the GOP and Democratic budgets aren't in the same league.

"This (the House Republican spending plan) is a responsible budget that balances in 10 years, saves Medicare from bankruptcy, repeals Obamacare, and gets our economy moving again so we can create jobs through pro-growth reforms that establish a fairer and simpler tax code," Scalise said. "Our growth-oriented budget contrasts dramatically with the liberal Senate budget that raises more than $1 trillion in new taxes and never achieves balance, as well as President Obama's failure to even meet the legal deadline to present a budget."

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Republicans offered a plan rejected during the 2012 election. It's a path, she said, "to more tax cuts for the rich, but less opportunity for the middle class."

Given the substantial policy differences between the two parties on federal spending and taxes, it's unlikely that the House and Senate can agree on a spending plan. Many economists and business groups, including the Business Roundtable, maintain that a budget agreement that reduces the deficit would be boom for the U.S. economy, even if some taxes are increased.

Landrieu got an amendment added to the budget early Saturday that supports construction of Veterans Affairs health clinics in Lafayette and Lake Charles.

"Because of a bureaucratic bottleneck at CBO (The VA's Chief Business Office), veterans across the country, including 20,000 in South Louisiana, have faced unacceptable delays in these health clinics," Landrieu said. "After the sacrifices these brave men and women have made for our country, it is unconscionable to allow this to continue."

The Senate also voted Saturday morning on two amendments offered by Sen. Vitter -- one requiring a valid photo ID to vote in federal elections and the other ending what the senator called the "mobile phone welfare program." Both were rejected.

WASHINGTON -- The $3.7-trillion budget approved by the Senate on Saturday contains a provision its sponsor hopes will ease the way for legislation to speed up revenue sharing of off-shore royalty payments for Louisiana and other producing states. The budget provision, added by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., calls for "investment of receipts from domestic energy production" for, among other...

WASHINGTON -- The $3.7-trillion budget approved by the Senate on Saturday contains a provision its sponsor hopes will ease the way for legislation to speed up revenue sharing of off-shore royalty payments for Louisiana and other producing states.

The budget provision, added by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., calls for "investment of receipts from domestic energy production" for, among other things, "preservation restoration or protection of the nation's public lands, oceans, coastal areas, or aquatic ecosystems."

Restoration of coastal areas and ecosystems is how Landrieu envisions spending the state proceeds of off-shore oil and gas royalty payments.

A Landrieu bill would speed up implementation of a law that requires Louisiana and other producing states to collect 37.5 percent of federal royalty payments for oil and gas collected off their shores, but not until 2017.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, left, and Sen. Mary Landrieu introduce legislation to speed up revenue sharing for off-shore oil and gas production. Photo by Matthew Lehner

Under the Landrieu legislation, she hopes will get a push from the budget, the 37.5 percent share would begin being calculated immediately upon enactment and distributed to the states the following year,

Landrieu's bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, would also eventually phase out the $500 million cap in revenue sharing for producing states now part of the revenue sharing law.

These funds will be an important investment in Louisiana's 50-year, $50 billion Coastal Master Plan to restore the state's coast and protect our communities from storm surges, Landrieu said.

The budget provision is something of a symbolic victory for Landrieu. Its practical impact is limited because there's little likelihood the Senate and House will reach a compromise on what are two dramatically different spending bills for the 2014 fiscal year.

Moreover, all budget provisions are considered advisory and don't have the impact of law.

Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Friday is appointments to the 25-member Louisiana Military Advisory Council, created by state lawmakers last year to promote and protect armed forces interests in the state.

Retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Jack Bergman, who for more than four years commanded the Marine Corps Reserve from New Orleans before retiring from the military in 2009, is among the 25 people appointed to the Louisiana Military Advisory Council, a committee created last year to promote military-related interests in the state, Gov. Bobby Jindal's office announced Friday evening.

So, too, is retired Marine Col. Bill Davis, who retired from Marine Forces Reserve in 2011 as assistant chief of staff for facilities and is now commandant of the New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy, the state charter high school being built at the Federal City campus in Algiers.

The Military Advisory Council was created as a replacement for the defunct governor's military advisory board, at the request of Jindal's economic development secretary Stephen Moret, he told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune last year. The defunct board required an executive order to recreate it every year, Moret said.

Moret, who has been appointed to the council, said that states "most successful in cultivating military operations tended to have some type of permanent military advisory panel established in state law."

In announcing the appointments, Jindal's office said the council was formed "to provide a forum for issues concerning the installations and units of the armed forces located in Louisiana and the military and retired military personnel and their families who reside in Louisiana."

In effect, the council includes members of local organizations that act as advocates for their respective military installations.

For instance, Stan Mathes, Plaquemines Parish's economic development director, was appointed to the council by Callendar Commitment, a business group whose mission is to support the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse.

Davis will represent the interests of military in New Orleans, including the Marine Corps Support Facility, New Orleans, the 29-acre compound in Algiers that serves as the headquarters for Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North and is considered the anchor for Federal City. As assistant chief of state for facilities, Davis had a seat at the table when plans were made for the $160 million headquarters building in the facility.

David LaCerte of Saint Gabriel, a Marine reservist who is serving as Jindal's interim secretary of Veterans Affairs, is the council's chairman. LaCerte, an infantry officer, led some of the first Marines into Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and has led more than 100 combat patrols.

The appointments come at a time when Louisiana faces challenges with its military presence. Fort Polk stands to lose thousands of soldiers and family members under an Army proposal.

Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City already has lost a squadron of 24 A-10 Thunderbolt II airplanes, while the Naval Air Station in Belle Chasse is in the midst of losing an E-2C Hawkeye squadron, Carrier Airborne Early Airborne Squadron 77, whose disestablishment ceremony is Saturday (March 9).

Other appointments include:

• State Rep. Nick Lorusso, R-New Orleans, who also is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve.
• Jack Humphries of New Orleans, who is field chair o the Louisiana Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a Defense Department agency.
• Ed Stanton of Slidell, a retired Coast Guard captain and executive vice president of Response Services for O'Briens, a SEACOR company.
• Don Vinci of New Orleans, who is retired from the Navy Reserve and is Entergy's vice president for its gas distribution business.
• Maj. Gen. Glenn Curtis of Alexandria, Louisiana's adjutant general.
• Bennett Landreneau, retired major general and former Louisiana adjutant.
• Clarence Beebe, mayor of Hornbeck, La.
• Charles Campbell of Shreveport, a retired Army general who was the 17th commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command.
• Lt. Gen. Robert Elder of Shreveport, former commander of the 8th Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base.
• Jim Hill of Shreveport, an attorney and civilian aide to the secretary of the Army for Louisiana.
• Brian Jakes of Hammond, chief executive of Southeast Louisiana Area Health Education Center In., and a West Point military academy liaison officer.
• Steve Jordan of Lake Charles, founder and president of Jordan Oil Company.
• Travis Greaves of Baton Rouge, Jindal's tax and economic policy advisor.
• Deborah Randolph of Alexandria, president of the Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce.
• Mike Resse of Leesville, president of Fort Polk Progress, a business group formed to support the sprawling Army installation in Vernon Parish.
• Ben Russo of Rayne, director of market development, contracts and regulation at Cleco Power LLC.
• State Sen. John Smith of Leesville.
• Andy Thomson of Shreveport, a Northrup Grumman Aerospace Systems executive.
• Murray Visor of Shreveport, president and chief executive of Barksdale Forward, a business group formed to support Barksdale Air Force Base.
• Lorenz "Lo" Walker, mayor of Bossier City.

With plans to open its first big-box retail store in New Orleans this August, the Costco Wholesale Corp. is holding a public hearing this Wednesday to answer questions about employment opportunities. The session, hosted by Mayor Mitch Landrieu's economic development office, will be held at 6 p.m. in Room 205 of the Xavier University Center, according to an announcement...

With plans to open its first big-box retail store in New Orleans this August, the Costco Wholesale Corp. is holding a public hearing this Wednesday to answer questions about employment opportunities. The session, hosted by Mayor Mitch Landrieu's economic development office, will be held at 6 p.m. in Room 205 of the Xavier University Center, according to an announcement in the online advertising newsletter The New Orleans Agenda.

Costco confirmed plans in May to build a 148,000 square-foot store on 14.7-acres that once held the Carrollton Shopping Center. Hurricane Katrina wiped out that site more than seven years ago.

The new store is expected to create 75 full-time positions and another 75 part-time jobs. Costco said its average salaries for full-time workers hover around $36,000 a year plus benefits.

Costco has promised to attempt to hire New Orleans residents for its new store. The company will host job fairs assist applicants. City Hall's workforce development program, JOB1 Business and Career Solutions, will be available for the first two weeks of April to help process online job applications.

The Carrollton site has been dormant since its owner, Jeffrey Feil, demolished its abandoned Katrina-damaged storefronts shortly after the 2005 storm.

The battle over the Dixie Brewery has reached its tipping point as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs moves closer to the partial demolition and renovation of the historic building standing in the path of the medical complex development in Mid-City. The former owners of the Dixie, Joe and Kendra Bruno, filed several lawsuits claiming the state violated their...

The battle over the Dixie Brewery has reached its tipping point as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs moves closer to the partial demolition and renovation of the historic building standing in the path of the medical complex development in Mid-City. The former owners of the Dixie, Joe and Kendra Bruno, filed several lawsuits claiming the state violated their constitutional rights when it invoked eminent domain in 2011 to take the brewery and then transfer its property rights one year later to the VA. But their cases have lingered in Civil District Court for years without resolution.

Joe and Kendra Bruno, owners of the Dixie Brewery, are challenging the state's right to take their building and transfer its property rights to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  

Now, as construction on the new VA hospital progresses, the Brunos have again turned to the courts in a last gambit to assert their rights as the lawful owners of the historic building before irreparable damage is done.

The Dixie Brewery Company filed a request March 12 for a preliminary injunction in federal court seeking to stop the VA from demolishing any part of the 106-year old structure until previous claims are settled.

"Everyone I know supports the Veterans hospital including Dixie; they just want the state to treat them fairly," said the Brunos' attorney Robert Evans.

LSU declined to comment and its Baton Rouge law firm, Roedel Parsons Koch Blache Balhoff & McCollister, did not respond to interview requests.

The VA also declined to comment, but spokeswoman Amanda Jones said Evans' claim that they plan to demolish the Dixie Brewery is not true. The VA plans to use the building for its psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery center and construct a new facility behind it to house its research laboratories. Portions of the brewery will have to be demolished due to damage sustained during Hurricane Katrina, according to the VA's redevelopment plan.

"The final design preserves and repairs the six- and four-story sections of Dixie Brewery that face Tulane Avenue, while behind rises the new five-story building, clad in masonry panels to echo the brick of the historic building," the plan states.

The industrial brick Dixie Brewery building at the corner of Tulane Avenue and Tonti Street was designed by the German architect Louis Lehle and completed in 1907. A wooden extension was added in 1919 followed by several warehouses behind the main building.

Dixie continued to produce beer until Hurricane Katrina, when the brewery was inundated with more than 10 feet of floodwaters after which the building fell into ruins and became a haven for squatters. Dixie moved its production facilities to Wisconsin while the owners worked on plans to convert the brewery into an entertainment complex with a beer garden and apartments. They struggled to find people willing to invest with the specter of the LSU/VA medical complex looming.

LSU was charged with expropriating the 34 acres of land in Mid-City to clear a path for the construction of the VA hospital. Dixie Brewery was not included in the original footprint as detailed in a 2007 plan but was added three years later at which time LSU filed a petition to expropriate the facility.

Dixie is challenging the state's expropriation of the property because the owners say it did not offer them fair market value as is required by law. The state assessed the brewery at $52,285 and deposited that amount with the registry of the court, instead of giving it directly to the Brunos, because there was a lien on the property.

Evans said the real value of the brewery was $9 million but the state low-balled his clients because there was a $413,343 tax abatement against the property and significant damage to the building. However, the state Constitution requires that the Brunos be paid just compensation which includes the value of the land and the loss of development rights and business opportunities, Evans said.

"The state argues (the Brunos) can't develop the property because it will cost too much but if they can do it we can do it."

Evans also said the state's appraisal of the Dixie Brewery was manipulated through actions taken by the city.

In 2007, the City Council declared a moratorium on new building permits in the hospital footprint to prevent people from investing in properties that would eventually be torn down. This created an entire area of "forced blight" since owners couldn't repair their storm-damaged homes, Evans said.

"During the moratorium properties in the footprint deteriorated and depreciated," Dixie's lawsuit states. "Therefore, to make subsequent appraisals in 2009, after the properties deteriorated, for the purpose of eminent domain is illegal, immoral and unfair."

The moratorium excluded the Dixie brewery but the increasingly poor condition of the neighborhood negatively impacted the property's value and scared away potential investors, Evans said.

In an April 17, 2008 email from City Councilwoman Stacy Head to Councilman Arnie Fielkow, Head discusses the benefits and risks of the moratorium.

"Any increase in 'fair market value' in the properties to be acquired will be borne by the city," Head wrote. "Thus, it is in the city's best interest to discourage development and increases in values. Litigation over fair market value will erupt during the expropriation phase as the true value will be greater to the people who put money into their properties in the short term."

The downside to the moratorium, Head wrote, rested on the possibility that the VA would not select the site and therefore the "area will be harmed by the lack of development. Property owners/developers may sue the city for depriving them of an ability to develop/make money during the site selection phase without having any guaranty that the VA is actually coming here."

The purpose of the email wasn't to advocate for a particular position but to ensure that the people making the decisions had all the information possible, Head said.

"This entire arrangement for LSU and the VA was not in my opinion done as well as it should have been in many respects," she said.

Even if the state's expropriation of the property is deemed legal, its transfer of the Dixie brewery to the VA was unconstitutional, Evans said.

In 2008 Louisiana voters approved an amendment to the Constitution that said the state could not sell or lease a property it expropriated unless it first offered the original owner the opportunity to buy it back at fair market value. If the original owner declines the offer, the state can transfer the property through a competitive bidding process open to the general public. Only after 30 years from the date of the expropriation can the state sell the property outright.

LSU never offered the owners of the Dixie the chance to buy their property back, Evans said; instead the state transferred it to the VA in what was called an "act of exchange" in June 2012. The VA is listed as the owner of 2401 Tulane Ave. on the Orleans Parish Assessor's Office website.

These two matters, the seizure and transfer of the Dixie, remain unsettled and until they are decided the VA should stop all planned work on the brewery, Evans said.

Evans, and his law partner, Cesar Burgos, filed a similar lawsuit against LSU in 2010 when it expropriated their property at 2400 Canal St., the former City Hall Annex. The state deposited $3.7 million in Orleans Parish Civil District Court for the building; Evans and Burgos responded by suing the state for $40 million in damages. The two parties settled the issue but are not allowed to discuss the details, Evans said. A lawsuit contesting the state's right to transfer the City Hall Annex to the VA remains unsettled.

David McClintock, formerly Baltimore's IG, now seeking office space, staff

David McClintock slipped into town last week and quietly set about becoming Jefferson Parish's first inspector general. He brought with him his wife, their two home-schooled children, a law degree, 18 years' work as a police officer and three years as Baltimore's inspector general.

Here his job is to identify waste, fraud and corruption in a government still recovering from the bribery and double-dealing scandal that took down the Aaron Broussard administration in 2010. Yet as McClintock and inspectors general advocates all around like to stress, catching crooks pales next to identifying ways to make government more efficient.

"A fundamental tenet of this OIG is not just a well-concluded report but following through with meaningful recommendations and working with department heads toward verifiable solutions," McClintock said. He wrote those words in October, in his letter applying for the Jefferson job.

In an interview, he put it more succinctly. "Ten 'gotchas' aren't worth as much as one systematic change," he said.

McClintock, 45, grew up in Bowie, Md., son of an Army helicopter pilot and a labor-delivery nurse. Except for his first two years, he has lived his whole life in Maryland.

He started work for the Maryland-National Capital Park Police in 1990 as a patrol officer. By the time he left in 2008, he held bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Maryland, the rank of captain and the title of deputy chief of field operations. He also married a co-worker, who has since retired as a captain.

