C'mon - you're not really surprised, are you?
In the Mafia, it's a tradition for everyone in a crew to "kick up" to their boss after they make a financial score. Their boss kicks up to his boss, who ultimately kicks up to THE BOSS. By "kicking up", everyone gets a "taste" of the score.
In Kenner and Jefferson Parish, if there's money to be made, politicians find a way to "kick up" so Greg Buisson gets his "taste".
Buisson is the campaign manager/consultant for Jefferson Parish's Sexual Predator-In-Chief Mike Yenni, Kenner Mayor Ben Zahn, several JP Councilmen, Kenner Councilman and JP District 4 Council candidate Dominick Impastato, and Kenner Councilmen Lenny Cline and Mike Sigur. Buisson also worked on the council campaign of Councilman-At-Large Tom Willmott.
Buisson has his tentacles in a wide array of Jefferson Parish NGOs including the Jefferson Convention & Visitor's Bureau (JCVB). While Kenner Mayor, Mike Yenni shut down the Kenner Convention & Visitor's Bureau (KCVB) and, rather than finding a Kenner-centric organization to promote Kenner, Yenni shuffled off Kenner's Hotel/Motel tax dollars to the Buisson-controlled JCVB.
Buisson is involved in Family Gras, Uncle Sam Jam, Mardi Gras parade viewing stands and literally EV ERYTHING tourism-related in Southeast Louisiana.
So, it is to be expected that Ben Zahn and the "Buisson Boys" on the Kenner City Council, would find a way to get Buisson involved in the first Kenner Freedom Fest.
Although the Freedom Fest was held in Laketown, Zahn slyly got the Friends of Rivertown to act as his bag man so he could get his friends like Buisson involved without the need to put anything through the City of Kenner or it's bidding process - although there is no doubt that City of Kenner employees were involved in Freedom Fest. At a recent council meeting, Zahn complemented his Assistant in charge of Party Planning, Mary-Sharon Howland, for her work in soliciting sponsorship dollars.
According to a preliminary financial report, the Freedom Fest raised almost $131,000, the bulk of which came from Sponsor Fees ($83,500) and not including $50,000 from Jefferson Parish Interim District 4 Councilman Jack Rizzuto's district fund and almost $35,000 from the City of Kenner. That almost $85,000 is listed as "Reimbursements".
After "Reimbursing" JP and Kenner, Freedom Fest will eek out a meager profit of $7,000. Of course, the event wasn't designed to make money. But, by using tourism dollars you would hope that the City would generate some business to grow tourism.
Given the bands involved and the fact that the Freedom Fest was held on a holiday weekend, it is doubtful that anyone other than the bands themselves spent any time in a Kenner hotel.
Now, before you get the wrong idea, I think events like Freedom Fest are needed and should be promoted in the City, assuming the City has the funding. But, to say that Freedom Fest was a boon to Kenner tourism is a flat out lie.
Which makes the inclusion of Buisson all the more puzzling.
Despite telling The Advocate that he was paid $6,000 (and Zahn's attempts to "clarify the truth" at this past Council meeting), Buisson was actually paid $19,972.64 - almost $20,000, for his role in booking the bands and providing his advertising services. In addition to Buisson's "taste", almost $40,000 was paid to the performers.
According to Zahn and the representative from Friends of RIvertown, Buisson charged "only" 10% of the performer's booking fees, so he SHOULD have been paid less than $4,000.
As many of you know, I spent years in radio and still have many radio contacts. Radio stations across the country book emerging acts (like the three "National" acts that Buisson booked for Freedom Fest) that are routinely brought to town to play for nothing more than their expenses (generally traded out hotel rooms and catering).
Since New Orleans is home to three of the largest radio companies in America (iHeart, Cumulus and Entercom) and two of the three (iHeart and Cumulus) have Country Music stations, having a relationship with one of the radio companies (which would have also provided free advertising and promotion as well) could have resulted in Kenner saving the $40k in performance fees and the $20k paid to Buisson, which would have meant almost $60,000 in greater profit for the Friends of Rivertown (and, perhaps, next year they wouldn't need to charge $5 to park in the City-owned Pontchartrain Center Parking Lot).
But then, Zahn, Impastato and the rest of "Buisson Boys" wouldn't have been able to "kick up" to Don Buisson.
And, when it comes to Kenner and JP Politics, you MUST "kick up" to Don Buisson.
