Landrieu, Small Businesses, and Public Option

One of the main selling point on the public option plan as part of healthcare reform is that it will help alleviate the burden of health insurance costs on small businesses and start-ups. One of the main reasons innovative people with good ideas avoid striking out on their own to build a small business from scratch is because of the risks associated with abandoning one's health insurance.

So it will be very interesting to see how Senator Mary Landrieu, the Chair of the Senate Small Business Committee, explains her sell-out on the public option plan to a room full of small business owners and entrepreneurs. She's holding a small business outreach conference tomorrow morning at UNO.

Got this presser today:

Louisianans for Real Healthcare Reform is encouraging small business owners and all others upset with Senator Landrieu area to come to the event and confront her on why she is opposed to a public option as a part of healthcare reform that will lower her constituents’ healthcare costs and increase their choices.

Note: Senator Landrieu has already canceled previous events in New Orleans after seeing the frustration her constituents have with her over this issue. Louisianans for Real Healthcare Reform urges Senator Landrieu to not back out this time and have the courage to face her constituents and explain her opposition to providing them more affordable healthcare.

WHO: Senator Landrieu and small business owners upset with her

WHEN: Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

9:00 a.m-11:45 a.m.

WHERE: UNO Research and Technology Park

2045 Lakeshore Dr., New Orleans, La

I'd highly recommend attending. You can register for the event on site from 8-845AM.

Also some folks have decided that they don't believe this New York Times poll gauging popular support for the public option plan. I'd advise them to check out other polls on the issue that appear to confirm an overwhelming consensus for such a policy.

Ways and Means

I actually did download and watch.

Link.

Infratructure and You: Stimulating Strategies

I've been interested in the Louisiana implications of the mega economic stimulus package currently being negotiated in Congress. I think it's a very very big deal and believe it's something to which we need to be paying better attention.

When was the last time the federal government sunk so much money into infrastructure projects?

Louisiana and especially New Orleans have incredible infrastructure needs that directly impact the basic premise of 'recovery.' If this state doesn't quickly reimagine it's transportation and hurricane protection blueprint, arguments for rebuilding hinging on long and medium term economic viability go completely out the window. SE Louisiana simply will not remain a sustainable place in which to invest (whether we're talking about starting a business or purchasing a home) unless some of our major infrastructure flaws are fixed. The case for levees is indisputable. To a certain extent, even our social needs (housing, literacy, health care, education, criminal justice reform) are more easily understood. Less often articulated are our needs related to sewerage, the power grid, regional rail, and municipal transit - other areas in which SE Louisiana remains far behind other metropolitan competitors.

It has been many years since these types of projects have been on the table in Washington. This is a rare opportunity. It is not obvious to me that Louisiana will have many other chances to come away with globs of money as sizable as what might be possible right now. Barack Obama made some campaign promises on Gulf Coast Recovery but I'm not sensing much Congressional urgency in terms of allocating additional resources this way. The President has said that there will be no pork projects in this stimulus bill. But if there's a little extra money sprinkled into Louisiana for projects critical to issues of hurricane recovery and basic regional sustainability (and therefore, national security), well I don't see why we have to call that pork. It's not as if Congressman Cao and Senator Vitter are negotiating an extra $2 million allocation for the New Orleans Madam Museum. We're the poorest city in the poorest state in the poorest region and then we got hit with a bunch hurricanes and a federal flood. We need and deserve a little extra attention. That's how progressive values work.

So what is Louisiana's strategy for shaking loose that extra coin?

More later.

I Don't Get It

I'd say this has something to do with what I'm reading in this pdf of the city's operational plan for the new public-private partnership for economic development:

Real Estate Development

The PPP will be the facilitator, and at times the initiator of real estate development. This means the organization may initiate feasibility studies, assemble land, package incentives, initiate the public participation process, prepare land for pre-development, provide facilitate regulatory approvals, provide or organize partial financing, encourage the private sector to identify and initiate projects,
reduce the risks associated with initiating development and focus redevelopment according to priorities, issue RFPs, and sell or lease land.

