The New Orleans Public Belt Railroad is one of many gems in the treasure chest bound by the uniqueness of the city it is named for. The NOPB is the only railroad in the United States owned by the citizens of its city.
But the 106-year-old organization, operated by the Public Belt Railroad Commission, has spent an incredible amount of public money on some questionable purchases.
All money generated by the NOPB belongs to New Orleans residents, as stated on the NOPB website. However, hundreds of thousands of dollars generated by the NOPB has been spent on restaurants, liquor and gifts over the past couple of years.
FOX 8 launched an investigation into the NOPB several months ago. At the same time, the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a government watchdog, opened its own investigation. MCC President Rafael Goyeneche questions the NOPB board’s oversight.
“One of the most dysfunctional organizations I’ve ever encountered in 24 years of sitting in this chair,” Goyeneche said.
The NOPB board is made up of some well known New Orleanians. By charter, its Chair is Mayor Mitch Landrieu. The board also includes former mayoral candidate Troy Henry and current Entergy executive Rod West.
The NOPB owns the Huey P. Long Bridge, and operates about 25 miles of rail line from the bridge, across the river, down to the Industrial Canal.
“I’m a New Orleans native,” Goyeneche says. “Maybe I’ve heard of the Public Belt, but I never knew how important it is… how much money it takes in.”
In 2008, the projected revenue for the Public Belt in 2009 was $37 million. The actual revenue they earned in 2009 came to only $13 million, $24 million dollars off their budgeted amount of revenue.
“This went from making money, to losing money, yet they are still spending money,” Goyeneche said.
While the organization has been losing expected revenue, some employees have been spending the public money on restaurants.
NOPB General Manager Jim Bridger ran up the largest bill.
Bridger makes $350,000 a year as head of the NOPB. According to records obtained by FOX 8, he is the highest paid public employee in New Orleans and one of the top paid in the state. He makes more than the head of the port, the head of the airport, and the head of the state’s Department of Economic Development.
“If there is a higher paid public employee in the metro area, I would certainly like to know who he is,” Goyeneche exclaimed.
Along with making $350,000 a year, Bridger has charged a lot of money to his public credit card - money that belongs to the citizens of New Orleans.
Just last year, Bridger dined out 184 times with public money. His 2009 restaurant bills totaled more than $22,000. Bridger’s three year total amounted to $108,000 and he is just one of the big spenders.
Goyeneche calls it “excessive spending that has lost touch with reality.”
Bridger’s “legal meeting” expensesA restaurant bill from July 2008 shows that Bridger paid $703 for a meal at Ruth’s Chris Steak House. He expensed the meal as a legal meeting that ended just after 8 p.m. The meal cost about $140 per each of the five people at the meeting, all spent with public money.
Bridger held an afternoon senior staff meeting in September 2008 at the steak house again. The senior staff ate out with public money totaling $534, but before the meeting he and his senior staff went to the restaurant’s bar. At 11:24 in the morning, the NOPB senior staff used public money to pay for their liquor.
“If that’s a senior staff meeting after they consumed $52 of liquor, I wonder what decisions were made,” Goyeneche questioned.
State Law prevents money from being spent on alcohol. The state’s attorney general has backed up this law, ruling repeatedly that public funds are not to be used for the purchase of alcohol.
Still, FOX 8 uncovered more times when Bridger may have charged alcohol to New Orleans citizens:
--In May of 2008, Bridger was again at Ruth’s Chris, this time with members of the Department of Transportation. According to Bridger’s receipts, they ate a $314 meal after spending $55 at the bar.
--In 2009, Bridger ate at the Ritz Carlton. Part of his $204 bill included a Coors Light and two specialty martinis.
--$3,300 was spent on dinner, Crown Royal, Hennessey Cognac, and white zinfandel wine in March ’07 at a mechanical safety dinner at Shula’s Steakhouse on Canal Street.
--Bridger bought two classes of chardonnay at a capital budget meeting at Audubon Golf Club that cost the public $119.
--During a dinner with the New Orleans AIDS Task Force at Harrah’s Hotel, Bridger and his guests drank Kettle One, Makers Mark, Bud Light, ate escargot, duck and crème brule. The price tag? Almost $300.
“How is that Public Belt business,” asked Goyeneche. “How are those public funds being used? You are not allowed to use public assets to buy alcohol.”
