BATON ROUGE, La. – Other states and even some cities around Louisiana are trying to attract New Orleans’ businesses dislocated by Hurricane Katrina by offering inducements for companies to permanently relocate to their communities, a trend that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says he wants to stop.
Many companies large and small have moved temporarily to other cities as they wait for the waters to recede and livable conditions to return.
That leaves businesses vulnerable to offers from aggressive recruiters who want lure the transplanted jobs to their areas, potentially holding back the New Orleans economic recovery.
“There are some sick people out there who don’t want to see us come back,” Nagin said.
Don Hutchinson, director of economic development for New Orleans, said this week he knows of instances in which officials in other parts of the state have tried to lure New Orleans companies with the prospect of working in areas that are “hurricane-proof.”
He declined to identify them.
Nagin said he would ask Gov. Kathleen Blanco to declare a moratorium on such offers made in the state.
The state Department of Economic Development, which works closely with local authorities around the state in recruiting jobs, did not respond to questions about corporate poaching.
Nagin has announced that parts of the city spared from flooding could be reopened next week, bringing back residents and businesses to those places with power, depending on health and safety issues.
“I’m going to err on the side of protecting lives first,” he said.
Nagin said some city officials had erroneously reported that the city was arranging for business owners to obtain permits to visit their sites. Hutchinson said business people can call a number and state their desire to check on their work locations, but no permits are being issued nor appointments made for trips into the city.
Alden McDonald Jr., chief executive of New Orleans-based Liberty Bank and Trust, told a state legislative panel this week that Liberty continues to make loans and do business at its branches outside the storm-stricken area, but a critical factor in the bank’s future is getting employees back on the job in the city as soon as possible.
“The longer we stay out of the city, the longer we’ll have a more difficult opportunity getting the economy going again,” said McDonald, who also is president of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce.
Robert Travis Scott is a staff writer for The Times-Picayune of New Orleans
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