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For Dinner tonight at 8PM - Kathleen is welcome

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bryan Jones <brjones@hntb.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 3:17 PM
Subject: HNTB dinner tonight - attendees/notes
To: Hunter Biden <hbiden@rosemontseneca.com>, Levon Boyagian <
levon.boyagian@verizon.net>, "jkavinoky@uschamber.com" <
jkavinoky@uschamber.com>, Kimberly Hudgins <khudgins@hntb.com>
Cc: Katie Dodge <kdodge@rosemontseneca.com>


Hunter, Lev, Janet and Kimberly--

*For dinner tonight, we have reservations at Nora's on Florida Avenue at
8PM.*

Guests will include:

*Sherri LeBas*
*Secretary*
*Louisiana Department of Transportation*

*Shawn WIlson*
*Chief of Staff*
*Louisiana Department of Transportation*

Both have their spouses/significant others with them. Sherri is recently
divorced and now dating; his name is Bill. I am not sure of Shawn's wife's
name.

Expectations from the dinner are NOT HIGH. This is an opportunity to
showcase HNTB's reach into policy beyond engineering and construction. This
can be a casual conversational dinner. She enjoys meeting new people who
are engaged in the industry.

She is always interested in hearing about what the latest word in DC is
from a policy perspective: progress or lack thereof.

Her big issues are like most state DOT secretaries: big backlog ($14B) and
not enough money.

The obvious thing to consider with her is she works for a Republican
governor who wants to be president and has been critical of the Obama
administration, so every policy decision is made through the lens of
national politics. She is very careful to not get out in front of the
governor on any potentially controversial project or position.

A good idea would be to offer ways she may get more involved in policy
discussions; i.e. speaking at a US Chamber policy event, getting involved
with some of the other national infrastructure investment organizations,
etc.

Also joining is:

*John Spain*
*Member*
*Southern Rail Commission*

Spain is a client of HNTB's on a feasibility study for intercity passenger
rail between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. He is a civic leader in Baton
Rouge and his full time job is advancing economic development projects for
the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, a $500M community foundation.

Hunter, you should sit next to him. He is very politically savvy and will
just enjoy stories and good conversation. He is very impressed with HNTB
and how much we get involved in and appear much more than an engineering
firm.

Keep in mind Sec. LeBas is privately supportive of the rail project but
cannot be publicly. John Spain has helped develop a coalition of supporters
from Baton Rouge and New Orleans to advance the planning for the project
without assistance from the state DOT.

We just left USDOT and met with the entire brass including FRA. We are
looking to advance the project into the next phase, environmental. There
will be some follow-up needed with FRA regarding planning dollars available
to continue the project through the environmental phase.

FYI - the Southern Rail Commission recently hired John Robert Smith to help
with federal affairs and anything they ask of him.

*A potential attendee tonight is Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden.*

Holden is the city's first African American mayor. He is
infrastructure-minded and has done some big programs ($550M worth of street
upgrades and a $1.2B sewer upgrade).

He is an advocate of the rail project between Baton Rouge and New Orleans
and is now working to implement a streetcar between downtown and the LSU
campus. HNTB will pursue the feasibility of that project.

If you have any questions, let me know. My cell is 225.218.3648.

Bryan J. Jones
HNTB Corporation
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--
*Katie Dodge*
Executive Assistant/ Office Manager
*Rosemont Seneca Partners*
*1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW, #705*
*Washington, DC 20007*
*202-333-1880