JPAS brings 5 MILLION DOLLARS to area WHY NOT UTILIZE THEM? Did you FLUNK BUSINESS SCHOOL?
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JPAS brings 5 MILLION DOLLARS to area WHY NOT UTILIZE THEM? Did you FLUNK BUSINESS SCHOOL? Please EXPLAIN.
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PLEASE explain your inept ACTIONS.
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While I have your ATTENTION ~ LAWSUIT w/ AMV is SHAMEFUL. You SUPPORT TRANSPARENCY & NOT WHISTLEBLOWER? Makes NO SENSE EXPLAIN

Assaf emphasizes that JPAS — according to numbers he says were crunched by Americans for the Arts — “has a $5 million economic impact” on its surrounding community.

READ THAT AGAIN :

Assaf emphasizes that JPAS — according to numbers he says were crunched by Americans for the Arts — “has a $5 million economic impact” on its surrounding community.

I’ve been to several performances by JPAS & the events were SPLENDID!

EVERYTHING THESE GUYS TOUCH TURNS TO SHIT!
How can they keep DOING THIS?
….JOHN YOUNG?…Oh…I’m gonna get on Twitter (John Young is following? me now…& I YAM gonna ax him WHY…Didn’t JPAS get the CONTRACT?……Wonder if he’ll ANSWER?
MO LAter

THIS is from a 2008 ARTICLE :

Young and Assaf point to a
rededication of current parish taxes
pushed through by
Parish President Aaron Broussard in 2007
that
secured $1 million per year
for management expenses at the facility.

***Has this million been collected every year & if so…WHERE oh WHERE has it GONE***

Assaf said that justifies the parish’s choice of JPAS as the management firm since the funding has already been secured at no additional taxpayer expense.
“You would have to be really careless to go into a facility with a $1 million line of credit
toward operating expenses and ruin it,” Assaf said.
“I don’t think anybody on earth would challenge the council and say,
‘What are you doing giving it to JPAS?’”
But Young said the public would be quick to criticize elected officials for failing to complete a full bid process if they opted to simply hand management over to Assaf and JPAS.
“At the end of the day, they may have the best proposal submitted,
and I encourage them to submit a proposal,” Young said of JPAS. ”
This is a situation where if we didn’t ask for proposals from everyone we’d be criticized.
This is in the interest of open and transparent government, plain and simple.”

NOW….THIS is from 2011 :
http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2011/06/jpas_2011-12_season_reflects_a.html

Published: Wednesday, June 01, 2011, 5:00 AM Updated: Thursday, June 30, 2011, 5:12 PM
By Andrew Adler NOLA.com

Still, Assaf faces a constant challenge: persuading audience members, many of whom live in New Orleans, to come his way. “There is a prejudice against Jefferson Parish that goes back to World War II,” he argues. “We are a bedroom community.”

So how do you make a bedroom community grow up? One possible answer can be found along LaSalle Park on Airline Drive, not far from where the New Orleans Zephyrs play baseball. There you’ll find the still-under-construction Jefferson Performing Arts Center, a $50 million-plus facility that will house a 1,050-seat theater.

Discussing the project with Assaf reveals another of his undisguised passions: He regards himself as the project’s doting parent, and believes JPAS would be the most qualified organization to run it. But he and the company have found themselves pegged as outsiders, with no promise that their shows will be performed at the center when it eventually opens.

******“They told me I could rent it, like anybody else,” Assaf says. “I am the father of that theater, but the father has to rent a theater in his own house.”********

Any resolution is likely quite a ways off. Meanwhile, Assaf emphasizes that JPAS — according to numbers he says were crunched by Americans for the Arts — “has a $5 million economic impact” on its surrounding community. “We need more stages” in Jefferson Parish, he says, citing one survey that put the number of theater facilities in New Orleans at 35 and Jefferson Parish at five.

Whatever happens, JPAS will remain a deliberately mobile company, showing the flag in city after city. Its founder, apparently, wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Jefferson Performing Arts Society is heading home as it celebrates 30th anniversary

Published: Friday, January 18, 2008, 5:00 AM Updated: Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 12:03 PM

By James O’Byrne, NOLA.com The Times-Picayune

“All of the other corporations that are bidding on this are all for-profit entities,” Assaf said. “They have got to make a profit. … Where we as a nonprofit have an advantage in (that) our mission is the performing arts.”

As a nonprofit, JPAS is free to tap into separate pools of money in the form of grants and charitable donations to keep the facility running, Assaf said.

“A for-profit entity is going to be a whole lot more bottom-line conscious than a nonprofit,” he said. “Frankly, the building is going to lose money no matter who manages it. They all do.”

Young and Assaf point to a
rededication of current parish taxes
pushed through by
Parish President Aaron Broussard in 2007
that
secured $1 million per year
for management expenses at the facility.
Assaf said that justifies the parish’s choice of JPAS as the management firm since the funding has already been secured at no additional taxpayer expense.