Different from Baltimore

McClintock arrived for a breakfast meeting Friday in a dark business suit, white-on-white striped dress shirt with French cuffs, conservative tie and a thirst for insight into the political landscape in which he now works. It's different from Baltimore, where his at-will job was created by executive order and his budget, most recently $674,667, was subject to annual votes by two city boards. He had five employees and a salary of $112,500, according to city budget records.

In Jefferson, voters wrote the inspector general into the parish charter. McClintock has a five-year employment agreement with the Ethics and Compliance Commission and a dedicated budget of $1.1 million, including his $150,000 annual salary. He expects to hire nine employees.

Despite the Baltimore drawbacks, McClintock won praise for his work there. Last year, according to his office's annual report, the inspector general recovered $538,592 for Baltimore and highlighted ways to save far more. One report alone, examining how city employees buy fuel for municipal vehicles, said Baltimore wasted $918,000. City officials generally agreed with the findings and vowed to implement some of the recommendations.

Perhaps his most delicate task was investigating Baltimore's efforts to acquire a new phone system. In that one, he took on not only the city comptroller but also the person to whom he owed his job, the mayor, in concluding that Baltimore spent "at least $673,000 without producing any usable system," according to the website Baltimore Brew.

A sampling of other reports shows McClintock's staff:

• Found 12 Transportation Department employees regularly stole scrap metal from a utility company, sold it and kept the money, estimated at $191,000 a year since 2009 and possibly "for many years."
• Determined that a Public Works Department contractor overbilled the city $26,492.
• Documented how a Public Works employee managed to stay on the payroll and make $12,741 even while he was serving 10 months in prison for child sex offenses. That "gotcha" was first reported by an independent website, but McClintock's office also explained how municipal policies and their application made it possible.

Early on, McClintock's reports stung those responsible for the waste he highlighted, said Khalil Zaied, who butted heads with the inspector general while serving as transportation director. "The truth hurts. You get defensive," said Zaied, since promoted to deputy chief of operations in the mayor's office.

Eventually, though, department heads came to realize that McClintock was an easy-going man whose chief goal was to improve public service, Zaied said. While transportation director, Zaied even invited McClintock to investigate a tip about employees gambling and boozing on the job, an inquiry that identified wrongdoing by 24 employees, 14 of whom were fired.

No office, no staff, no website

The breakfast interview finished Friday, McClintock got into his Mercedes-Benz E300 (a 1998 model with 244,000 miles) and drove to the Joseph S. Yenni Building in Elmwood for a meeting with representatives of the Causeway Civic Association. Having moved his family into a corporate apartment in Metairie, where they will live while house-hunting, McClintock spent a fair amount of time his first week at the Yenni Building and other Jefferson government offices talking to the finance, budget and purchasing staffs, ethics officer Kim Raines Chatelain and Chief Operating Officer Chris Cox.

He's also met with New Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux and Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission. "The enthusiasm for this position is much more pervasive" than in Baltimore, McClintock said. Just about everywhere he's introduced himself, people tell him: "Glad to have you. Can't wait for you to get started. There's a lot to be done."

For now, however, it's just McClintock doing it. He has no office, no staff, no website. He's looking around for workspace - away from parish government buildings, so tipsters will feel more comfortable blowing the whistle - and writing job descriptions for the staff.

He estimates 45 to 60 days before he'll have a case management system in place. The first report is nine to 12 months away, he said.

Betty Wright, one of the Causeway Civic Association delegates who talked with him Friday, in an hour-long meeting arranged by Parish Council member Cynthia Lee-Sheng, wishes McClintock well. She spoke approvingly of his professional demeanor and listening skills.

But she's also been disappointed before by white knights promising an impeccable approach to public service. Much will depend, she said, on McClintock's neutrality, and on how well he can resist being sucked in to politics.

"I hope he is truly independent," she said. "I hope it's not just a position where the parish can say, 'We have one, and we're going to clean up.' I hope it's real."

Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein, whose involvement in an $185 million Medicaid claims contract is under investigation, did not attend a House Appropriations Committee meeting discussing his department's budget Tuesday in Baton Rouge. The state inspector general said he could not answer any questions on the termination of the CNSI Medicaid claims contract because of the ongoing federal...

Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein, whose involvement in an $185 million Medicaid claims contract is under investigation, did not attend a House Appropriations Committee meeting discussing his department's budget Tuesday in Baton Rouge. The state inspector general said he could not answer any questions on the termination of the CNSI Medicaid claims contract because of the ongoing federal investigation.

Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein NOLA.com|Times-Picayune File Photo  

"We have respectfully requested that, at least in the short term, that the personnel of those two agencies refrain from commenting publicly on the specific matters" of the investigation, State Inspector General Stephen Street said Tuesday, referring to DHH and the Division of Administration.

Street said his department is cooperating with federal investigators "to assist and to look into the matter," adding the investigation into the 2011 contract had been ongoing "for some time."

In a call Tuesday afternoon, DHH Public Information Officer Kathleen Meyers said the absence was "just a coincidence," adding Chairman Jim Fannin had been alerted to a previous engagement Greenstein had Tuesday.

On Thursday, The Advocate broke the news that a federal subpoena had been issued to the administration after details showed Greenstein, who was employed by CSNI in 2005 and 2006, had pushed for the company to be allowed to compete for the state's Medicaid claims contract in 2011.

At the time, Greenstein said he had taken himself out of the bid process. Shortly after The Advocate story, Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols announced the state would be terminating its contract with CNSI.

Keep watching NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune on this story.