A public-private organization will have more autonomy and flexibility than a City agency, but will still require government approval on major projects. Currently, the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) is the only existing agency with the legislative authority and capacity to implement comprehensive neighborhood revitalization plans. The agency has the power to expropriate (take by eminent domain) property. NORA oversees a blighted property acquisition program, Real Estate Acquisition and Land-banking Mechanism (REALM).

It is necessary to incorporate the momentum that NORA has been building as a redevelopment entity with the creation of a new PPP. It is not an option to maintain two separate organizations that are engaging in similar work. This would only enhance inefficiencies and a reputation that New Orleans does not have its act together.

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Option 1: Maintain a Redevelopment Board, staffed by the PPP

In this option the Redevelopment Authority maintains an independent board of directors, but does not have dedicated staff or a CEO. The PPP would staff redevelopment activities under the real estate division. Staff would make recommendations to the board, prepare board agendas and staff meetings.

Option 2: Create a redevelopment committee from the existing PPP Board

A special redevelopment committee would review and make recommendations to the PPP Board on redevelopment matters. The benefits of this option include using the expertise that would currently exist on the PPP Board. It would also keep projects and priorities very much coordinated and communicated. A potential obstacle is the difficulty in dismantling the current redevelopment board and transferring powers to a public-private partnership.

So who are the new overlords of eminent domain and real estate development? The Times-Picayune tells us the process for selecting them:

[t]he presidents of the city's universities will choose a 17-member partnership board. The university presidents will choose two mayoral appointees from a pool of three nominees and two City Council representatives from that body's three nominees. Those appointments would have to be ratified by the council.

There also would be three permanent representatives of city government on the board: the mayor's executive assistant for economic development (now Ed Blakely), the chairman of the City Planning Commission (now Ed Robinson) and the chairman of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (now Herschel Abbott).

Finally, the university presidents would select seven private-sector representatives and three members from non-governmental organizations, from among 21 names provided by an advisory council of general and ethnic chambers of commerce, the Board of Trade and a 400-member business group called the Horizon Initiative New Orleans.

Why are we giving private interests jurisdiction over the future of taxpayer-owned real estate? Can someone explain this to me?

Friday! Blakely's turn to not answer quetions

Tough day shaping up for Ed Blakely, who is set to go in front of City Council later this morning to defend his budget and performance as head of ORDA.

Yesterday, he confirmed that one of his top lieutenants, Patricia Robinson, has left her position. She was fired, which is something we know because Blakely refused to say whether she was fired or resigned.

The Nagin administration had delegated responsibilities related to the $5 million economic development fund to Robinson. It seems clear that her departure from government is related to her performance in this regard. As you'll recall, the administration through the grants to Council for approval without basic information like cost-benefit analyses.

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Jarvis DeBerry smells blood. He's got another winning column today.

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Tell your friends, keep pushing:

Dismiss Veronica White Now

Docs 4 U

Conveniently, the City Attorney Office published all of Mayor Nagin's Gustav and Ike related executive orders.

Unfortunately, the link to the order suspending the advisory committee charged with making recommendations as to which applicants would receive municipal economic development dollars remains broken.

But have no fear, I requested a copy of the order and have uploaded it using google docs.

Enjoy! (this one's a pdf so it's trapped for now)

Here's the fun part:

THEREFORE, I, C. RAY NAGIN, BY THE AUTHORITY VESTED IN ME as Mayor of
the City of New Orleans by the Constitution and laws of the State of Louisiana and the Home
Rule Charter and laws of the City of New Orleans HEREBY ORDER AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1: The Office of Recovery & Development Administration ("ORDA") shall
immediately provide to the Mayor, for his review, all of the 2007 applications for
Economic Development Funding, and following such review, the Mayor shall
submit a recommendation to the City Council for its adoption, amendment or
rejection.

Section 2: Sections 70-407 through 70-408(c) and Section 70-408(d) in part, of the Code of
Ordinances of the City of New Orleans shall be hereby suspended for the duration
of the present emergency declaration originally ordered by me on August 29,
2008.

