City Hall calls for FBI background checks on volunteers

22nd August 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

Volunteer tour guides, the individuals payday advance knoxville center mall who act as the unpaid ambassadors of New Orleans — and through whose efforts local museums and cemeteries receive much of their private fundraising — may soon be required to have the same bi-yearly background checks as sex offenders and convicted felons.

A new set of regulations being propagated by the New Orleans Transportation Bureau and the Landrieu Administration would require local tour guides to have FBI background checks, fingerprinting, criminal checks, drug tests, and license fees every two years just renew their right to lead a group of tourists on a tour.

The fees and time-consuming background checks would apply not only to the employees of commercial tour companies, but to the volunteer guides of organizations like Friends of the Cabildo and Save Our Cemeteries, as well, the likes of which provide one of the principal private funding sources for the Louisiana State Museums and the city’s historic graveyards.

Anger over the new mandates trig­gered a march on City Hall two weeks ago, where grandmothers in tennis shoes crowded the halls of the Taxi Cab payday loan union mo Bureau, to peacefully protest being, as many of the demonstrators put it, “treated like convicted felons.”

The assembled guides launched a new advocacy group, Guides Inter­ested in Fair Treatment (GIFT), in the hope that the Landrieu Admini­stration will change course on the new rules. One of the organizers, Jacqueline Graff, explained in an interview with The Louisiana Weekly, that tour guides, particularly volunteer guides, must complete a college class, either at the Cabildo or Delgado University, and pass a competitive examination just to qualify to apply for a tour license.

“First of all, we have to go through an arduous process — an expensive process — to get licensed to begin with after we have completed a course of study. Now, we’re being made at the renewal process to do the very same things that we had to do at the initial process,” says Graff.

“It’s the inference that we need to be treated somewhat like criminals. I don’t know any other group of people — meaning like our legislators at the City Council level senior secured term loan traduction or any of the administrated office peo­ple — that need an FBI background check.

“We’re the little guys, and they’re picking on us, and we don’t have a lot of clout. Why are they picking on us?” Graff continued.

GIFT advocate Katheryn Mouton said the irony is that Mayor Landrieu joined Lt. Gov. Dardenne in calling for more volunteerism just prior to putting out the new regulations on tour guides.

Mouton blamed the new stricter interpretation of the regulations on the overzealous new head of the Taxi Cab Bureau, Malachi Hull, who came to New Orleans after leav­ing Atlanta’s city government reportedly under threats of lawsuits and investigations.

Hull argues that the background checks are essential for the safety of tourists, regardless of the impact that it might have on the tour guide industry.

Hull is not without allies in upper echelons of the Landrieu Admini­stration.

In a meeting with Hull that in­cluded Deputy Mayor Ann Dup­lessis, Advisor to the Mayor for Cultural Economy Scott Hutche­son, and VP of Tourism utah money for the CVB Kim Priez, Mick Mcilwain, GIFT and FOC Walking Tour Guide Committee Chairman, said they were adamant “that visitors taking tours must be assured that no tour guide has been convicted of a felony in the past five years.”

He said in response to the question of whether or not a professional guide had ever been involved in a criminal action with a visitor in the course of a tour, Duplessis answered, “that the city must guard against it happening even once.”

New Orleans is one of only four cities that even require a license to be a tour guide — commercial or volunteer. Moreover, nowhere are the requirements anywhere as stringent as New Orleans.

In Charleston, the cost is $50, and an applicant must pass an oral and written exam. In Washington, D.C., the price is $200 for initial license, and the guide submit a notarized application which asks the question if applicant has been convicted of a felony in the last five years (yes/no answer only); a copy of where can i cash a money order government issued photo ID; two passport-type photos; and pass a written exam. Renewal of license is $115.

New York City charges $50 for an exam and $50 for license. An applicant must have government-issued photo ID and two passport-type photos and pass a written exam.

Only in Savannah, GA are the regulations even remotely similar to New Orleans. A potential tour guide must pass a written test; pass a criminal background check done by the city of Savannah; produce a physician’s statement of good health; and, they need only do that ONCE. The fees amount to a tour guide test for a $100, criminal background check priced $10, license fee for $10, license renewal for $10, and a renewal test for $25. Uniquely, though, tour guides there must take renewal test at each license renewal.

As Mcilwain stated, “Cities that require certifications [instead of a license] from local organizations—not the cities—are Chicago, Denver, Miami, San Antonio, and San Francisco. We have the most stringent requirements in the country for tour guide licensing and it just got worse.

Tour-New-Orleans.com President Joycelyn Cole called Hull “an inexperienced fellow.”

GIFT representatives have not ruled out working with the Virginia-based Institute of Justice to bring a suit against City Hall.

Landrieu Press Secretary Ryan Berni did defend the administration in a statement, saying, “Tour guides are a vital component of our tourism industry. Licensed tour guides and operators are entrusted to represent our city in a professional manner. Federal background checks are necessary to ensure that applicants do not have any disqualifying convictions, and to ensure the safety of both tour guides and travelers.”

“We are focused on improving the efficiency, customer service, and consistent enforcement of existing ordinances within the tourism industry.

“We are committed to streamlining all permitting and licensing processes, and we will continue to have dialogue with the industries and residents who are a part of those processes.”

This article was originally published in the August 22, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper