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Sunday, July 5, 2009
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BUSINESS TODAY
Business Today for June 26, 2009
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BR port to bid out maritime security center
The Port of Greater Baton Rouge’s board voted Thursday to give the director authority to solicit bids on its planned $4.5 million Maritime Security Operations Center. The vote came after the Legislature approved $2 million in funding for the project, which also has $1 million in grants from the Office of Homeland Security, and funds from the port and other local sources. Commissioner Larry Johnson, who made the motion and received unanimous approval to put the vote on the agenda, said it was important to get the project moving as quickly as possible because the weather tends to be dryer in the summer, which would mean fewer construction delays. The three-story emergency command center will be an assembly point for command-and-control operations of various state, federal and local agencies involved in maritime emergency situations. It will also serve as dispatch facilities for all West Baton Rouge Parish firefighter and law enforcement agencies. It will be built on the existing 8,000-square-foot, single-story original administrative building adjacent to the port’s current offices. The building was last home to the West Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce. The two upper floors will serve as a security operations center for any area emergencies along the Mississippi River. It could house large groups of emergency personnel for extended periods. The bottom floor will be West Baton Rouge’s dispatching operations, culminating several years’ worth of efforts to centralize those offices.
Ruling favors BR port in ex-director dispute
A panel of judges on the First Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a law restricting employees of any public board to terms not exceeding those of the members of the board itself applies to Roger Richard, the former director of the Port of Greater Baton Rouge. In doing so, the appeals court overturned a lower court’s ruling that found the limitation did not apply to Richard, who sued the port for wrongful termination. Richard was suspended by the board in 2005 and fired soon after in a dispute over his discretionary spending of port money. Richard has always said all his spending was publicly disclosed and contended he did nothing improper. Barry Wilkinson, the port’s attorney, told the board of the appeals court ruling Thursday, noting Richard can still apply for a rehearing or appeal it to the Louisiana Supreme Court. He said the port’s position, if upheld, would nullify Richard’s suit without getting into the particulars of the case because Richard shouldn’t have held the job beyond four years anyway. Wilkinson said the law also means the port erred in giving Richard a contract longer than four years, but he said the port wasn’t aware of the law until after the contract was signed.
Piccadilly: Not selling headquarters site
Piccadilly Restaurants LLC said today it’s not selling and leasing back its headquarters at 3232 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd. in Baton Rouge, as had been reported earlier this week. A broker mistakenly placed the building for sale and lease-back on a commercial real estate Web site, the cafeteria and food-service company said. Piccadilly currently occupies 22,000 of the 40,000 square feet in the headquarters building and is only looking to lease an unoccupied 15,000-square-foot suite on the second floor of its building, the company said. “Piccadilly was born in Baton Rouge in 1941,” said Tom Sandeman, Piccadilly president and CFO, in a statement. “We have been headquartered at 3232 Sherwood for the past 30 years and have no plans to relocate in the near future. We are committed to Baton Rouge.”
Report: China to oppose Hummer purchase
In a potential blow for Louisiana, the Chinese government is likely to reject a bid by one of that nation’s industries to buy the Hummer unit of General Motors Corp., according to a report by China National Radio. The Associated Press cited the late Thursday report, which held that China’s planning agency — the National Development and Reform Commission — is likely to reject the bid because the gas-guzzling vehicles conflict with Beijing’s conservation goals and because the buyer lacks the expertise to run Hummer. The potential buyer, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp., hasn’t completed a deal with GM to buy Hummer, but GM officials earlier this month said the deal could save 3,000 current U.S. jobs. Some jobs could be at GM’s Shreveport plant, where the production of 10,000 Hummer vehicles from South Africa was expected to take place under Tengzhong ownership. Though Tengzhong is privately owned, Chinese regulators can still block foreign acquisitions, the AP reported. Louisiana officials say they’ll continue to recruit a next-generation line of GM cars to the Shreveport plant, though GM has said publicly that the plant will close. Production of current Chevrolet and GMC trucks there will end in 2012, the company said.
Ex-Antiqua official posts bond in Stanford case
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua (AP) — A lawyer for the former Antiguan financial regulator who is accused in the alleged $7 billion swindle by Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford says his client has been released on bond. Leroy King is now under house arrest as the Caribbean island processes a request for his extradition to the United States. Attorney Ralph Francis said Friday that King posted bond of 500,000 eastern Caribbean dollars — about $190,800. He is required to check in with police twice a day and cannot leave home except for medical appointments. King is accused accepting more than $100,000 in bribes to turn a blind eye to irregularities in Stanford’s banking empire. He was fired by the twin-island government on Tuesday and arrested Wednesday.
Lafayette’s strengths draw AA- bond rating
The Fitch bond rating agency gives Lafayette an AA-, or high investment-grade rating, to two new series of sales-tax financed bonds worth $61 million. The agency also assigned the same rating to $270 million in outstanding sales tax bonds set for a negotiated sale by Lafayette during the week of July 6, Fitch Ratings said. Underlying the stable outlook are a number of strengths, the agency reported: --An estimated 10,000 people who settled in Lafayette after the 2005 hurricane season. --Sales taxes that averaged nearly 5 percent growth annually since 1999. --In 2007 and 2008, sales tax receipts slowed to between 1 percent and 2 percent growth, but that performance came on top of the historically high, post-hurricane growth of nearly 20 percent in 2006. --Lafayette’s general fund reserve balance, ranging between 23 percent and 36 percent of spending levels in recent years, remains a positive credit factor. --And an economy that includes the state’s second-largest university, five acute-care hospitals, and substantial oil and gas and agriculture sectors augment that the region’s retail trade, Fitch said. The credit rating agency gave Lafayette the high rating despite a 2009 outlook that’s less rosy: City-parish officials expect Lafayette to register a slight decline in sales tax collections of 1.5 percent to 2 percent for the fiscal year ending Oct. 31.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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