Board bickering, lack of programs hamstring New Orleans Regional Business Park [New Orleans CityBusiness (LA)]

New Orleans Regional Business Park engineer Larry Williams hasn't had a boss since the park's board of commissioners terminated the previous executive director, Roy Mack, two years ago amid scandal.

Maintaining heating and cooling systems in the board's 130,000- square-foot headquarters on Old Gentilly Road is the thrust of Williams' formal job description. But after 13 years, his duties aren't exactly defined.

"I do it all, man," said Williams, the only full-time employee who tends to the building. That includes "housekeeping, the janitorial, the engineering," he said, as well as retrieval of the board's full-service breakfast of bacon, eggs, biscuits and grits before meetings.

Williams is on call 24 hours a day for security, he said, which is why he has a publicly funded Blackberry with unlimited data usage and text messaging. He spends lots of time on the phone, and it's not all for business reasons.

In October, for example, the NORBP's cell phone bill shows Williams averaged almost an hour a day talking to Natashia August, whom he describes as a friend.

The phone bills, which were obtained through a public records request, show Williams talked on the phone for 47 hours during the most recent monthly billing cycle, including nights and weekends.

Williams works regular business hours, according to the board's accountant, Michelle Diaz. His salary is $44,625 and his monthly phone bill is typically about $110.

Williams' phone is typical of the board's expenditures in that it doesn't support programs for members of the business park. NORBP, which lists 85 businesses among its membership, has no programming according to its 2010 audit.

This year, virtually all of the board's spending has gone to salaries, insurance, professional services and operation of the Enterprise Center, according to Diaz's financial statements.

The center, valued at $3.2 million, has a single tenant, Meyers Warehouse, whose rent payments supplied almost half the board's 2011 revenue, which totaled $505,589.22 through October.

Most of the other half came from a special property tax paid by every business within the park's 7,700 acres in eastern New Orleans. The board will have to do without the millage starting next year because New Orleans voters declined to renew it in October's election.

Louisiana lawmakers created the park and its governing board in 1979, and the millage followed three years later. The board's mission is to stimulate business activity and capital investment, and the tax was to "be used solely and exclusively for the purposes and benefit of the district," according to state law.

Board chairman Dwight Jarrett said at the board's Dec. 15 meeting that the lack of programming results from the absence of an executive director. He committed the board to hiring one within three months.

Negotiations with Henry Charlot, director of economic development for the Downtown Development District, dragged on for months before evidently crumbling this week. News of his interest in the NORBP position broke a week ago, and the DDD announced Tuesday that he would take a new position as its director of public affairs.

Charlot wrote in a Dec. 12 email to NORBP commissions that he was "highly interested" in the position, which pays $90,000 without benefits. The email expanded on ideas for a landowner database, marketing strategy and revenue growth. It also expressed concern that no "compensation adjustment" would be provided for the executive director raising new grant revenue for the business park.

Charlot declined to comment.

In public meetings, commissioners profess concern for the park's future, especially in light of the millage failure. But the chaotic meetings frequently dissolve into shouting matches. The Dec. 15 meeting adjourned by default as commissioners gradually left for other appointments or stormed out.

Williams, the engineer, was the main subject of the meeting. Commissioner Robby Knecht is incensed that Williams refuses to conduct grounds maintenance at the Enterprise Center, forcing the board to outsource the work. Williams said he's allergic to grass and made that clear when he was hired.

Knecht argued for eliminating Williams' position, in part because he thinks the sparsely populated building uses far too much heat, and therefore doesn't need a watch engineer. Before his presentation, however, Knecht and other commissioners spent almost 20 minutes in a sprawling argument that started with the propriety of Williams attending the meeting while on the clock.

Williams stayed and frowned through most of it. He said he thinks he has become a scapegoat for the business park's troubles.

"I had a heart attack behind them humping on me," Williams said. "When you give and give and give and you see people attack you and attack you and attack you, it hurts man."

He also said one has ever instructed him not to use his work- assigned Blackberry for personal reasons.

"If they would have, I would have gave it back to them," Williams said. "I'll be glad to give it back to them first chance I get. I don't need it."