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THE BIG STORY

Black gold and bandwagon

One of the lowest points among many low points in the New Orleans Saints’ 43-year history happened in Baton Rouge.

It was Oct. 30, 2005, and the Louisiana Superdome, two months removed from being a sea of misery, was unusable. The Saints had just played the first of four “home” games in Tiger Stadium, a 21-6 loss to the Miami Dolphins, during which fans cheered for then-Dolphins [and former LSU] coach Nick Saban.

After the game, Saints owner Tom Benson, perhaps flustered by hecklers, jostled with a television crew. Benson later told the NFL he wouldn’t attend another game in Baton Rouge because he feared for his safety. And for the next three games here, the fans mostly stayed away, too.

Much more than the Saints’ relationship with the state’s capital city was at stake. Benson had threatened to move his team even before Katrina’s howling winds shredded the Superdome’s roof, and the franchise’s future in Louisiana was in serious doubt in those dark days after the storm.

Fast-forward four years, a time in which the Superdome has been sold out for every home game since the stadium reopened in 2006. The Saints, clutching a long-term agreement with the state, have just completed a pick-your-adjective run to the Super Bowl. And Baton Rouge, which usually is obsessed with everything purple and gold, has crowded onto the bandwagon.

“Every meeting I’ve been in, first we have to talk 15 minutes about the Saints, then we can move on,” Success Labs President Devin Lemoine says. “It makes people hopeful that anything can happen, and when people are hopeful in business, it carries over in so many ways.”

The Saints have provided useful fodder for the leadership training Success Labs holds for various companies. In particular, men tend to understand sports analogies, Lemoine says, so invoking the Super Bowl run has worked as a great attention-getter.

All sorts of businesses have tried to establish some sort of Saints connection, however tenuous. You might have noticed the pitchmen in car-dealership commercials yelling at you about “the big game.” Jon Cato, managing partner at Object 9, says relevancy and distinction are key factors in successful marketing. If a car salesman is shouting “Who dat!” he might not be doing himself much good. A legitimate tie-in, like a free big-screen TV with purchase of a new vehicle, can draw some extra foot traffic. Cato says there’s certainly no harm in working in a few gratuitous Saints references, if only to have some fun with your employees and customers.

“The Saints making it to the Super Bowl,” he says, “that’s a historic event.”

The political pander-off that ensued in the week after the NFC Championship Game, when the NFL briefly claimed it owned exclusive rights to every Saints fan’s favorite chant, was an amusing sideshow that even prompted Mayor Kip Holden to speak up.

“Any claim by the NFL on the phrase ‘Who dat’ or the fleur-de-lis, both of which have been a part of Louisiana culture for many years, appears heavy-handed at a time when our entire state is celebrating the Saints’ success,” Holden says. “These have both been in the public domain for so long that any Louisiana merchant should have the right to use them.”

While there is often tension between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, most locals know New Orleans is the first place the nation thinks about when they think “Louisiana.” Any good news for that battered, strange, yet charming city is good news for the rest of us.

“It’s made people remember why they love New Orleans, and why New Orleans is important, and to really fall in love with the city again,” Lemoine says.—David Jacobs

IN SHORT

Concept, meet reality

Although Trahan Architects’ idea for a new downtown Baton Rouge library seems edgy, Trey Trahan says his firm took inspiration from the Gutenberg press and the early history of publishing.

“It is influenced by thinking of an old book and the way the pages begin to warp and twist,” he says, referring to a proposed building that looks like a book on its back, pages fluttering upward. “We’ll probably move in a direction somewhat further and further from the printed page. It’s memorializing that sort of historical development.”

The conceptual design recently won a progressive architecture award from Architect magazine. Trahan says the commendation is given for ideas created by North American firms that the journal would like to see realized.

“It’s all about unbuilt work,” Trahan says, “exceptional pieces of architecture that can make an impact on the city. Unfortunately, they don’t put up any money to build it.”

