NEW ORLEANS - Walter Coleman's towing and body shop business idled uselessly as he waited, and waited, for federal officials to assess his damaged business, loan him money and clear him to open again after Hurricane Katrina.
He and hundreds of New Orleans business owners got their chance to vent Thursday, telling state and federal authorities that their livelihoods are being washed away while out-of-towners are earning billions from recovery contracts.
The occasion was supposed to be more hopeful in tone, an ambitious attempt to move on. The mass meeting, billed as a "back to business" workshop, brought together local entrepreneurs and state and national heavy-hitters, including Vice Adm. Thad Allen, who is heading the federal response to Katrina. It was the first such event in what will be a monumental effort to restore a wrecked local economy.
Business owners complained that a reduction of National Guard forces had left the city unsafe. They criticized plans to reopen toll booths, citing fears of discouraging business. They said business loans have come too slowly. They expressed anger at lagging trash collection by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They asked why there's no timeline for electricity to be restored throughout the city.
The biggest gripe came from local officials and business owners who complained that sinking Louisiana enterprises aren't being used in the massive cleanup job as they wait for a lumbering bureaucracy to kick into gear.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials responded that local businesses were unavailable just after the storm, when the work was being doled out. But they vowed to work harder to see that Louisiana get more recovery dollars - two-thirds of which are going to companies outside the state.
Officials have estimated that as many as 80,000 businesses were destroyed or seriously damaged by Katrina. Of those in New Orleans, one state official said, 97 percent are small businesses.
Lack of housing for workers also was cited as a major obstacle. Claude Beudot, who owns 87 houses he rents or leases to lower-income families, said he fields calls every day from people who ask him when he'll repair the homes so they can come back and work.
Those who were lucky enough to reopen fairly quickly complained that they were overlooked for contracts in favor of out-of-towners. They pleaded with state officials to press prime contractors and federal agencies until they start hiring more locals.
"My competition increased three-, four-, fivefold overnight," said Darrin Blystad, who owns House Call, a home-inspection and pest-control company. "I appreciate them coming in to help, but now it's time for this community to start rebuilding. We need you guys to start getting louder."
Louisiana's secretary of economic development, Mike Olivier, and Eugene Cornelius, Louisiana's district director for the small-business administration, promised to do that.
"It's not all doom and gloom. Washington hears us," said Mr. Cornelius. "I assure you that those numbers will increase rapidly, exponentially."
Mr. Olivier blasted the U.S. Small Business Administration for being slow to award business loans, having approved only six loans in the six weeks since the storm. Administration officials said it has taken this long to process the loans for many reasons, including a lack of documentation from some flooded businesses. They said loans should pick up soon.
Meanwhile, Mr. Olivier said, opportunities are being missed every day, such as the chance for local restaurants to cater for cleanup crews. Instead, he said, out-of-town services offer "second-rate food," while the region's "world-class chefs" are dangerously close to losing their jobs.
"We're sick of it, damn it," Mr. Olivier said in front of the nearly 1,500 business owners at the workshop. "Now we are on the ground in this city. Give our people a chance to earn a living. ... If we're allowed to just flounder, we are going to go under."
In a passionate speech that brought the crowd to a standing ovation, the mayor criticized the no-bid contracts awarded by FEMA in the days after the hurricane and demanded that the nation's big recovery contractors hire local workers at decent wages.
The outrage at the meeting was so palpable that large contractors, such as Shaw and KBR Halliburton, who were there to meet with the entrepreneurs about contract opportunities, threatened to leave unless news reporters were shut out of their sessions with the business owners.
"They've been getting beat up and they don't want the attention," said Joshua Barnes, a FEMA public affairs officer. "They were stating that if that was going to happen, they considered leaving because they could do without the flak."
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