After years of debate over what to do with the city's aging airport terminal -- including halfhearted flirtations with moving or selling it -- Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration has launched its own effort to re-imagine Louis Armstrong International by hiring teams of consultants to explore various options, from further modernizing the existing terminal to constructing an entirely new terminal...

After years of debate over what to do with the city's aging airport terminal -- including halfhearted flirtations with moving or selling it -- Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration has launched its own effort to re-imagine Louis Armstrong International by hiring teams of consultants to explore various options, from further modernizing the existing terminal to constructing an entirely new terminal at a cost of up to $1 billion.

In short, Landrieu thinks that even with the $300 million upgrade done in advance of the Super Bowl, the airport fails to position the city for major economic growth.

The main terminal is 54 years old, nearly double the average lifespan of a typical American airport terminal. The older it gets, the more expensive it is to operate. The more expensive it becomes, the more the airport has to charge the airlines to use its gates, Aviation Director Iftikhar Ahmad said.

To lower keep the airport competitive, the Landrieu administration is mulling four options that range from refurbishing what's there to building a new terminal north of the airport's east-west runway, an idea first floated in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina delivered its hammer blow to the region. The mayor currently favors that plan.

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"We cannot afford to let another 30 years go by without a clear path forward," Landrieu wrote to Aviation Board Chairman Nolan Rollins in one of his first public pitches for the overhaul.

None of the plans call for a new runway, but they are clearly aimed at bringing more flights to an airport that has lagged since its heyday 30-odd years ago. And an overhaul would not only increase capacity, supporters contend, but will further gild one of the city's major engines for attracting new business.

The airport has paid five consulting firms more than $761,200 so far to sift through financial scenarios, environmental impact studies and land-use options, then draft plans to hand over to the Federal Aviation Administration for review. Parsons Brinckerhoff is managing the project; Leo A Daly/Atkins is leading design efforts; RS&H is conducting environmental impact studies; Roger Bates of Unison Maximus Consulting Solutions is doing the financial analysis and Jones Lang LaSalle is examining the plans' land-use options.

So far, details remain sketchy. Administration and airport officials said the proposals won't be finished for several weeks, and they have declined to release exact cost estimates for each plan.

Ahmad said he has done back-of-the-envelope calculations, but didn't want to divulge them for fear of upsetting "stakeholders" by publicizing the data before discussing it with them. Those stakeholders include officials from New Orleans, Kenner, and St. Charles and Jefferson parishes, as well as the FAA, the state transportation department and the airlines.

Once officials settle on a plan, the airport is expected to pay for it through federal grants and borrowing against the money it expects to make each year. While the city of New Orleans owns the airport, the facility doesn't rely on tax revenue to operate. Its revenue, which Ahmad estimates at about $107 million a year, comes from a combination of concession sales, rents, leases and other operations. The airport also charges airlines about $4.50 per passenger; a standard domestic rate that Ahmad said generates about $20 million more a year.

Additional financing for an overhaul could come from the FAA's Airport Improvement Program, as long as the final proposal meets the program's guidelines.

Currently, the airport owes more than $111.7 million in revenue bonds and another $129.2 million that was borrowed using the passenger fees as collateral. While Ahmad said the airport is on track to pay most of that debt by 2023, it's a sum that that will surely grow should any major renovation project get off the ground.

"It's sort of a complicated matrix that we're working with," Ahmad said.

Controversial history

New Orleans' airport began as one the largest airfields in the South, but it's been a rocky road since then for a field originally named after aerial daredevil John Moisant, who fatally crashed into nearby pastureland in 1910.

A government airstrip during World War II, Moisant Field opened to public traffic in 1946. Ten years later, Kenner and St. Charles Parish officials, calling the airport a "cancer" that they feared would creep into their neighborhoods, quashed the first murmurs of expansion. Instead, the airport built a new terminal entrance, completed in 1959.

Renamed New Orleans International, the airport added two new concourses in 1974. Six years later, the first master plan called for another runway. The idea sparked perpetual debate for years, but it never got off the ground.

The airport did lengthen one of its strips in the 1980s into St. Charles Parish wetlands. That setup spurred its own controversy that continues to dog the Aviation Board today.

As part of the deal for the St. Charles land, the parish gained a representative on the New Orleans-dominated board. Landrieu and the St. Charles Parish Council are now locked in a stalemate over Neal Clulee, the St. Charles businessman that the parish council has nominated twice to the board despite Landrieu's objections. As a result, that seat has remained vacant for nearly two years.

Throughout the years, different groups pitched moving the airport altogether. Gov. Edwin Edwards in the early 1990s wanted to rebuild the airport halfway between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Other groups lobbied for an airport in eastern New Orleans, Lacombe, LaPlace or Des Allemands. But nothing ever came of those plans.

Then came the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which dealt a blow to the aviation industry. Just as the industry began showing signs of recovery, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

As the city began to rebuild, then Mayor Ray Nagin contemplated relocating the airport west of the Bonnet Carre Spillway or selling it to a private company. Privatization talks ended in 2009, around the time the acting aviation director, Sean Hunter, came under suspicion of fraud. He later resigned and pleaded guilty in January 2011 to federal charges related to a bogus insurance claim.

The options

The four options before the Landrieu administration involve varying levels of construction, with the simplest being to refurbish the existing airport to today's standards.

Though the least dramatic, renovation would be no small task. It would include a complete rerouting of passengers through the terminal, Ahmad said. Rather than converging on individual ticket counters as they do today, passengers would pass through a central checkpoint that would keep concourses free from the bottlenecking that often comes when conventioneers purchase tickets from the same airlines. Ahmad also wants to connect each concourse after the security screening, allowing passengers to flow freely among the various shops and restaurants.