“You would have to be really careless to go into a facility with a $1 million line of credit
toward operating expenses and ruin it,” Assaf said.
“I don’t think anybody on earth would challenge the council and say,
‘What are you doing giving it to JPAS?’”

But Young said the public would be quick to criticize elected officials for failing to complete a full bid process if they opted to simply hand management over to Assaf and JPAS.

“At the end of the day, they may have the best proposal submitted,
and I encourage them to submit a proposal,” Young said of JPAS. ”

This is a situation where if we didn’t ask for proposals from everyone we’d be criticized.
This is in the interest of open and transparent government, plain and simple.”

The theater has been plagued with construction delays and cost overruns since it first broke ground in February 2007. What was first projected as a two-year job could last another 18 months.

The Parish Council approved a change order Wednesday that allows contractor J. Caldarera & Co. to extend its insurance coverage at the job site through May 2011.
That added another $328,000 to the project, which now has a price tag of $37.1 million.

The original contract for the theater came in at $26.5 million, but change orders have added $10.6 million to that amount. The parish will ask the state for another $7.5 million to cover anticipated construction costs.

Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-regional/13627043-1.html#ixzz1nbMK7m00
____________________________________________________________________-

Chief Administrative Assistant Deano Bonano said the management of the new theater falls under the category of professional services, forcing the Parish Council to review all bids and search for the best fit.

“There are qualification criteria that are established as well as certain responses that they are required to provide such as a maintenance plan, a marketing plan and a whole list of items we request,” Bonano said.

At the end of the process, the Parish Council votes on the winning bid, which is not necessarily the bid with lowest price, Bonano said.

Assaf said he is banking on that final decision to put JPAS in charge of the new facility, something he feels is only right considering the amount of work he has put into the process, including hand-selecting the site for the new venue.

Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-regional/13627043-1.html#ixzz1nbPUhrq6

But Young said the public would be quick to criticize elected officials for failing to complete a full bid process if they opted to simply hand management over to Assaf and JPAS.

“At the end of the day, they may have the best proposal submitted, and I encourage them to submit a proposal,” Young said of JPAS. “This is a situation where if we didn’t ask for proposals from everyone we’d be criticized. This is in the interest of open and transparent government, plain and simple.”

Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-regional/13627043-1.html#ixzz1nbQwEenO

Jefferson Parish asks for bids to run its new arts center
By Maloney, Stephen

Monday, December 14 2009

Published on AllBusiness.com

A grand drama is unfolding as a state-of-the-art theater rises from the swampy ground along Airline Drive in Metairie.

The 1,050-seat theater — long sought after by Jefferson Performing Arts Society founder Dennis Assaf — could be ready for its first curtain calls as soon as a year.

But Assaf is worried Jefferson Parish officials will outsource management of the new theater during the state-mandated bid process.

If another company submits a proposal that is chosen over the JPAS bid, Assaf said that company would essentially swoop in at the last minute and take away control of the project he has lobbied for since the 1970s.

“I do appreciate that the parish must do it’s job and do due diligence to find a qualified manager,” Assaf said. “What is disappointing is it seems like our contribution to this project is being overlooked.”

Jefferson Parish Councilman at-large John Young said the request for proposal process is required by law because the performing arts center relies on state funding.

“I’m certainly not opposed to the Jefferson Performing Arts Society submitting a proposal,” Young said. “If they have the best proposal, we’ll move forward with their selection. But it’s a process that is required by law.”

Assaf said he plans to submit a bid by the Jan. 14 deadline but declined to provide details of the proposal.

Chief Administrative Assistant Deano Bonano said the management of the new theater falls under the category of professional services, forcing the Parish Council to review all bids and search for the best fit.

“There are qualification criteria that are established as well as certain responses that they are required to provide such as a maintenance plan, a marketing plan and a whole list of items we request,” Bonano said.

At the end of the process, the Parish Council votes on the winning bid, which is not necessarily the bid with lowest price, Bonano said.

Assaf said he is banking on that final decision to put JPAS in charge of the new facility, something he feels is only right considering the amount of work he has put into the process, including hand-selecting the site for the new venue.

Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-regional/13627043-1.html#ixzz1nbQVrWI3
Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-regional/13627043-1.html#ixzz1nbQA25BY

Jefferson Parish President John Young set high standards for himself: Stephanie Grace

Published: Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 8:30 AM

By Stephanie Grace, The Times-Picayune

The problem with espousing higher standards is that people tend to hold you to them.

Times-Picayune archiveJefferson Parish President John Young
Case in point: Jefferson Parish President John Young’s appointment of his longtime secretary as the new general manager of the Alario Center sports and entertainment complex.

Young is taking some flak for hiring Lydia Folse without ever advertising the opening — and for installing her in the top job when she doesn’t even possess the credentials to be assistant G.M. Folse has an associate’s degree and no experience in venue management, while the assistant must have a bachelor’s degree in a related field and a year’s experience in a supervisory role in marketing or operations of a “multiuse, multipurpose arena and sports complex,” — or, if the person has no degree, three years of related experience.

