Sunday, September 20, 2009

Hey, watch me pull a company out of my hat!!!

...nothing up my sleeve....presto!

Bright French Market renovation shadowed by cost overruns

That seems to be Aaron Bennett's amazing talent during the Nagin Administration....he does tech, he does construction, he does Casino membership cards.......ooops.....just forget that last one.

And it seems like Bennett and Frank Fradella had an affinity for Infinity Surety, a bond company out of.....where else....Texas. And these guys....well they just can't seem to get anything right:

Overseer: Terminal process vague

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

I gave the reporter the address of this blog... hope he reads it...

Anonymous said...

National Envirotech Group is another name the Boh Brothers do business under.

I don't know if their Envirotech is connected to Lloyd Broussard's New Orleans Envirotech, which is the same as the Houston Envirotech that has the same fax number as the NOLA one, but lists Diane Holt as the contact person.

My slight confusion about the relationship between the New Orleans and Houston entities comes because the Houston Envirotech, with Daine Holt as a contact, appears to have entered a bid on some Desire St. repairs...

...only to have the New Orleans Envirotech, with Broussard as the one to call, enter a bid a day later.

See Solicitation Holder List 500C-00550, Bid DPW D01 Desire St.

Can anyone help explain what that was all about?

And are the NOLA/Houston Envirotech(s) related to the Boh Brothers' National Envirotech Group?

Someone must know.

Envirotech is a dizzingly popular name.

There is yet another Envirotech with an address in Daphne, AL, which is the hometown of Ms. Daya Naef. I do hope that is a crazy coincidence.

Step up with your letter, please, Mr. Ellis.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, and as far as I can find out, Infinity Surety in Texas does automotive, so if I were following up on who gave clean papers to Katrina cars that crossed state lines (the trick was to register them in a new state, and to get papers for them that did not mention they were flood cars), I'd look there for sure.

I don't know what you'd find, but I'd sure want to look.

If you've got more on the Casino membership cards, do tell.

Anonymous said...

Do you know if Frank Fradella is the same as a retired NOPD detective of the same name?

Jason Brad Berry said...

- Do you know if Frank Fradella is the same as a retired NOPD detective of the same name?

no...I don't think so.

Anonymous said...

The retired cop Frank Fradella used to be involved with CrimeStoppers in a big way.

If the Frank Fradellas turn out to be related, that would be hellza funny.

Is there any member of the "AZ Posse" who could explain all the Fradellas to us?

There is a Harah's casino Fradella,
an Entergy Fradella, a Metarie banking Fradella, at least one minority-owned-construction company Fradella, Papa Frank himself, and perhaps there are even more.

Ages ago, someone else wrote comments asking if this Fradella or that one might be related to the HSOA/Picke/etc. Fradella.

Anonymous said...

You know the Chief Mentur Hghway address that Home Solutions LLC has been using? Is there even a building on that site? The tax assessor doesn't seem to think so.

The real address of Home Solutions LLC is given as 319 Maggie Ln in Shreveport, and the street view you get of that when you google map it makes it clear that it is not a construction company's home base.

Where do they keep all their trucks and stuff?

Do these people just make up companies, bid for things, and then find subs who actually DO have companies to come in and do the work?

Crazy! And are you saying it is crazier than that?

If something goes wrong, they don't pay their subs, because the bond company they used wasn't a real one? That's what the C.J.Peete story was about.

Talk about virtual reality!

Anonymous said...

the home solutions in shreveport is no relation to HSOA. i dont think there is any HSOA anymore. the picke contractors license is at an address in kenner now. what was once HSOA appears to be defunct....as for HSOA's frank fradella he is adopted. i dont know of him having any connections to other fradellas. he has pulled stock promote scams before. i think that has been his ocupation for the last 15 years.

Anonymous said...

He's been at this for fifteen years and no one has stopped him? Geez.

I suppose all the people involved with his enterprises are going to say they were his "victims", too.

Anonymous said...

http://www.wxvt.com/Global/story.asp?S=11167759

Anonymous said...

There's also Benetech's contracts with the USDA for:

"Emergency cleanup, removal, and stockpiling of vegetative and non-vegetative debris resulting from highly destructive tornado in Macon County, TN."

"Construction of an ADA compliant bathroom in B013 at the HBB Research unit, Baton Rogue, LA."

"HP L1906 Smart Buy flat panel monitors."

