See below.
Last year's T-P reported that the NOAH program actually spent $15 million in municipal money, not the 2-4 million stated in the original press release.
Additionally, Karen has discovered that NOAH gutted a home at 2225 Willow St. for Orleans Metropolitan Housing, the non-profit playpen of the Jefferson Machine. (To reiterate, NOAH's home remediation program was funded to provide free gutting services to seniors and low income New Orleanians.)
Again, from the Mayor's press release, we can ascertain the 10 contractors hired to perform gutting services for seniors and low income New Orleanians.
Biagas Enterprises, BNOB Construction Services, Carter’s Renovations, Charbonnet, Inc General Contractors, Blue Carpentry Construction Co., Matthews Developers, Myers and Sons Enterprises, W.T. Verges Construction Co, General Contracting Co., Inc., and Moon-Glo Developers.Let's get to it using the Secretary of State's corporate data base. This is a good tool we can use for other things so bookmark this link.
1. Biagas Enterprises
Two relevant search results. One for Biagas Enterprises and another for Biagas Enterprises and Construction. The former entity has expired. The latter is inactive due to failure to file the 2007 annual disclosure report.
2. BNOB Construction Services
BNOB is in good standing. However, Scott Sewell of BNOB/Benetech is a former Bush staffer. See American Zombie for more on BNOB, Benetech, and Nagin.
3. Carter's Renovations
There is nothing for a company called Carter's Renovation, it is unclear if it exists in that form. There is a link for a "Carter's Residential & Commercial Construction" and a "Carter Renovation and Development Company." Both are classfied as inactive by action of Secretary of State for failure to file annual reports.
4. Charbonnet Inc. General Contractors
There are several business entities with the name Charbonnet and it is unclear which one got the contract. Charbonnet Inc, Charbonnet General Contractor Inc. Austin, Charbonnet Development, and Charbonnet Construction Inc., Pierre are either "not active" or "not in good standing." Charbonnet Construction Company, Inc. is active and in good standing. We'll still need to find out which Charbonnet was hired to do work for NOAH.
5. Blue Carpentry Construction
According to the SOS database, Blue Carpentry Construction Co. Inc. is Active but "not in good standing for failure to file current annual report."
6. Mathews Developers
There is no listing for any business with that name. We do have a Mathews General Contractors, a Mathews Properties, LLC, and a Mathews Builders Inc. They are all active and in good standing. No such thing as Mathews Developers though.
7. Myers and Sons Enterprises
Active and in good standing.
8. W. T. Verges Construction Company, Inc.
Active and in good standing.
9. General Contracting Co., Inc.
Active and in good standing.
10. Moon-Glo Developers
There were four relevent search results here, all listing Alphonse Martin Jr. and Dan Williams. Two non-profits called Moon-Glo of New Orleans and Moon-Glo, Inc. are now defunct. A business corporation also called Moon-Glo Inc. is inactive. There's another business corporation called Moon-Glo Development, L.L.C. that is active and in good standing.
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So being as generous as possible, only five of ten contractors awarded municipal money for NOAH's remediation program are verifiably active and in good standing. Two firms, Biagas Enterprises and Blue Carpentry Construction are clearly defunct. Two more, Carter's Renovations and Mathews Developers may not exist at all, at least as they are described in the Mayor's press release. That leaves Charbonnet Inc General Contractors, which also may not exist but may also be a reference to one of many other construction companies named Charbonnet.
We will need to get some more clarity as to whether or not Carter's Renovations and Mathews Developers actually exist. For some of the others, there is some discrepancy as to which listing refers to the actual NOAH contract winner. We should start cross-checking some of the names and addresses listed for the contractors with campaign contributions given to the Mayor and members of City Council. You can use this site to do that. If you find something, post in the comments section.
UPDATE:
I have emailed Stacey Jackson of NOAH with two public records requests. One asked for the contracts signed with the ten companies paid for remediation work. The other asked for the database of properties serviced under the program not excluding the name of the contractor responsible for each property. I tried two different email addresses for Ms. Jackson, I'll keep you posted.
THURSDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE:
I have amended the records request for the contracts that NOAH signed with the ten contractors listed in the press release to also include ALL contractors that did remediation work for NOAH to make sure we catch contractors that may not have been included in the press. Ms. Jackson has not emailed me yet. Legally, she must respond by Tuesday evening at the absolute latest.
Also, what do people think about the unclear listings for Carter's Renovations, Charbonnet, and Mathews Developers? Any clue which entity is accurate?
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