City Councilman James Gray pulled an apron over his immaculate white shirt and perfectly knotted tie Thursday and waited on customers during the noon rush hour at Li'l Dizzy's Cafe on Esplanade Avenue. The purpose: to call attention to the low wages paid to many restaurant servers. Gray was among prominent people in various U.S. cities who agreed to be...
City Councilman James Gray pulled an apron over his immaculate white shirt and perfectly knotted tie Thursday and waited on customers during the noon rush hour at Li'l Dizzy's Cafe on Esplanade Avenue. The purpose: to call attention to the low wages paid to many restaurant servers.
Gray was among prominent people in various U.S. cities who agreed to be a "server for a day" to highlight proposals to improve such workers' pay. Although the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, it is just $2.13 for restaurant workers who receive tips, on the assumption that the tips will make up the difference.
Gray said he doesn't know how many such workers manage. "They have families to feed, clothe and house. They have tuition and transportation costs. If we do not guarantee these families a living wage, we fail to help them lift their families out of poverty and access the American dream," he said.
Groups known as Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and Restaurants Advancing Industry Standards in Employment are urging that the tipped minimum wage be boosted to at least 70 percent of the standard minimum, or $5 an hour.
Wayne Baquet, owner of Li'l Dizzy's, already pays that much. "While some waiters in the industry will make decent money during the heavy tourism season, during the slower summer months they'll bring home $40 a day. You can't pay your bills on that," he said. "Paying $6 an hour makes good business sense. I have very low turnover."
As for Gray, he is facing the possible suspension of his law license on the grounds he failed to properly represent several clients, so a little experience in another line of work might just come in handy.
--BRUCE EGGLER
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SCANNING THE SCORECARDS: The score sheets for the five-member city selection committee that recently recommended that Gatehouse Capital Corp. of Dallas be awarded the contract to redevelop the 33-story former World Trade Center building reveal nearly unanimous thinking. Every member ranked the three proposals in the same order, with Gatehouse at the top.
Overall, Gatehouse had a score of 405 points out of a possible 500 (100 from each committee member), followed by Burch LLC of Clifton, Va., with 342, and the Tricentennial Consortium, composed of leaders of New Orleans' major tourism organizations who wanted to demolish the building, with 308.
The committee included Deputy Mayor Cedric Grant; Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin; William Gilchrist, director of place-based planning for the Landrieu administration; Jeff Hebert, executive director of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority; and Cynthia Connick, executive director of public benefit corporations.
The projects were graded in four categories, with each accounting for a percentage of the overall score. The first category dealt with the details of the proposed project and could be awarded up to 35 points. The second looked at the experience of each group's leadership and could be given up to 20 points. The third category, also 20 points, considered whether the bidders had the financial capacity to complete the project. The last category looked at the financial feasibility of the proposals and could be given 25 points.
On their score sheets, the judges provided only brief explanations for their ratings, and the handwriting of some was hard to decipher.
The Tricentennial team was praised by the judges for its experience and vision but criticized for the lack of specifics on a proposed new main attraction or "demand generator." It received its lowest scores when it came to the group's financial backing and the project's long-term feasibility. Hebert said the proposal was "very weak" in both categories. Kopplin wrote that without "clearly sourced capital" it was difficult to say the project was feasible.
Gilchrist gave Tricentennial 68 points, followed by Grant, 66; Hebert, 57; and Kopplin and Connick, 50 each.
Burch, which proposed redeveloping the old office building into a mixed-use building with residential apartments and a Valencia Group hotel, came out relatively strong on providing details for its project. The committee members also praised Burch's demonstrated commitment to participating in the city's disadvantaged business enterprise program and its proposed annual lease payment to the city. The Burch proposal offered the city $1.25 million a year during construction and then $1.5 million a year for 95 years, adjusted every five years for inflation up to 2 percent a year.
However, the team was hit hard for its poor track record on completing large projects and its somewhat uncertain financing. "Financial aspects do not inspire confidence that the project is achievable," Connick wrote. Hebert questioned the project's long-term feasibility: "Revenue projections for both hotel and residential components seem very optimistic."
Grant gave Burch its highest score with 79 points, followed by Kopplin, 73; Gilchrist, 71; Hebert, 64; and Connick, 55.
Gatehouse, which has proposed redeveloping the former WTC into a mixed-use building with a W Hotel and residential apartments, received praise from the judges in all categories, though Kopplin said its proposed lease payment was "lame" and its DBE response was "very lame."
Gatehouse has offered the city only a $10 million upfront payment, which the city considers far below the value of the property. Gatehouse also failed to offer specifics on how it will meet the city's demand for 35 percent participation in the project by disadvantaged businesses.
Hebert said Gatehouse's hotel food and beverage forecast was optimistic and, even though it demonstrated good financial capacity, it had no "final permanent sources." Nonetheless, he gave Gatehouse its highest score, 91 points, followed by Connick, 86; Grant, 84; Gilchrist, 82; and Kopplin, 80.
The next step in the process is supposed to be for the New Orleans Building Corp. board of directors to meet, receive the selection committee's report and begin the process of negotiating a contract with Gatehouse. But even though more than two weeks have passed since the committee met and announced its collective ratings, the NOBC has yet to schedule a board meeting.
--RICHARD A. WEBSTER
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The company has announced a "preliminary informational outreach meeting" for potential DBE subcontractors and professionals on the WTC project. The meeting will be Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the Sheraton Hotel on Canal Street.
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NOT HIS JOB: Moon Landrieu apparently feels no need to wax nostalgic about his years in public office.
The former mayor filled in Friday for his daughter, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, who had been asked to address an audience about a new plan to manage storm water in the Crescent City. She had to pass because her son was getting married, her father said.
So Moon took her place at the podium and made it clear that after his years of service, it was up to someone else to keep New Orleans going.
"I know two things," he said. "I know the sea is rising and the land is sinking. The rest is your problem."
After the chuckling in the crowd died down, Landrieu launched into a well-worn Boudreaux joke, paraphrased here: Boudreaux, feeling sick and stressed at home, told his doctor he felt "terminal." The doctor told him to run 10 miles a day for 30 days. After 30 days, Boudreaux called the doctor and told him he had never felt better. The doctor asked if things had gotten better at home. Boudreaux said he didn't know -- he was 300 miles from there.
The joke had a special resonance for Landrieu, who left the mayor's office in 1978 and his job as U.S. housing and urban development secretary in January 1981.
"Thirty-three years from my past job and I couldn't feel better," he said.
--RICHARD RAINEY
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A LITTLE LESS TRAFFIC: The crowded race for a New Orleans Traffic Court judgeship is still crowded, but at least a little less so. Former state Rep. Charmaine Marchand has withdrawn her name from consideration as a possible successor to retired Judge Ronald Sholes.
That narrowed the field for the politically coveted job from nine candidates to eight. The special election is scheduled for Oct. 19, with the expected runoff on Nov. 16.