In a unanimous 7 to 0 vote, the New Orleans City Council on Thursday, June 4 passed an ordinance to allocate $2 million to provide first year funding for the New Orleans Economic Development Corporation, the soon to be formed Public/Private Partnership (PPP) which will drive economic development efforts for the city. The Business Council was represented at the City Council hearing by Chairman Gregory Rusovich, Task Force Leader, John Hope, and Managing Director, Bob Brown. The ordinance offered up by request from Mayor C. Ray Nagin and sponsored by Councilmembers Arnie Fielkow and Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, sets the stage for the appointment of a board of directors, the hiring of an executive and the launching of a focused, well coordinated strategy for business recruitment, retention and expansion in New Orleans. The $2 million will be matched by $400,000 from the business community, with much of that being contributed by members of the New Orleans Business Council.
Led by the Horizon Initiative, a broad coalition of business organizations worked through a fifteen month process to establish the organizational framework and operating principles for the new enterprise. This group included the Asian Chamber of Commerce, the New Orleans Black Chamber of Commerce, the Black Economic Development Council, the New Orleans Board of Trade, the Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region, the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.