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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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