The plan also calls for a mechanized conveyor belt to carry checked bags to security screening machines. New Orleans is one of the few airports its size that still has employees carry the bags from the ticket counters to the screeners. Ahmad said he has schlepped luggage himself to help out during busy hours on the concourses.

"It's podunkish," he said.

Another option would modernize and expand the existing terminal to the south but continue to use the main concourse built in 1959. A third option would build four new concourses to the west, but in close proximity of the existing terminal, connecting the two by a light rail system.

The fourth option would build a new, separate terminal altogether.

All four options would eventually provide a total of 42 working gates, built in two phases. The refurbishment option includes 37 gates in the first phase, while the other three options would start with 30 gates and add more as business grows, he said.

Only 22 gates are in use today, Ahmad said.

In a 2011 letter, Landrieu made it clear he prefers building an entirely new and separate terminal to the north. Aimee Quirk, his economic development advisor, said last week that the current terminal would be repurposed for some other use, possibly for cargo or private charter jets, among other ideas being bandied about.

The overhaul would also look to better connect the airport to other modes of shipping, from Mississippi River barges to trucks to trains, Ahmad said. For years, New Orleans has lost its cut of the shipping market to the likes of Houston and Miami.

Landrieu's favored option could also allow a new exit ramp from Interstate 10's eastbound lanes to accommodate passengers coming from Baton Rouge. However, such an access road would have to be built around the federally mandated buffer zones at the ends of the airports' runways.

Seeking to allay fears from Kenner and St. Charles Parish officials, Ahmad said none of the options would go beyond the airport's 1,700-acre footprint.

The airport has always worried Kenner's elected officials. Their worst fears were borne out in 1982, when Pan Am Flight 759 crashed there, killing 154 people, including eight on the ground.

Again, in the early 1990s, the airport bought about 100 acres from Kenner to create a federally mandated buffer because of jet-engine noise. A deal is in the works to return that property back to commerce now that technological advancements have significantly quieted jet engines passing overhead.

But some of the damage may be irreparable. Mayor Mike Yenni says the buyout deal hampered Kenner's growth over the last 20 years as residents who sold their homes moved to lower-priced St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes.

He said he wouldn't let something like that happen again. His chief administrative officer, Mike Quigley, along with officials from St. Charles and Jefferson, have been meeting with airport officials monthly to discuss any possible changes.

"I've told Iftikhar and I've told the mayor 'buyout' is a bad word around here," Yenni said.

No runway expansion

None of the four options envisions adding a third major runway, an idea floated and abandoned several times since the 1960s. According to the airport's latest projections, the number of flights in 2048 isn't expected to reach the number of flights that landed in New Orleans in 1980, making another runway a pointless expense for the foreseeable future.

Still, the number of passengers traveling through New Orleans is on the rise, and industry analysts are adamant that a bustling airport is a critical advantage for a city looking to attract business and build wealth. The Landrieu administration estimates that the airport is responsible for more than 12,400 jobs and for bringing $2.6 billion into the city each year through tourism.

"Airports are huge economic generators in their respective cities or municipalities," said Daniel Prather, professor and an aviation industry expert at California Baptist University.

An overhaul of such a central cog in a city's economy takes foresight, he said, because it often takes a decade or more to expand or reconfigure an airport that must also keep planes flying throughout construction.

Airports in recent years have been moving away from the "hub" model -- where an airline chooses a centrally located city to send most of its flights -- that dominated the industry after deregulation in the early 1980s. Using Southwest as an example, Prather said airlines are moving toward a 'point-to-point' system that focuses on traffic from one destination to another as opposed to rerouting through a central hub.

"Those days are slowly disappearing," he said.

The cost per passenger at an airport is a major weight on an airline's decision to do business there, industry experts said. New Orleans International charges airlines roughly $8.49 a passenger, down from $10.90 in 2010 after Ahmad increased concession sales. Still, the average cost at domestic airports is closer to $7.

Several studies, including a 2007 rewrite of the airport's master plan, show traffic increasing at New Orleans over the next several decades, albeit not by leaps and bounds. About 4.3 million passengers climbed aboard outgoing flights in 2012. It could take 35 years for that number to double, according to airport's projections.

Nevertheless, New Orleans is the 39th busiest domestic airports in the country, up from 56th immediately after Katrina, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. It accounts for 80 percent of Louisiana's air traffic.

"We may not be JFK, but we're kind of in the same ZIP code," Ahmad said.

Ultimately, any expansion plan will depend on money and political will. Consultants predict a new terminal would take just six years to build, compared to the 10 years it takes to build a new runway.

"A successful airport is one that helps its community by increasing the community's stature and the related economic activity," Ahmad said. "We should not allow the airport to be a victim of haphazard development, and this focused approach will make sure that we have a feasible strategic infrastructure plan."

Councilman Mark Spears said he plans to seek more time to review concerns from minority-owned businesses

The Jefferson Parish Council on Wednesday (March 27) appears likely to delay contracting reforms again, as Councilman Mark Spears said he plans to seek more time to review concerns from minority-owned businesses. If Spears colleagues go along, it would be the third time they postponed a vote on a proposed ordinance that was filed last month.

The proposal aims to curb the Parish Council's discretion to hand out some parish contracts, by requiring that they select companies ranked near the top in technical evaluations and by mandating that price be included in the criteria to score proposals from vendors. The ordinance would also remove parish directors from the evaluation committees.

