By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – The leader for a Slidell-based business group that believes a casino in Slidell is a bad idea had a quick response about the so-called “independent” study released on Tuesday by the St. Tammany Corporation.
“There is nothing independent about the Convergence study,” said Chris Jean, who now heads Stand Up St. Tammany, a business group which has grown to over 400 members and is opposing the casino.
ST Corp, the economic development agency for St. Tammany Parish that introduced Peninsula Pacific Entertainment (P2E) to the parish in February, along with their proposal to build a $325 million casino and entertainment resort in Slidell, on Tuesday revealed the first phases of the “independent community impact study” that was put together by Convergence Strategy Group.
However, Jean said the study is far from being “independent” when considering the history behind Convergence and its CEO Dr. Scott Fisher, who is a former owner of more than one casino. Additionally, the company reports on its website conducting “over 400 casino and resort-related analyses.”
“Do you think a company that has done over 400 studies for the industry will be objective?” asked Jean. “This company is consistently hired by the industry to do their dirty work, and then claim independence from direction or influence.
“Do you think Wynn Resorts or hundreds of other casino companies would hire them if they said casinos increased crime or child sex trafficking? Absolutely not,” he added.
“Or do you think a company whose CEO once owned a casino is capable of being objective? Why are we to believe this company would produce anything close to independent results, or without significant influence,” he said.
Jean said the information released this week by ST Corp and Convergence supports his contention since Fisher and partner Suzanne Leckert went through detail after detail on the Slidell casino and consistently had nothing but a glowing prediction about the proposed P2E project.
When asked by one reporter if they have ever done a negative casino report Leckert only said that some of the potential sites they have looked at had problems that led them to suggest different sites or “ways to mitigate the problem.” She did not cite any negative reports.
The study only covered two of the seven topics Convergence looked into, with five other releases coming in the future. Leckert said their studies were comparing Slidell to other “similar sized communities” that already had casinos, however, the study results consistently included much larger areas such as Baton Rouge, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and other larger metropolitan regions.
And in the end for the initial two studies on “Property Values” and “Business Impact, Jean said it was no shock that the report was a glowing prediction of the P2E casino being a financial and economic boon for Slidell in every way possible.
“No one was surprised to see their so-called independent study come out so wonderfully for the casino ownership,” Jean stated. “Convergence is a hired gun to tell you what St. Tammany Corp and P2E want you to believe.”
Jean added one other point in his reaction of the Convergence study.
“St. Tammany Corporation did their own due diligence for months before they finally announced this casino and their intent to come here,” he said. “I’m curious why, after all their due diligence before this came to the Parish Council, did St. Tammany Corporation think they needed another study? It’s because they are seeing that the community doesn’t believe all the lies they are telling, and this study is not going to make the public believe anything differently.”
Jean said that Stand Up St. Tammany, a pure grass-roots organization that came together in the name of Slidell small business, is the one who is trying to represent the real interests of parish residents.
“Our group is just regular people, those who own small businesses and have always been the ones in this parish to support our community and its residents. We are the ones who are lifelong tax-paying, business owning, little league coaching, PTA attending, church supporting, charity giving employers and residents of St. Tammany Parish who are asking the public to stand together against this casino,” he added.