Trahan Architects presented its design study for the River Center Library to the library board in August, with three options: renovate the existing branch for $6 to $8 million; renovate and expand it for $15 to $18 million; or replace it for $20 to $24 million, roughly doubling the branch’s size to 55,000 square feet.

Since then, the board has yet to decide what direction to go in with the downtown plan. In the interim, it has also awaited green-design input on a new main library on Goodwood Boulevard and has struggled to choose where to put a south Baton Rouge branch: in the proposed Rouzan development on Perkins Road or on land donated to the city-parish at Burbank and West Lee drives.—Todd R. Brown

[Red] sticking to the plan

Engineers, architects, young professionals, government types and networkers of all stripes gathered at the Louisiana State Museum on Jan. 26 to kick off the beginning of East Baton Rouge Parish’s new comprehensive planning effort. “If you have a vision [for the parish] without action, it’s a hallucination,” lead planner John Fregonese told the crowd. The current Horizon Plan has been on the books for nearly 20 years, and many experts agree the plan is solid. But it’s been amended or ignored so many times over the years the city has become “an urban planner’s nightmare,” as Business Report’s Oct. 20, 2009, cover story put it. Public meetings are scheduled for March 2 and March 4. The process is expected to take 12 to 18 months, so it will be at least a couple of years before anyone can judge whether the parish decided this time to stick to the plan.—D.J.

Equal opportunity

The cap on Roth IRAs has been eliminated for people making more than $100,000 per year. Financial planners will discuss with clients the opportunity to convert traditional IRAs, which requires paying taxes up front on contributions. The advantage is that withdrawals are tax-free with no age-mandated distributions. Some planners say Roth IRAs are more advantageous for younger investors, who have more time to recoup those up-front costs, but add that anyone who believes they could wind up in a higher tax bracket after retirement should consider the option. For related stories, see the Money and Finance Focus section, which begins on page 32.—Emma James

Unfinished ethics reform

Louisiana politicians should be careful they don’t pull a muscle patting themselves on the back for reforming state ethics laws, because they have more work to do.

At least that’s the argument of a new policy paper from the Public Affairs Research Council with the self-explanatory title “The Unfinished Business of Ethics Reform.” The report focuses on changes made in the 2008 ethics-centric special session.

“Although some progress has been made toward the so-called gold standard of governmental ethics, Louisiana isn’t there yet,” PAR President Jim Brandt says. “In fact, in some regards we actually took a step backward.”

PAR counts the transfer of authority from the Board of Ethics to administrative law judges as a backward step. The judges answer to one person appointed by the governor, which gives too much power to the chief executive, PAR argues. The council recommends letting the board administer and enforce the ethics code, while removing its authority to collect financial reports, initiate investigations or consider complaints before formal charges have been issued.

PAR also suggests the state should:

• Require the executive officer of every board and commission to annually report the names of its members and the amount of money spent to the secretary of state’s office.

• Have ethics investigation staff members audit a randomly selected group of financial reports every year.

• Broadcast ethics proceedings live on the Internet.

• Require all financial information submitted to the ethics investigation committee be entered into a searchable online data system.

• Resolve discrepancies about when action might be taken to enforce ethics laws.—D.J.

EXECUTIVE SPOTLIGHT

Charles Schudmak

Chief operating officer

Cora Texas Manufacturing Company

Hometown: White Castle

The harvesting and transporting of sugar cane normally lasts from early October until late December. So for Charles Schudmak, the chief operating officer of Cora Texas Manufacturing, the fall is “all work and no play.” Not that he has much time for play, with a young son at home and another child on the way. Downtime usually means family time for the self-described “homebody.” “We will watch a movie by the fire in the winter or spend the day in the backyard by the pool in the summer,” he says. “We do a lot of family activities and spend a few weekends on the coast.”

Want to read more of Schudmak’s Q&A? Click here.

