IMPORTANT FOLLOW UP for the 3800 SBA Declined issue:

Last Thursday Aug. 16 I sent the attached page as an email to all task force members.

No matter who you are, no matter if you are finished with your repairs or still sleeping in a camper, we need you to call the following people and tell them you support the SBA Declined guidance input, then email the message again and keep them focused on adding our public input to protect those that are being penalized for not accepting federal assistance from the SBA.

By sheer numbers we can make the task force respond to public request and treat the citizens and public input as it is detailed in the executive order JBE-2016-65.

It's time for you to take action today or it may be the end of the program for anyone with an SBA loan that was declined. Why punish those that refused the SBA debt burden? We have to stop this method of selective policy, public law and guidance enforcement before the next task force meeting in Sept, 2018.

Call the following people in published order.
Task force members are not assigned areas so you can contact any and all of them. Do not skip anyone, We need a minimum of 10 contacted by each person. Please use their titles as shown.

1. State Representative James 225-343-3633 james.ted@legis.la.gov
2. State Representative Pope 225-667-3588 poper@legis.la.gov
3. Task Force Chairman Jimmy Durbin (Former Mayor email only) jimmydurbin@bellsouth.net
4. Doctor James Richardson 225-578-6745 parich@lsu.edu
5. Mayor-President Joel Robideaux 337-291-8300 (Mayor-President Lafayette) jrobideaux@lafayettela.gov
6. Doctor Shawn Wilson 225-379-1200 (Secretary DOTD) shawn.wilson@la.gov
7. Mayor Ollie Tyler 218-673-5009 (Mayor City of Shreveport) ollie.tyler@shreveportla.gov
8. Don Pierson 225-342-5388 (State employee) don.pierson@la.gov
9. Adam Knapp 225-381-7128 (BR Area Chamber CEO) knapp@brac.org
10. Johnny Bradberry 225-342-7669 (State Employee) johnny.bradberry@la.gov

[Callers and Email Script]

I am calling you today in support of Mr. Murray Wennerlund's public input sent to you Thursday the 16th of August.
I encourage you to place the solution for the SBA Declined loan issue on the Task Force agenda and to vote in favor of the policy to follow public law 115-123 as official state guidance for the estimated 3,800 Louisiana citizens that declined the SBA loan.

Thank you for your time.
[Your full name, address, phone]

[END SCRIPT]

Background and more of the story of how difficult it is to communicate to the State of Louisiana and how they often set aside public comment and have not officially formed as state law governing Task Force, Boards and Commissions an active channel and method of public input that allows solutions, policy, project, changes, modifications and proposals to be submitted to the Task Force as a group. 

This is my second attempt to have any task force member respond and acknowledge receipt of public input. It appears we as Citizens of Louisiana are being ignore and if this continues we could be faced with the fact that $682 million of our Homeowners Assistance HUD CDBG-DR funds will be transferred from the projects focused on helping the citizens to other projects focused on helping local and state government. 

Additional Information and Public Input:

• Louisiana Representative Edward "Ted" James, Dist 101 said it, we are echoing the call to fight hard Now!

  • When LA Rep James asked for a few minutes before Governor Edwards entered the room to express his feelings of how our Congressional Representatives were not fighting for Louisiana Disaster Victims hard enough, we ask, will he fight for us in our state?