Federal payroll plan to bring jobs to National Finance Center

NEXT YEAR, THE New Orleans Business and Industrial District will be home to thousands of technology jobs after the Department of Agriculture's National Finance Center was tapped to be one of four federal payroll centers.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management made the announcement Wednesday,

"This is another example that NOBID is a decent place to do business. I can bet you that if the government was not completely sold on that location, then that selection would not have been made," says NOBID President Eugene Green.

The National Finance Center, which runs payroll systems for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, employs more than 1,600 people at its offices in NOBID.

The center along with three other agencies, will replace 22 current providers of payroll and related services for the federal government's 1.8 million employees. The ePayroll initiative is part of President Bush's Management Agenda, which is designed to save taxpayer dollars by streamlining government operations.

The four providers, which also include the Department of Defense's Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Arlington, Va.; the Department of the Interior's National Business Center in Washington, D.C.; and the General Services Administration, also 'in the nation's capital, were selected from among eight agencies that submitted proposals.

Wednesday's announcement achieves one of four goals outlined by TechVision 2020, a volunteer-based task force appointed by former Mayor Marc Morial to write an economic development plan for the city to grow information technology jobs during the next 20 years.

Mark Lewis, president of the Louisiana Technology Council, praised the selection.

"This says that the city has what it takes to bring technology jobs to New Orleans, and that it's a good place to do business," Lewis says.

New Orleans will not start seeing the influx of jobs until next year when the centers begin to be phased out, according to Lewis. Presently, there is no exact figure on how many jobs the payroll initiative will mean, but it is expected to range from the hundreds to thousands, he says.

Meanwhile, another Morial initiative involving NOBID will likely result in a lawsuit. The entire board will decide Wednesday whether to employ the law firm of Mendy & McElroy to collect $4.4 million from Royce Instrument Corp., a water-instrument manufacturer, which broke its lease last year.

Morial worked to secure a $250,000 federal grant for Royce to upgrade its manufacturing facilities. In 2001, NOBID offered to relocate all of its tenants to make room for Royce, which signed a $422,000 annual lease agreement The company moved in last June, but stopped paying rent after only one month when its experienced financial problems related to its merger with California-based InterGlobal Waste Water Management.

If the board agrees to hire Mendy & McElroy, the firm would keep a third of the money it collects. If the firm fails to collect any money, NOBID would not be responsible for paying anything.

Meanwhile, Green says NOBID will pay the law firm of Adams & Reese approximately $13,000 for legal fees it racked up in the Royce matter. Late last year, the law firm presented NOBID with a $21,000 bill, which Green disputed because NOBID never entered a contract with the firm. Ile firm contends Green gave them verbal permission to proceed.

"The issue is disputable, but the board recognizes that certain services were performed," Green says.

In other news, the committee gave Green approval to employ Billes- Manning and Hewitt-Washington architectural firms to serve as NOBID's consultant on it multi-stadium project.

Finally, the committee approved a recommendation by Green to allow Meyers Distributing to increase its rental space from 50,000 square feet to 90,000 square feet, though they will pay 75 cents less per square foot. Green says he is willing to accept the $2. 10 per square foot rate in the "interest of preserving long-term stability of an established firm."

The entire board will make a final decision on the matter this week.