BOOK REVIEW: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Author: Daniel H. Pink

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Year: 2009 | Pages: 272

You are a record-holder. Nobody else in the entire building can say they won a game of computer solitaire faster than you did. You’re good. You’re the envy of your officemates.

If only your boss knew …

But what if your boss started to pay you for your solitaire prowess? What if your salary was based on being No. 1 at computer cards? In the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink, you’ll see why you never want to find out.

For decades, researchers have known that humans act on two main drives: biological [food, water, sex] and environmental [rewards from outside sources]. Obviously, your solitaire habit doesn’t feed you, hydrate you, or help you procreate. You might get accolades now, but what got you started on the game in the first place?

Studies have shown that there’s another, a fragile “third drive”: We do things that have no intrinsic value just for the joy of doing them. That third drive is both a problem and a solution in business.

Although it’ll be a challenge for many workplaces to embrace what’s inside Drive, and though Pink admits that autonomy won’t be advantageous to most task-driven businesses, this is the kind of book that every business owner should read.

Surprisingly, Pink shows that “management” might go the way of rotary phones and mimeograph machines in the office. Granting some exceptions, Pink says future jobs that rely on creativity more than physical labor won’t need to be “managed.”—Terri Schlichenmeyer

BUSINESS OF POLITICS

Your dollars at work

The national economy has given birth to an onslaught of streamlining commissions and penny-pinching ideas in Louisiana government. As the 2010 regular session draws closer, lawmakers will undoubtedly begin requesting more information on how much is being spent where. But for now, here’s a quick peek at a few spending areas you won’t read about in the mainstream press. For starters, there are credit cards: more than likely, you use them, and state government is no exception. While you may know offhand how much you’re paying in related fees, it’s doubtful you could tick off how much in tax dollars are going toward credit card fees on an annual basis. According to the state Treasury, Louisiana footed the bill for more than $660,000 in credit card fees during the last fiscal year. A check of the state’s online expenditure system shows more than $100,000 was paid to Blue Bell Creameries in the first half of the current fiscal year alone. Another $600,000 was handed over to various management consultants over the past six months, and Louisiana’s departments and agencies spent a collective $2 million on household supplies and $20 million in overtime salaries during the same time.

Cassidy: Earmark push is alive

During May of last year, Baton Rouge Congressman Bill Cassidy (below), a freshman Republican, was like a political Quixote tilting at windmills by trying to strengthen earmark rules in the House. Lawmakers sponsoring such pork-barrel spending aren’t required to attach their names, but Cassidy was busy pushing a bill in the spring of 2009 to change that. Not surprisingly, it was shot down. But that was before President Barack Obama got behind the idea in his State of the Union speech last month. Obama demanded that Congress “publish all earmark requests on a single Web site before there’s a vote, so that the American people can see how their money is being spent.” Cassidy says that breathes new life into his proposed legislation, which is co-authored by Congresswoman Jackie Speier, a California Democrat. “Earmark reform isn’t a partisan crusade; it’s a necessary step to restore confidence in government. Putting all earmark requests in a searchable online database will help give the American people, the press, and congressional watchdog groups the tools they need to hold Congress accountable,” Cassidy says. “Mr. President, welcome aboard.”—Jeremy Alford

BY THE NUMBERS

$499 Starting price for Apple’s iPad, which was unveiled Jan. 27

ON THE BEAT

New ’cue

Couyon’s Bar-B-Que is expanding into a full-service restaurant on Nicholson Drive. The restaurant will open in a 2,500-square-foot space in March, in a retail center on the first floor of the Staybridge Suites hotel, owner Jason Hammack says. For the past six years, Couyon’s—a Cajun term for a foolish person—has operated next to a Shell station near Burbank Drive and Gardere Lane.

Stunted growth

A state-commissioned report says shipping container volume is expected to triple at Louisiana ports over the next 20 years. But Greg Johnson, director of business development at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, says the local port is unlikely to see that kind of increase because it deals mainly in bulk products such as grain, not containers.