"(5) LP10000DC Host Bus Adaptors, Sun P/N: SG-XPC12FC-EM2, 2Gb/ FC HBA, PCI-X, dual channel, RoHS compliant Fibre channel adaptors. Includes shipping"

With FEMA for:

"Group Site Restoration
Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts"
and
"Group Site Ground Maintenance"
(basically putting down grass on former and then-extant FEMA trailer parks)

Almost all their contract activity with the feds comes post-Katinra.

Anonymous said...

Wow. The comment I just read was new information for me. How can they keep getting bids when there are so many problems with the work they have done and so many ethical isues surrounding their improper relationships with elected officials?

Jason Brad Berry said...

4:45 Anon,

Damn...he may be a real live Naomi Klein disaster capitalist.

She may have a case study for her thesis.

Anonymous said...

There's the big one too:

http://www.gobenetech.com/projects/us-army-corps-of-engineers-new-orleans-la/

From what I can tell, they haven't gotten any task orders on it yet.

Anonymous said...

Dambala, I've been thinking about Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" for months and months while reading this site.

I'm glad someone else mentioned it.

You might like the book "Gangster Capitalism" as well.

How could policies be worded so that this does not happen in future?

Is it possible to specify that a certain percentage of the work must be done by the original contractor, and not by subs?

Can these narcissistic gluttons be stopped?

Who could lack empathy for little old ladies in Algiers who cry when someone gives them pears?

Who rolls blythely on to the next bid after potentially putting skilled trades people out of business?

Who sleeps easily at night knowing that the slowdowns in work they caused led French Market businesses to fail?

Who works with a phoney bond company, gets caught, and then gets up in the morning and submits another bid for something else?

Can these people be rehabilitated?

Is there anything that might make them see the effect they are having on others?

If they do see it, is there anything that can be done to help them to give a shit?

Anonymous said...

If they are doing work with the Corps of Engineers, and getting Federal City work, has anyone looked into whether they are doing work overseas, in Iraq or the country I can't spell that sounds like "Koo-ate"?

Anonymous said...

The two comments above pretty much encapsulate their work for the federal government.

The one that stands out, simply for its geographical weirdness, is the one for assistance in cleanup after tornados in Macon County, Tennessee.

Here's Macon County's webpage:
http://www.maconcountytn.com/about_macon_county.htm

Their description of themselves:

"Macon County, Tennessee is located in northern middle Tennessee. We are northeast of Nashville, Tennessee, and we border the State of Kentucky."

"Macon County has traditionally been a rural, agricultural area. However, as new highways are being built through the county, we are becoming more industrial."

Macon County got slammed by the tornadoes that tore across the south in early February, 2008:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/02/06/tornadoes/index.html

Anonymous said...

Google Benetech and tornado and you'll get the solicitation from FEMA that led to Benetech's award:

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=15a5ed51eabf2e598c04e1f395429181&tab=core&_cview=1&cck=1&au=&ck=

The original amount was for about $594,000. They got another add on later that brought it up to about a million dollars.

Anonymous said...

"...B+W Development sought $50 million in bonds to build an office tower topped by extended-stay penthouses for executives at 2000 Tulane Ave. A brick building owned by the LSU Health Sciences Center Foundation now occupies that property..."
--Times-Picayune, 12/19/2007, "Warehouse District to get new apartments"

Anonymous said...

2000 Tulane was approved for demolition back in May.

Anonymous said...

The last time we heard about Tennessee on this blog, it involved that strange little man, Dennis Churchwell, and his illegal auction house.

Remember? There were rumors he was selling Katrina cars and apparently he said he could rig an election?

The comment about the B+W bond to redevelop the 2000 Tulane site was criptic. Poster, if you know more, please spill it.

Monkey business with bonds is implied again by that post, as is land redevelopment, and we've got the universities and that dadblasted hospital redevelopment plan in there, too.

I'm on the verge of calling for smelling salts.

The Casino membership enterprise Damabala mentioned Bennett being involved in has got my blood up. I'd like to know what the hell these people have been doing.

Anonymous said...

According to the Times-Picayune article from 12/19/2007, Larry Hollier claimed BW was interested in 2000 Tulane but LSU's board had not approved a sale. Hollier maintained the project was not undertaken on LSU's behalf.

Two months before the story ran, state representative Juan LaFonta asked, in a WDSU intereview, why $50 million was suddenly reallocated without discussion from fire station repair to LSU/VA:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rO6g2vIjBmM

The State Bond Commission was considering these in February 2008:

L08-056 - Industrial Development Board of the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, Inc.
(BW Development, LLC Project) - Not exceeding $50,000,000 Revenue Bonds, to finance
the acquisition, construction and equipping of the redevelopment of a building located at
2000 Tulane Avenue to serve as medical related classrooms, offices and services.

