New Orleans Going 'More Green'

The American Society of Interior Designers is meeting at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center this weekend. The group has just unveiled its ReGreen guidelines, a manual intended to reshape thinking about home renovations developed in partnership with the United States Green Building Council.

Linda Sorrento, manager of the ReGreen program, said the new guidelines are the first comprehensive national directives for green renovations, as opposed to new construction.

ICF Gets Big Payoff

Kathleen Blanco's fiasco:

ICF International of Fairfax, Va., has secured a potentially big raise recently from the state of Louisiana.

In the waning days of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration, state officials increased the management contract ceiling from $756 million to $912 million — this, after the Legislature wanted to fire ICF over its handling of the homeowner recovery program, called Road Home.

Road Home was created in June 2006 as a state-run, federally funded plan to compensate homeowners for the breach of New Orleans' government-run levees. Homeowners can apply for grants to repair their homes, or obtain buyouts if they don't want to fix things up.

Yet, 56,000 applicants — nearly 40 percent of the qualified total — had yet to receive a cent as of last month. Plagued by cost overruns and delays, Road Home is expected to cost the taxpayers $10 billion in federal money and has become another glaring symbol of frustration and red tape in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Thanks for nothing, Kathleen Blanco

What Some Won't Do For Friends

I found this article very disturbing.

The Jefferson Parish Council loosened its rules for alcoholic beverage permits Wednesday, allowing a key player in former Gov. Edwin Edwards' corruption trial to apply for liquor permits for two Harvey establishments.

The council voted unanimously to expand the regulations to include people who have been pardoned automatically upon completion of a criminal sentence or who have had any misdemeanor conviction dismissed. The revision also allows companies to apply if they have terminated ties to a person whose prior conviction would have otherwise scuttled their liquor-license application.

The new language has the caveat that none of the crimes in question may involve violence or narcotics.

Council members approved the expanded terms on the same day the council was scheduled to consider granting two liquor licenses to Bobby Guidry, the former owner of the Treasure Chest Casino in Kenner who was convicted of bribing Edwards in exchange for a riverboat gaming license. He was sentenced in January 2001 to three years' probation, including five months in a halfway house.

Guidry applied to the parish for liquor licenses for the Royal Palm and Alligator Pear, two restaurants he is opening on Manhattan Boulevard in Harvey.

Does Louisiana really want to change its image?

Ellenese Brooks-Simms' Daughter Helped Mother Conceal Bribes

Ellenese Brooks-Simms parenting skills have created another criminal in her family. It seems that "Mama Simms" has taught her daughter to follow in her footsteps:

Stacy Simms, a City Hall appointee under two New Orleans mayors and the daughter of former Orleans Parish School Board President Ellenese Brooks-Simms, pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to helping her mother access a series of bribes that totaled $140,000 over several years.

Simms, 47, a city appointee from 1994 to 2004, was hired by former Mayor Marc Morial and continued to serve during the first two years of Mayor Ray Nagin's administration. She worked in the office of communications as director of community affairs and special events.

More recently, Simms has worked for the Fair Grounds as a consultant. She also has served on the boards of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans and the Committee for a Better New Orleans.

The charge to which Simms pleaded guilty Tuesday, misprision of a felony, is itself a felony. It refers to knowing of a federal crime and helping to conceal it; it is a charge prosecutors often assign to defendants who have agreed to cooperate in public-corruption cases.

A summary of the government's case says that Simms allowed a bank account to be opened in her name and "used as a clearinghouse for bribe payments."

Simms faces a maximum penalty of 3 years in prison, though she is likely to receive far less because of her cooperation. She is scheduled to be sentenced on June 18 by U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon, who accepted her guilty plea Tuesday.


Does "Mama Simms" have any grandchildren who may be seeking a plea deal?

Jeff Parish Gets Bamboozoled

T-P:


The Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans has acknowledged it overcharged Jefferson Parish by $566,645 for its share of the operating costs to keep Pump Station No. 6 churning water out of the 17th Street Canal and into Lake Pontchartrain during heavy rains and hurricanes.

N.O. Ambassadors On The Move

After what they described as a highly successful first year, the founders of the Fleur-de-lis Ambassadors Program said Friday that the initiative to tell the story of New Orleans' recovery to the rest of the nation will continue in 2008.

Tulane University President Scott Cowen and City Council President Arnie Fielkow, joined by Entergy New Orleans Chief Executive Officer Rod West and lawyer Kim Boyle, created the program in March 2007.

Their aim was to combat misperceptions, convey the importance of New Orleans' economic and cultural revitalization, and offer a positive view of the city's post-Katrina status to media, business, civic and political leaders in other major U.S. cities. |Read on|

Black Mayors To Meet In New Orleans

The National Conference of Black Mayors will bring its annual convention to New Orleans in June after deciding to relocate it from Detroit in the wake of a scandal involving that city's mayor, the group's president said last week.

St. Gabriel Mayor George Grace, who also serves as the mayors association president, said the convention will be held in New Orleans June 4-8. The event initially had been scheduled to take place in Detroit in April.

George said the group was concerned that the controversy surrounding Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick would distract from the event.

Since uncovering it in January, the Detroit Free Press has been reporting on an alleged affair between Kilpatrick and his now former chief of staff, Christine Beatty.