A former director for the Baton Rouge Metro Airport, who retired more than 20 years ago, has been under contract with the airport for the past four years to do a variety of consulting and historical research projects.
Iray Ledoux, 85, who served as airport director from 1977-1995, has been awarded annual contracts since 2014, all below the $17,500 threshold that requires Metro Council approval. In 2017, his contract was increased to $17,000 from $15,200 the previous year.
Airport spokesman Jim Caldwell says Ledoux’s work for the airport has included special projects, “things that, having been a former director, you know, he can do pretty efficiently because he understands it.”
Specifically, Ledoux’s work has included archiving old minutes from airport commission meetings, comparing pricing of the fixed base operators providing hangar service for general aviation at the airport with that of FBOs at other airports, and, most recently, preparing biographies of former airport directors for an exhibit about the history of Harding Field, the site of the airport.
“It’s a variety of things like that, where his experience and expertise allows us to get it done much more efficiently,” Caldwell says. “It’s a very small contract.”
While the contract amounts may be relatively small, Metro Councilwoman Barbara Freiberg says she is concerned about the expenditure, especially since the recent contractual amounts have been just below the threshold that requires scrutiny from the Metro Council, which also serves as the Airport Authority in Baton Rouge. She plans to talk to Interim Airport Director Ralph Hennessy to find out more about Ledoux’s contract and the need for it.
“I look forward to talking to Ralph about this because on the surface it does not appear to be money well spent,” she says. “I hope it turns out to be much ado about nothing, but I am concerned.”
Freiberg’s questions come as the Metro Council prepares to take up the future of the airport director at its Oct. 25 meeting. Freiberg has been pushing for a national search to fill the job that Hennessy has been filling on an interim basis since longtime director Anthony Marino retired in January. Several other council members, however, favor appointing Hennessy to the position permanently, saying he has proven himself to be as qualified as any outside candidate.
Though Hennessy has been at the helm of the airport since January, Ledoux’s contract was orchestrated by Marino, who worked under Ledoux in the 1980s and succeeded him as airport director. Ledoux tells Daily Report that Marino first reached out to him about doing some consulting for the airport in 2014. At the time, Ledoux’s wife, since deceased, was ill and he wasn’t particularly looking for a job.
“He wanted me to be over there doing something productive because no one else could do this, especially for what they’re paying me,” he says.
Ledoux says he bills the airport $30 an hour and works about 12 hours a week at the airport, where office space is provided for him. He says he has never billed the airport for the full contractual amount, but he cannot say exactly how much he has earned for his work over the past four years.
“If they want to pay me for my knowledge it would be a lot more than that,” he says.
While Freiberg is concerned about the contract, other Metro Council members are not particularly worried. Councilman Buddy Amoroso, who called for an investigation into Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s administration for contracts it awarded under the BRAVE violence elimination program, says: “I don’t try to micromanage what the airport does. That’s why they have discretion (to award small contracts.)”
Amoroso says he would like to find out more about the work Ledoux has done for the airport, but adds, “I know he does have a certain level of expertise in what he does.”
—Stephanie Riegel
