Challengers question Holden’s contract with chamber

• By SCOTT DYER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Aug 24, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 1 a.m.
• Editor’s note: Starting today, Aug. 24, and running over the next three Sundays, The Advocate will highlight issues in the race for mayor-president of East Baton Rouge Parish.

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President Kip Holden’s opponents in the upcoming election say they have concerns about a deal he made that pays the Baton Rouge Area Chamber $500,000 a year to function as the city’s economic development department.

“I’m not 100 percent sure that the money going to the chamber isn’t in violation of the state constitution because it involves putting public money into a private association,” said Republican Dan Kyle, a former state legislative auditor and candidate for mayor.

“I’ve never heard of an arrangement like that before in my life, so I would have to look at it very carefully,” Kyle said.

Kyle said the chamber already should have been trying to bring new business to the city, noting that it’s difficult to determine what additional services the chamber is performing for $500,000 a year.

Kyle, Republican Wayne Carter and Democrat Ron Johnson are all challenging Holden, a Democrat, in the Oct. 4 primary election.
The runoff election, if necessary, is Nov. 4.
 
Holden insists that the chamber’s pact with the city-parish is entirely legal, and was hatched in conversations with former chamber President Stephen Moret during a chamber-sponsored trip to North Carolina in the fall of 2006.

In selling the deal to the Metro Council, chamber officials pointed out that other cities have partnered with their local chambers to provide
economic development services.

For instance, Knoxville, Tenn., contributed $1.1 million to its chamber in 2006. Mobile, Ala., contributed $750,000 and Raleigh, N.C.,
gave $600,000 to their chambers.

Johnson, an attorney, also has problems with the chamber deal.

“We don’t know what those funds are used for,” he said. “We don’t have a gauge to determine what we’re getting for our dollars.”

But Holden said the contract between the city-parish and the local chamber also requires  full accountability of the jobs and investments generated in the parish.

Holden said that when he’s contacted by someone who wants to bring a business to Baton Rouge, he immediately notifies the chamber so it can begin negotiations.

“So what’s happening is that we’ve gone from being a little bit of a sleepy town to a city where the dynamics are so great, we’re getting calls from people around the world who want to see how they can form a partnership with us,” Holden said.

Carter, who is on the Metro Council, said Holden’s partnership with the chamber may be a bit too cozy. He noted that FuturePAC, the political arm of the chamber, endorsed Holden’s re-election bid in February, before anyone had announced plans to run against him.
Chamber officials denied there was any link between the endorsement and the city-parish contract.