Metro Councilman Buddy Amoroso says he will ask his fellow council members tonight to defer for two weeks a vote on transferring the naming rights of the Baton Rouge River Center arena to Raising Cane’s.
As first reported by Daily Report, Mayor Kip Holden’s administration has reached an agreement with Cane’s, giving the chicken fingers chain 10-year naming rights to the facility for $3 million.
Amoroso says he isn’t opposed to the deal per se and that he thinks Cane’s “is a great company with a phenomenal story.” But he says he wants to make sure the deal was thoroughly vetted and that other potential corporate sponsors were given an opportunity to participate.
“Was this advertised so other companies could bid on it, and did they ask for RFPs?” Amoroso says. “How does this deal compare to other cities of similar size? I want to make sure it is absolutely the best deal for Baton Rouge.”
Amoroso also questions the way the measure was handled procedurally. On Oct. 19, the Holden administration placed an item on the agenda for tonight’s council meeting asking the council to approve a naming rights deal with an unnamed corporate sponsor. Typically, budgetary items must be introduced at a council meeting two weeks before they can be discussed in a public hearing and voted on.
“If we’re talking about public money, that seems like a budget matter to me,” Amoroso says. But Council Administrator Casey Cashio says the measure does not need to be introduced before being considered because the city is accepting a donation in return for the naming rights to the arena, not appropriating money.
“We’re not spending money in this instance,” Cashio says. “We’re accepting money.”
Amoroso says he doesn’t know if he has the votes to defer the item for two weeks, but he says he will push for it anyway.
“This is not personal against Cane’s. I don’t think anything was done inappropriately,” he says. “But these are questions that need to be answered before we vote on it as a council.”
—Stephanie Riegel