Getting neighborly

The Southdowns Shopping Center underwent a major renovation in 2008 and 2009, which led to upscale new tenants moving into the shopping center. The ripple effect of that work has spread to a smaller strip of stores adjacent to Southdowns. By April, Marcello’s Wine Warehouse and Home by Rogers and McDaniel will have opened new businesses there, and Assured Flooring will be wrapping up a facelift of its existing store.

The drawing board

The Louisiana Art & Science Museum is reworking plans to expand northward, thanks to the initial project’s estimated cost of more than $50 million, says Carol Gikas, museum director. The expansion of LASM, which was part of the Plan Baton Rouge Phase II report, included renovating the interior, moving the main entrance from River Road to the foot of North Boulevard, and extending the building to Convention Street to allow for additional lobby and restaurant space.

The big chill

Entergy customers are complaining about high January utility bills. Household electricity and natural gas usage in December and January hit unusually high levels, spokesman Jeff Holeman says. All that power usage caused electric bills to rise, and February’s costs could even be higher, given the recent cold weather. Meanwhile, Entergy parlayed electricity usage and sharply lower fuel expenses into an 84% gain in fourth-quarter profit, earning $313.8 million.

School daze

Houston-based architecture firm PBK is under investigation by the Louisiana State Board of Architectural Examiners because it applied for—and won—a bid to design a new elementary school and a new middle school for the Central Community School System without Louisiana licensure. In July the firm submitted a proposal for the projects, which have rough cost estimates of $13.5 million and $17 million, respectively; but it did not apply for and receive a license from the state architectural board until October.

The case for corrections

On Feb. 3, U.S. District Judge James Brady denied a request by attorneys for developer Tommy Spinosa to stay—or temporarily suspend—foreclosure proceedings against Perkins Rowe while they appeal a ruling the judge issued last fall refusing to dismiss the lawsuit from federal court.

The attorneys have argued that the foreclosure suit, which concerns nearly $170 million Spinosa owes the nine banks that financed construction of the mixed-use development, belongs in state court. Brady doesn’t agree, and he is refusing to keep the case tied up any longer than necessary.

That was good news to attorneys for KeyBank National Association, the lead lender in the consortium. Their attorney has argued that the case clearly belongs in the federal system and delaying its prosecution any further is a stalling tactic that hurts not only the lenders but tenants and residents of Perkins Rowe, who are working and living in a facility that has a lot of construction-related problems. In a hearing on the appeal issue, KeyBank attorney Janine Metcalf said those flaws include “fire code violations, problems with a sinkhole under an elevator, and parking and lighting problems.”

That list sounds potentially serious, but just how bad is the situation? Metcalf cannot comment. But according to KeyBank spokesperson Laura Mimura the problems are “project deficiencies” that are costing the lenders some $750,000 to correct and include a variety of violations to building, safety and fire codes in both residential and retail buildings.

“It’s things like problems with the concrete work, safety railings, lighting, cable stops on the parking deck, and roof repairs,” Mimura says, adding the defects do not pose significant safety threats to residents, tenants or patrons. “But they could have potentially been a problem if we had not been proactive and begun addressing them.”

The need for repairs first came to light when Jones Lang LaSalle, the firm appointed to manage Perkins Rowe when the foreclosure lawsuit was filed last summer, began doing routine inspections. Minura says JLL’s on-site team notified KeyBank of the problems and that the firm has been authorized to repair them. “We have been working diligently with local officials to ensure that [Perkins Rowe] complies with all applicable building, safety and construction codes,” she says.

East Baton Rouge Department of Public Works Director Pete Newkirk says he is not aware of any code violations at the complex, but is looking into the matter. As for Spinosa’s attorneys, they suggest the problems with the development’s infrastructure are JLL’s, not the client’s.

“The keeper has had the property since Sept. 1,” Perkins Rowe attorney Mark Beebe says. “That’s an issue best addressed by them … and we are hopeful they are doing that.”—Stephanie Riegel