Specifically, the following portion of Section 70-408(d) shall be
temporarily suspended for the duration of this emergency declaration:
"Upon receipt of the advisory committee's proposed recommendations, the mayor
may modify, change, or amend the recommendations in whole or in part."

More Docs 4 U:

I have also published the application (this one's available for everyone) used for the controversial 2007 round of economic development funding.

Council Meeting Devolves Into ANOTHER Circular Firing Squad

How shameful that it went down the way it did. Council fought against itself and ultimately delayed approval of the 20 economic development projects for another two months and directed Blakely to do a cost benefit analysis.

During the debate, council members tossed around terms such as "irresponsible, " "shameful, " "blackmail, " "double talk" and "an embarrassment" to describe colleagues' attitudes and actions.

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Shortly after 7 p.m., the meeting was halted for about 20 minutes after Councilwomen Cynthia Willard-Lewis and Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, soon followed by Midura, left the room without explanation, leaving the seven-member council without a quorum.

The three eventually returned, with Midura accompanied by one of her young children, after their colleagues condemned their sudden exits. Calling their absence "an embarrassment, " Councilman Arnie Fielkow said, "This is why people have no confidence in government."

Now this devolution of discourse on Council seemed absolutely unnecessary. There was an awful lot of consensus there that got warped and abused by Council's lack of imagination.

There was not one member on City Council that thought this process was conducted properly. In fact, there was universal agreement on where the blame belongs:

Much of the anger on display was directed at the Nagin administration, and especially recovery chief Ed Blakely, who was given oversight of economic development matters more than a year ago.

Some of the strongest words came from two council members who generally refrain from harsh criticism of the mayor. President Jackie Clarkson and James Carter both said they felt the administration had dumped a mess into their laps.

"I'm just fed up, " Clarkson said. "I'm resentful and very offended that we have not been held in higher regard."

"I'm really, really, really saddened and disturbed that the City Council is in this position, " Carter said. "This is absolutely ridiculous."

Now, of course Council was in that nasty position because Mayor Nagin abused his power by circumventing the advisory committee charged with selecting projects for economic development with an unchecked executive order issued during the middle of a natural disaster. One could also point to Dr. Blakely's refusal to provide a basic cost-benefit analysis or otherwise preventing the paid consultants from doing so. It is clear to everyone on Council and to the media covering this story that Blakely and Nagin gummed up this whole process for over a year and then gave it to Council and demanded they rubber stamp the thing.

The disagreement was whether or not it was worthwhile to reject or further delay the allocation of these grants to the applicants given that at least some are not blatant pet projects of the Mayor and that the applicants have been waiting for over a year.

To me, that disagreement seems relatively minor given the critical importance of addressing the first problem, on which there is absolute consensus. Why couldn't have Council reached a compromise?

I pitched one yesterday:

1. Approve all grants minus the $2.7 million giveaway to the LSU VA interest group.
Most of the grants are going to small businesses. Let's not wait any longer, they've been patient since 2007 and are counting on this money to come through. It is unlikely that Nagin and Blakely will negotiate with Council on this, so pass the grants and force them to accept the rest of the terms of the compromise. The proposed award for the hospital group seems shady since that project has faced stiff community opposition and may not get built on the current proposed site. Besides, I'm not sure it deserves our scarce economic development dollars when all the other recipient projects are small businesses.

2. Blakely's resignation effective immediately.
This would probably be in the form of some sort of resolution. That's fine. I know that Council doesn't have the authority to fire a Mayoral staffer. But it would be a powerful statement. It would threaten the Dr.'s somehow still sterling international reputation. It would be worth it. He would notice.

3. The suspension of the economic development fund for the rest of Ray Nagin's term in office.
It should be reconstituted as a program to help New Orleans entrepreneurs launch their first business - only with a transparent vetting process based on concrete and unbreakable guidelines.


My friends on City Council, listen up:

The Mayor has put you in these situations time and again. He fails to follow the law or purposely gums up procedures and time lines so that City Council is basically forced spend money on flawed plans. City Council stands in a circle with guns cocked only the real target is already back inside the saloon. Shots ring out and Council shoots itself while Mayor Nagin throws 'em back in laughter.

