Acts of unfairness and un-equal opportunities towards
the Community and Casa Samba.
- Without any public notice to the community, NORDC took possession of the 800 Race St. location formally known as the Kuji Center, a building designated for children’s programs. This building was dedicated by the Irish Chanel Neighborhood Association in 1998 which had a standing lifetime CEA agreement on this building and was ignored by NORDC.
- Larry Barabino Administration told me that Casa Samba could not run the same after-school program the Kuji center ran prior to the NORD moving into the building at 4 pm because they did not want children’s activity during business hours. Weeks later NOBA started their children’s classes at 4 pm during business hours.
- NOBA has been given exclusivity to a room and that no one else could use it at newly renovated Lyons Center without any open bid or public notice.
- While the New Orleans Ballet Association and Crescent city lights Theatre Company continued to maintain possession of keys and entering the building during none business hours. Casa Samba was forced to give up the keys and we’re not permitted to enter the building if it wasn’t under the operating hours of NORDC.
- Crescent City Lights Youth Theater will be given Keys to access Gallier Hall. In 2006 Crescent City Lights Youth Theater was 90% exclusivity to Ty-Tracy Theater without any previous partnership with NORDC.
- Our CEA was denied because we refuse to sign the CEA document after it had been re-written by the law department then voted on and passed by the NORDC Commission. In a meeting with Mary-Jo Webster on April 16, 2013,
I attempted to explain that our major concern with the agreement was the wording in the CEA that said: “we would offer free classes to the general public”.
The statement should have read the following: “we offer free classes to kids 18 and under and seniors”. We were then told by Mary Jo Webster that we could not have a CEA if we were going to charge for classes at the NORD facility.
In this very same meeting, I requested Ms. Webster to send me a copy of the guidelines of the regulations for prohibiting private contractors as we are identified in the CEA for charging for the services. Casa Samba has NOT received any documentation of the official NORDC policy to date.
At the same time, Crescent City Lights has been using the Gallier hall a NORDC Facility, since 2006- to present charging audiences $15 to attend performances.
NORDC Summer Camp Partners holding Summer camps for kids will be charged a registration fee from a range of $150 to $340 and on along with the funding that NORDC has provided
Casa Samba was also approved for a Summer Camp CEA it was signed and sent to NORDC and received email confirmation say congratulations on becoming a Summer Camp provider. Within one week I received a phone call from NORDC representative that Casa Samba would NOT have a Summer Camp and as of this date Casa Samba has not received any documented notice as to why Casa Samba was denied or refused the opportunity
New Orleans Ballet Association to the knowledge of Casa Samba based on NORDC’s records employment. They have been employing two New Orleans ballet personnel as members of the NORDC paying staff. While at the same time they were being paid by the Ballet Association for the exact same job. This is going on until now within this past year one of the Ballet Association personnel has ceased its employment with NORDC and now only one dance instructor remains being paid by both the Ballet association and NORDC.
When I inquired about becoming a volunteer for NORDC, in order to have keys and be able to enter the building the same as the ballet Association personnel. I was denied this opportunity by Mr. Vick because of my
status as a partner would not allow me to do that this was never explained to me in detail so I am assuming that it was a Mr. Vic decision.
In January 2013- we were encouraged to submit a 2013 Summer Camp Provider application to run a Summer Camp. On January 8th, 2013 we submitted the Summer Camp Provider application as well as a Service Provider application in the event we couldn’t get a camp.
On February 14, 2013, we received notification from Ms. Cannon-Brightman that we had been awarded a camp CEA to be held at the Treme Center.
We signed and submitted the CEA as requested.We immediately went about recruiting staff and camp participants. Three weeks later we received a call from Ms. Cannon-Brightman informing us that we were not being considered for a camp for reasons unknown.
As of today, we never received any official letter informing us that we would not be a Summer Camp provider. On March 6th, we got a request from Ms. Cannon-Brightman to accept a service provider CEA instead. We signed and submitted it.