Councilman Chris Roberts, who authored the ordinance, agreed to a request by Spears on March 13 to postpone the vote so officials could meet with representatives from the New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has said the proposed law would limit the ability of minority companies to get public work in Jefferson Parish, because those firms would seldom rank above larger, more established companies.

Proponents of reform have answered that the parish could make minority participation a part of the criteria used to evaluate proposal from companies, addressing the chamber's concern while reducing political discretion in the selection process.

Roberts on Tuesday indicated he would agree to another delay if Spears requested it. Spears said he plans to do that at Wednesday's council meeting. "We need input from everyone, especially major stakeholders," Spears said.

The council meeting is set to begin Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the General Government Building, 200 Derbigny St., in Gretna.

Spears said he met with chamber of commerce officials already. But he said the watchdog group Citizens for Good Government, which has called for reforms, has not sought to schedule a meeting with him.

"They can set up a meeting anytime. To my knowledge, we have not received a phone call," Spears said.

Margie Seemann, vice chairman of the group, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Citizens for Good Government and the Bureau of Governmental Research have called for contracting reforms since last year.

Roberts' proposals target how the council awards contracts through the co-called Request for Proposals process, used to hire firms for some specialized contracts or to seek firms for specific tasks. BGR has said that in 2011 the parish used RFPs to award a fifth of its no-bid service contracts, including deals for recycling, transportation and security services.

Most council members have said they support Roberts' proposal to restrict the council's choices to only the top three or top five firms seeking a job, depending on the total number of applicants. But Spears earlier this month said, "I have a problem not being able to choose a firm that I'm comfortable with."

• The Jefferson Parish Council meets Wednesday (March 27) in Gretna. Among the 117 items on the agenda are an address by Sheriff Newell Normand on the former stoplight camera program, a resolution letting food trucks operate in Fat City and measures to refinance more than $100 million of debt.
• Three Metairie cases are on the agenda of the Jefferson Planning Advisory Board. It meets Thursday (March 28) in Elmwood.

Proposed Jefferson Parish contracting reforms hit a major bump Wednesday, as the Parish Council shelved for six months a drafted ordinance that would curb political discretion in awarding some no-bid work.

Proposed Jefferson Parish contracting changes hit a major bump Wednesday, as the Parish Council shelved for six months a drafted ordinance that would curb political discretion in awarding some no-bid work. With a unanimous vote and no discussion, council members deferred to Sept. 18 a vote that had been postponed three times in the past five weeks.

The delay came a day after Councilman Mark Spears had said he would seek more time to review concerns from the New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce, which has said some of the proposals would limit the ability of minority-owned businesses from getting contracts. Spears, however, suggested Tuesday that he was seeking a relatively short delay.

Spears was not immediately available after the meeting. Council Chairman Chris Roberts, who authored the ordinance including the contracting changes, said Spears asked for a six-month deferral to avoid the meeting-to-meeting delays the council has been experiencing. But Roberts said he expects the ordinance to come back for a vote before September.

"It's not going to take that long," Roberts said.

Reform advocates had already said that they were disappointed even with a short delay, and urged the council at Wednesday's meeting to adopt the proposed contracting changes.

The contracting proposal aims to curb the Parish Council's discretion to hand out some parish work, by requiring that they select companies ranked near the top in technical evaluations and by mandating that price be included in the criteria to score proposals from vendors. The ordinance would also remove parish directors from the evaluation committees.

The Louisiana Oil and Gas Association announced it had reached an agreement with Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration about how to reduce tax exemptions for the industry. Details of the proposal, which is part of Jindal's larger effort to eliminate income and corporate taxes and replace them with higher and broader sales taxes, were not immediately available. Don Briggs, president...

The Louisiana Oil and Gas Association announced it had reached an agreement with Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration about how to reduce tax exemptions for the industry. Details of the proposal, which is part of Jindal's larger effort to eliminate income and corporate taxes and replace them with higher and broader sales taxes, were not immediately available.

Don Briggs, president of the association, said that the deal on the tax breaks, known as severance tax exemptions, would benefit drillers operating in the state.

 

"We believe the proposal we have discussed with the administration will create more jobs in the oil and gas industry for Louisianans," Briggs said in a news release.

Administration officials have said that existing tax exemptions on oil and gas extraction would be cut by about $289 million under the plan, halving the breaks those industries now receive. The details of how that would be achieved have not yet been discussed with the public or media.

Briggs said some sectors of the oil and gas industry favor the overall tax swap, while others are still waiting for a final set of bills before deciding whether to support the plan.

Oil and gas service companies would not be subject to new sales taxes on services under the administration's plan, something Briggs referred to as "good news."

"While a specific tax plan bill has not been drafted or filed at this time, the oil and gas industry certainly looks forward to reviewing the bill," he said.

The association's statement came the same day as the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry said they would oppose Jindal's plan.

LABI, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Louisiana politics, came out against the plan because it is expected to shift about $500 million of the state's tax burden onto businesses. It is not clear whether that figure, which was used by Department of Revenue Executive Counsel Tim Barfield in a hearing Tuesday, includes the reduction in severance tax exemptions.

The Fat City food truck festival, a new effort to enliven Metairie's former nightlife district, won approval Wednesday from the Jefferson Parish Council. It is scheduled April 15 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. (See updated story.) With no discussion or opposition, the council exempted Fat City from strict rules on rolling restaurants, permitted Drago's Foundation to host the rally...