Stop the cycle. You are in positions of power. Start making demands of the Mayor and start punishing him if and when he fails to meet those demands. Council controls the purse. Council controls the budget.

Go on another stupid team-building retreat and when you come back y'all have better figured out who the real enemy is. Stop fighting each other and start fighting for us.

Backed Into A Corner

Following up on yesterday's on-going conversation about the economic development fund money that Mayor Nagin is trying to hammer through City Council without cost-benefit analysis and after circumventing his own advisory committee via an executive order in the middle of a Hurricane, the City Council's Economic Development Committee voted in favor of a full vote on the projects.

However, Council remains split.

The Cynthias have indicated they will vote for approving Mayor Nagin's list of grants on the rationale that small business need immediate investments given the economic crisis and the overall delays in economic development fund distribution timeline.

It also appears that Fielkow and Midura are prepared to vote against for two general reasons. First, because the administration has failed to provide a basic cost-benefit analysis of the projects as demanded by the law. The second reason involves suspicions arising from discrepancies between projects highlighted by the consultant hired to vet the applications and what Mayor Nagin has decided to submit to Council. The firm, GCR, says that some of the groups Nagin would like to give money to did not even submit completed applications.

In trying to wrap my mind around what's going on here, I will say that I relate very sincerely to exasperation of Councilwomen Hedge-Morrell and Willard-Lewis. This money is from way back in 2007. The 2008 grants have already been approved. It does us no good to continue to sit on this money when the controls that would ensure a clean and transparent process simply do not exist or are too easily ignored by the Mayor. Certainly there are a number* of worthy grant applicants that should get paid already.

(*** THOUGH SOMEHOW, OVER HALF OF THE DEVELOPMENT DOLLARS ($2.7 million) GO TO THE DISPUTED LSU/VA PROJECT ***)

But when oh when do we get to examine the broken process that lead us to this point? Why is it that time and again we're just supposed to blindly approve spending the Mayor asks for when time and again the administration has proven incapable of avoiding waste or worse?

It's a pattern, ya dig?

The administration refuses to follow the law, withholds information, or otherwise fails to provide reasonable rationales behind whatever it is they press upon Council. Then, because this city is so desperate for infusions of cash, so desperate for construction, for ANYTHING, Council is under the most immense pressure to rubber stamp whatever it is just so that the cash gets spent. Any 'no' vote is seen as obstructionist or worse, even if 'no' means 'well at least provide us with the basics we'd need to make an informed decision.'

Take this quote from Cynthia Willard-Lewis from today's hearing:

"The process was flawed, we all admit that," Willard-Lewis added. "But today we talk about the people, who are not flawed."

On which day then, Councilwoman Willard-Lewis, do we talk about the process?

When will that day come?

Let's talk right now about why we're in such a big hurry to get these dollars out today.

After a few hundred thousand dollars of 2006 grant money disappeared literally into toilet seats, City Council required the Mayor's office to submit a complete cost-benefit analysis for each of the projects submitted to the advisory committee charged with selecting projects to send to City Council. Seems pretty reasonable, right?

Well, not only did the Mayor not provide a cost-benefit analysis, but he penned an executive order during a Hurricane to circumvent the advisory committee.

Why did he do that?

According to the Times-Pic, it was because resignations on advisory committee made it difficult to get the quorum necessary for the committee to take any definitive action. Apparently, the reason was that the Mayor had trouble finding people to appoint as replacements and this is why the projects haven't been submitted almost a year past deadline.

Well I asked around and do you know how many people the committee needed for a quorum?

Just five.

So the Nagin administration intentionally gums up the processes or is so disengaged and negligent that it fails to get things done in a viable time frame. But then when Council wants to ask for the basic documentation that might help avoid blatant waste and corruption, it is they who are delaying the process.

