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Jindal taps B.R. chamber leader

Section: Politics

Bill Barrow

BATON ROUGE -- Stephen Moret will leave his post as head of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce to join Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal's administration as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, Jindal announced Wednesday.

The governor-elect also named leaders for four other agencies:

-- Tim Barfield, former president of The Shaw Group, as secretary of labor.

-- Cynthia Bridges, who will remain secretary of revenue.

-- Lane Carson, a former legislator, as secretary of veteran affairs.

-- Jimmy LeBlanc, warden of Dixon Correctional Institute, as secretary of public safety and corrections.

Moret, 35, previously said he would not leave his job at the Baton Rouge chamber. But he appeared alongside the governor-elect Wednesday to say that the opportunity was too good to pass up.

Outgoing Gov. Kathleen Blanco has done a good job of increasing the emphasis on economic development, Moret said. But he added that he wants to see an "equal priority" on expanding existing Louisiana businesses and recruiting new industries from the outside, an apparent criticism of Blanco's failed recruitment of the ThyssenKrupp Group, a German steel company that chose a site near Mobile, Ala., over a St. James Parish site for its newest American operation.

Moret, a native of Brandon, Miss., promised to continue Blanco's aggressive pursuit of large new employers. "But in any economy, the real job growth comes from existing businesses," he said.

The department, Moret said, should work through its eight regional economic development offices to reach out to all existing businesses, amassing a list of the needs in each region and the prospects of expansions that might be spurred by various forms of state aid, from worker training to infrastructure improvement and tax breaks.

"Louisiana is not just one economy, but several economies with different needs," Moret said. "North Louisiana is different from south Louisiana. Lafayette is different from New Orleans."

Blanco's tenure

Although the failed ThyssenKrupp courtship attracted the most attention during the past year, the Blanco administration did land a Union Tank Car Company plant in Alexandria and an expansion of the General Motors assembly plant in Shreveport.

Outgoing Secretary Michael Olivier released a statement Wednesday suggesting that the Blanco administration achieved an acceptable balance between helping existing firms and luring new ones. And he praised his agency for enduring the "extreme circumstances" of the 2005 storm season with "innovations and diligence."

According to seasonally adjusted figures compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Louisiana had a work force of 2,028,029 people in January 2004, when Blanco took office. Of those, 1,911,358 were employed, leaving a 5.8 percent unemployment rate. In October of this year, the most recent month for which statistics are available, the work force was 1,987,819 -- a 2 percent decrease. Unemployment, however, dropped to 3.3 percent, with 1,921,764 employed workers, a gain of more than 10,000 jobs despite the work force contraction.

The seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate during the same span fell from 5.7 percent to 4.7 percent.

Moret

Moret, a graduate of Louisiana State University's engineering school and the Harvard University School of Business, said Jindal has asked him to be lead advocate in all public policy areas that affect economic development: taxes and budget issues, public education and work force development, and the ethics code. Using his post at the Baton Rouge chamber, Moret is a lead organizer of LAEthics 1, a consortium of business and civic groups that pushed a slate of ethics law changes this year during the regular legislative session.

Several minor components of the agenda passed, but Moret, despite hours of lobbying lawmakers, failed to win approval for the group's signature proposal to require more personal financial disclosure of legislators. The change is a linchpin of the agenda Jindal plans to push in a February special session.

Moret said he has not yet agreed to a salary, but he expects to take a considerable pay cut. Olivier, the highest-paid state employee, receives $245,744 annually, plus a $500 monthly car allowance. Moret said his total compensation package with the Baton Rouge chamber, with a raise slated for January, would be "about double" that.

Because Cabinet officer salaries are capped by statute, Jindal would have to ask lawmakers for permission to rework the deal Olivier now gets.

Barfield, LeBlanc

Barfield, 43, comes to the Labor Department with a resume dominated by various positions at The Shaw Group, where he was president and chief operating officer from 2003 to 2006. Barfield, a native of Baton Rouge, holds bachelor's and law degrees from LSU.

With the appointment, Jindal affirmed the Republican tendency to pluck someone from the corporate arena to lead labor agencies. Democrats typically opt for appointees with ties to organized labor, though Louisiana has long been a state considered unfriendly to unions.

LeBlanc, 59, has run the Dixon prison since 1995, while also serving in various management capacities in the correctional system. He said he places a high priority on educational and other programs that prepare inmates to succeed upon their release. Louisiana boasts the highest per capita incarceration rate of any state, but LeBlanc said "95 percent of those inmates will be returning into society."

A native of St. Gabriel and resident of Jackson, LeBlanc graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University.

Bridges, Carson

At the Department of Revenue, which is responsible for state tax collections, Bridges will retain the job she has held since 2000, when Gov. Mike Foster appointed her. Asked how she navigated her second gubernatorial transition, she said, "Just being good at what you do."

Bridges, 50, is the second woman named to Jindal's Cabinet, joining incoming Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis, who was announced Tuesday.

Carson, 60, a Purple Heart recipient, was the first Vietnam veteran elected to the Louisiana Legislature, Jindal said. The Covington resident represented the north shore from 1976 to 1982. He has also worked as an assistant district attorney in St. Tammany Parish. He is a graduate of LSU and Tulane School of Law.

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