Granted, this one doesn’t rise to the level of a major scandal, at least not by modern-day Jefferson Parish standards.

There’s no evidence that Folse isn’t doing a good job. Young is paying her $53,000 — hardly an exorbitant public salary. He says she ably handled responsibilities far beyond her executive assistant title during his tenures in the district attorney’s office, Parish Council and parish administration and has performed well since taking the job six months ago.

And yet it’s not quite minor either, if only because Young has cast himself as above the sort of cynical favoritism that plagued predecessor Aaron Broussard’s administration.

No matter how much Young likes Folse, the job he handed her is significant enough to warrant a search — or at the very least, a public advertisement and clear application process. Folse may be good, but what if someone with a great resume was out there for the taking?

And yes, Young has the right to hire anyone he wants for at-will posts. But that doesn’t mean traditional professional standards shouldn’t play a role, particularly in a somewhat specialized field. The general manager of the Pontchartrain Center, for example, spent more than a decade running major public facilities before taking the job, according to WVUE-TV, which first reported the story.

Young won his job in the first place by embracing professionalism and transparency, a position that appealed to fed-up voters who thought Broussard had made a mockery of both.
_______________________________________________________________

STEPS to a SUCCESSFUL ASSOCIATION :

TRANSPARENCY to TRUST to SOLIDARITY to STRENGTH to CONFIDENCE to Peace of MIND…….

JP Officials can’t even get PAST the FIRST STEP

In my mind it has only stimulated my red ass to the tune of 50 MILLION taxpayers money due to your BS and expert efforts of your buddy J. Calderea, whose website ironically says he specializes in correcting other contractors' mistakes and follies.

And since Boudreux's Butt Paste hasn't helped my ass burn maybe a Grand Jury will eventually ease my pain. Speaking of pain I also get a headache listening to you at Council meetings and your mumbling, stumbling and ignorance of Parliamentarian Procedure. There was a Parliamentarian Seminar last Saturday in Metarie and I certainly hope you attended you "ignorant slut"- hattip to SNL.

Mr. Assaf is a highly respected honorable person whose talents & achievements span over 30 YEARS.

He is a TREASURE! ….LOOK AT WHAT THEY DID TO HIM!!!!

_______________________________________

For decades before the storm and its longterm effect on the city, JPAS had held most of its events at the school auditorium of East Jefferson High School

It had long been Assaf's dream that a genuine stage with a real orchestra pit would would be something for which he could strive to achieve.

First, he had the auditorium renamed to the Jefferson Performing Arts Center

and reupholstered the uncomfortable wooden seats.

Eventually, he got his orchestra pit and extended his reach

to the other side of Jefferson Parish when he secured another performing venue on the West Bank,

the Westwego Perforrming Arts Theatre and its smaller venue, the adjacent Teatro Wego! Theatre located just off the river road, LA-18, at 177 Sala Avenue.

While no official explanation has been given to the de-emphasis on shows in East Jefferson, the move would be suggested by one major factor.

Assaf and JPAS, who had campaigned vigorously for a major performing arts venue to be built in the area had been expecting to have a major part in the new Jefferson Parish Performing Arts Center being constructed down the road on Airline Drive.

It was Assaf's baby.

He advocated for, pleaded and cajoled both the public and elected officials in state and local government to consider the needs of Jefferson Parish for a bona fide performing center almost since JPAS's inception.

Unlike pre-Katrina New Orleans, Jefferson residents have never had a theatre quite like the present Mahalia Jackson Theatre or the past Saenger Theatre.

When politicians did what politicians do – award the contract for management of the new hall to a different entity than JPAS – Assaf and his staff had to come up with a plan to manage their present resources as best they can until the new center officially opens next year.

SHAME!

Continue reading on Examiner.com Jefferson Performing Arts Society has lots of kids fare – New Orleans Performing Arts | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/performing-arts-in-new-or…

http://www.examiner.com/performing-arts-in-new-or…

MR ASSAF'S COMMENT

Alan,

Thanks so much for the passion and attention you give to all of us in the theatre community.

I am touched by your recognition of our hard work and the unfortunate mistreatment and disrespect shown us by *****Councilman Elton Lagasse******* in denying our deserved place in managing the new theatre.

He says SMG, which lost the contract to manage the Mahalia, and receives huge subsidies to manage the Superdome, the Arena and the Pont Center as well as other facilities around the country, will manage the new theatre with only a one year subsidy from the parish.

I have yet to hear Mr. Lagasse say this publicly however,and can't imagine SMG accepting a contract with only one year subsidy where every other location they manage locally is heavily subsidized.

So we shall see what the future holds for us.

As for our de-emphasizing our place at EJ Auditorium, new testing schedules are squeezing us out just like football does in the fall. So we are focusing on Westwego, N.O. and Northshore.

Thanks

I AIN'T NEAR DONE WITH THIS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcKAA9jI4YU

Strange thing though, the marionette man and the cricket, who were also characters and so instrumental in such a long running sold out performance, were not present to accept their awards.