L08-054 - Industrial Development Board of the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, Inc.
(2400 Canal, LLC) - Not exceeding $9,000,000 Revenue Bonds, financing the acquisition,
construction and installation of a development project, consisting of the redevelopment of
the Pan American Building into a retail and housing facility to provide housing to nurses,
policemen, firemen and other first responders located at 2400 Canal Street.

Ordinance 22,979 m.c.s. exempted the former City Hall Annex' block from the building permit ban imposed since December 2007 on the area bounded by Rocheblave, Claiborne, Tulane and Canal.

Anonymous said...

So the geniuses responsible for the hospital clusterfuck (to use a word reintroduced to me through its excellent use on this blog) want to bulldoze whole historic neighborhoods, and then put up new (and probably ugly) housing for Nurses and others?

Does that seem batshit insane to anybody else?

Maybe there are reasons that seem sane to them: why bother to reestablish fire stations if all the neighborhoods they will serve are slated to be destroyed to make way for crap?

I'm glad LaFonta was asking questions about some of it.

It doesn't make me happy with him overall.

I'm still sad he didn't do what he could to support Food Co-ops, and I don't like his Daya Naef connections. That ruined him as far as I'm concerned.

Why was he acting her lawyer? Even if she was clean as a chewed bone he should not have been her lawyer.

BE+DN's Shamrock LLC owns property that they will make money from if the proposed hospital housing-massacre goes through.

Louisiana politicians, man-- they are a whole pack of Stinky McFishy-Fishes as far as I'm concerned.

Jason Brad Berry said...

- Stinky McFishy-Fishes

that's priceless. that's the title of my next blog post.

Anonymous said...

The New Orleans Regional Medical Center was established in 1991 as a non-profit development group that would plan a biomed district and acquire land for it.

Anonymous said...

Caitlin Cain is Weigle's wife.

Anonymous said...

Is she an official VA consultant or spokesperson?

Anonymous said...

Dunno 'bout that but, according to the city/rpc site about clearcutting the VA site and developing the biomed corridor, she's the gal to call if you have questions about nolamedzone web servers.

E said...

Cain is the point person for the Regional Planning Commission, just under Walter Brooks. She has been pretty much in charge of spinning the footprint btw Galvez and Rocheblave to the VA. The primary coordinator.

Anonymous said...

"Everybody's in limbo," said Donna Fraiche of New Orleans, a board member of the private non-profit corporation charged with implementing a plan to develop the part of the city that contains two medical schools and three hospitals, including the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans. This organization - New Orleans Regional Medical Center Inc. - is working on plans for the 35-block area, she said, but nobody knows when any plans involving the old Charity Hospital might be translated into reality.
"BATTLE OVER BOARD KEEPS HOSPITAL PLANS IN LIMBO"
--Times-Picayune, July 27, 1992

A brochure called "The New Orleans Regional Biosciences Initiative Creating a knowledge-based economy through healthcare & biosciences investment" can be found here:
http://www.norpc.org/assets/pdfs/no-regbiosci-in_br.pdf
Contact person is Caitlin Cain. The brochure, which seems to have been created in July 2007, contains a graphic showing "The Greater New Orleans Biosciences Economic Development District Footprint" Clearly highlighted in purple is an area bounded by Claiborne, Canal, Tulane and Rocheblave, labeled "Proposed VA Hospital Site."

Anonymous said...

"We think it's important for you to understand that the City of New Orleans is pledging its resources to purchase only one site, the site that we propose originally, that is the site that we think makes the most difference for the people now and in the future."
--Ed Blakely speaking before VA site selection scoping meeting at which the Lindy Boggs site was apparently swept off the table before public discussion even began. Grace Church 08/11/08

Anonymous said...

MAYOR'S OFFICE LAUNCHES WEB SITE ABOUT VA HOSPITAL PLANNING
"The Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Development Administration and the Regional Planning Commission announced the launch of a Web site to inform the community about site preparation activities within the 30-acre VA Medical Center footprint and other development projects within the vicinity.
RPC and ORDA are working to assist in the delivery of a construction-ready site for the VAMC project. The Web site, www.nolamedzone.com, offers information about medical zone’s plans and who is involved...." --New Orleans CityBusiness May 30, 2009



NOLA MEDZONE - Terms and Conditions
Problems related to the operation of NOLA MEDZONE Web servers should be directed to Caitlin Cain, Director of Economic Development for the Regional Planning
www.nolamedzone.com/TermsAndConditions_Default.cfm