The Fat City food truck festival, a new effort to enliven Metairie's former nightlife district, won approval Wednesday from the Jefferson Parish Council. It is scheduled April 15 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. (See updated story.)

With no discussion or opposition, the council exempted Fat City from strict rules on rolling restaurants, permitted Drago's Foundation to host the rally and let Councilwoman Cynthia Lee-Sheng erect temporary signs in the 5th Council District to promote the event.

It's the first government-organized attraction for Fat City since Greater New Orleans Inc. brought a Times Square booster to town in November to brainstorm improvements for the area. The council rezoned Fat City in 2010, establishing earlier closing hours for bars and running off "adult businesses," but there has been little concrete action since. A task force is still working on a framework for the future.

The April 15 festival will take place in the parking lot in the southeast corner of the intersection of 18th Street and Edenborn Avenue, Lee-Sheng said. The property is owned by Tommy Cvitanovich, who operates Drago's restaurant about a block to the east. The New Orleans food truck coalition expects to send 10 to 15 mobile meal vendors.

If it's successful, organizers say, regular rallies could be held once a month on Monday nights, possibly with live music.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will be releasing more than $106 million in federal grants to Louisiana for Hurricane Isaac relief efforts. Jefferson Parish is getting $16.4 million; New Orleans, $15 million; and St. Tammany Parish, $8.9 million. The state of Louisiana is getting $66.4 million, with a mandate that at least 80 percent of...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will be releasing more than $106 million in federal grants to Louisiana for Hurricane Isaac relief efforts. Jefferson Parish is getting $16.4 million; New Orleans, $15 million; and St. Tammany Parish, $8.9 million.

The state of Louisiana is getting $66.4 million, with a mandate that at least 80 percent of the money go to the parishes hardest hit by Hurricane Isaac. That should mean a significant portion, if not the entire  allocation, would go to Plaquemines, and St. John the Baptist parishes.

The funding from the federal Community and Development Block Grant program for Isaac damage was added to the $50 billion supplemental spending bill for Hurricane Sandy by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. Landrieu also included language streamlining the approval process for projects.

"As I worked with my colleagues on a Sandy recovery bill, I made it clear that Isaac-affected communities in Louisiana would not get left behind," Landrieu said. "Now, because of this legislation, Louisiana will receive nearly $107 million in federal funds for important recovery projects."

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, right, speaking to St. John the Baptist Parish President Natalie Robottom before an Isaac recovery meeting last fall. Both are applauding Obama administration release of Isaac relief funds on Wednesday. Peter Forest

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said he'll push the state to send its entire $66 million allocation to his parish and St. John.

"That's only right because that's where most of the damage was," Nungesser said.

Jefferson Parish President John Young and St. Tammany Parish President Pat Brister thanked Landrieu for securing the HUD grant.

"I am delighted with the news regarding the direct funding for St. Tammany's disaster recovery needs," Brister said. "We are already putting plans in place to take full advantage of the program. It will mean a great deal to the people of St. Tammany."

St. John Parish President Natalie Robottom said the grant money is desperately needed.

"We're looking forward to getting our grant and any other help we can get so we can get back on our feet and help our homeowners recover," Robottom said. "Unfortunately, in addition to the hurricane damages, our homeowners also face increased flood insurance premiums without elevation or protection for their homes."

Holly Fonseca, who oversees federal and state grants for St. Charles Parish, said she is hoping her parish will benefit from the HUD grant, as well.

Under rules for the Community Development Block Grant program, money flows directly to the larger government entities, such as Orleans, Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes. But smaller parishes, like St. Charles, Plaquemines and St. John, receive their grants  from the state.

President Barack Obama signed the disaster bill into law on January, 29 and eight days later HUD released $5.4 billion to five states and the city of New York for damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

HUD officials said they will shortly publish a notice that will spell out how the Louisiana funds can be used. State and local grant recipients then will finalize disaster "action plans," describing how they intend to use the funds, and the agency has promised a quick review process.

"In the last two years, many communities have had to deal with the reality of our changing climate and the increasing severity off natural disasters," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "HUD is continuing to work closely with state and local partners to help them realize a locally driven vision for restoring and rebuilding housing, infrastructure and businesses that have been affected."

Landrieu, a member of the Senate Appropriations committee, had insisted that the block grant funding be flexible, including a provision that allows local governments to use their block grant funding as the local share for larger projects that rely on federal funding.

Despite widespread support for an emergency aid package after Hurricane Sandy devastated the Northeast last October, it was tough to get the bill through the Republican-led House. The House balked at an earlier more expensive bill, which included some loan forgiveness provisions for Hurricane Katrina.

It later approved a smaller package, without the loan guarantees, by a vote of 241-180, with three Louisiana members -- Reps. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, John Fleming, R-Minden, and Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, voting no. The three Louisiana members said they wanted spending offsets for the disaster assistance. Landrieu, Sen. David Vitter,R-La., and Reps. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans; Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman; and Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette; supported the bill.

Richmond cheered the HUD announcement.

'This is great news for the families in Louisiana and the communities that have endured the impact of Hurricane Isaac," Richmond said. "I am pleased with the funding announced today and thankful for HUD's continued investment in our state."

Just last week, Congress voted for more flexible rules that are expected to enable Louisiana communities, particularly St. Tammany and Jefferson Parish, as well as the New Orleans Sewerage and Water board, to get forgiveness from repaying federal disaster loans for hurricanes Katrina and Rita -- forgiveness that Louisiana congressional members say has long been part of the FEMA program.