The other thing I'm wondering, and this may be why the LSU/VA Hospital is getting so much, is if the specific projects were invited by Blakely or his office to apply. If he did not publicize the availability of municipal development dollars, the general business population would have had no way of knowing that there were grants for which to apply.

Here's the compromise I'm proposing:

Council will approve all projects minus the LSU/VA grant. The $2.7 million saved from the exclusion of that award can go back into the general fund or directly into an account that would help impoverished families pay for winter heating costs . In exchange, Ed Blakely will tender his resignation and the economic development fund will be suspended through 2010 until it can be reconstituted by the next administration as a program to help seed the dreams of first-time entrepreneurs.

What do you think? Who will sponsor this on Council?

Baffling

If you haven't read this article by the Times-Picayune's David Hammer, you should.

There might not be a better illustrator of the disconnect evident within the Nagin administration, between the Nagin administration and City Council, and between Ray Nagin and everyone else.

The introductory sentence pretty much says it all:

The New Orleans City Council is expected to decide this week whether to hand out $5 million in grants to 20 local businesses and nonprofits, even though members of the council and Mayor Ray Nagin's administration acknowledge that the proper review process hasn't been followed.

Wow. What the hell is going on here?

Briefly, Nagin and Blakely hired Greg Rigamer's firm, GCR to evaluate the different projects vying for municipal economic development dollars. The grant awards were supposed to have been distributed nearly a year ago but the Mayor couldn't get an advisory council to rubber stamp some of his pet projects so he let the money just sit there while our city begs for economic investment. That's nearly criminal by itself.

But then, he used the stress of Hurricane Gustav to issue an unchecked executive order that simply bypassed the advisory committee. (Ray Nagin must be reading Shock Doctrine only somehow he's interpreting it to be a textbook for how to subvert democracy and abuse power without getting in any trouble.)

So now he just gets to submit his grant proposals to City Council and explain how important it is for the money to finally be spent and how they shouldn't question his motivations or anything.

Beyond that, Council required the Mayor to submit a full cost-benefit analysis of each project to City Council before any votes but Mayor Nagin has refused to do so.

David Hammer tells us why this requirement was enshrined in the law:

The council voted last year to require those analyses in hopes of avoiding situations such as a $350,000 grant in 2006 to a Lafayette nonprofit to promote manufacturing a portable toilet seat invented by a New Orleans woman.

Councilman Arnie Fielkow said Saturday that the council has never found out what that grant produced.

Arnie Fielkow has foolishly decided to allow the proposals to come to a vote in his committee tomorrow anyway. Show some teeth, Arnie! Demand to see the analysis before any vote.

This whole thing is obviously dirty, just look at all this:

Rigamer recommended giving no money to nine of the 20 applicants Nagin is backing. Rigamer said the applicants either didn't provide sufficient information or had other means of getting the financing. But in each case, Blakely went the other way, and Nagin backed his aide rather than the consultant.

For example, Rigamer recommended against a grant for infrastructure assistance connected with the proposed Veterans Affairs hospital, saying it wouldn't create enough permanent jobs to justify the $4 million request. But Blakely recommended a $2.7 million grant, and the mayor approved it.

In one case, Nagin went against both Rigamer and Blakely. Rigamer suggested $50,000 for a World Trade Center initiative for bringing more international business investment to New Orleans. Blakely recommended even more: $100,000. Nagin, who has made several overseas trips in hopes of expanding the city's global business connections, rejected the application outright.

Fielkow said he was baffled by that.

Councilman Fielkow: If you're so baffled by all this, cancel the Tuesday vote. This was all brought on by an inappropriate power grab during a state of emergency. The Mayor is not following the law. He is not following the findings of his consultants. He refused to allow the consultants to follow through with the grant applicants when critical financing information was missing.

If you want to vote on anything, it should be for an immediate investigation into why the Mayor is pushing certain projects, why he gummed up the advisory committee process for almost a year, and why he has refused Council the legal right to see a full cost-benefit analysis. This begs for an abuse of power investigation, not an up-or-down vote on a bunch of the Mayor's pet projects.

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This needs to be further researched. Who appointed the advisory committee that was supposed to review the projects?