MBJ_May02_2014

INSIDE — Sanderson Plumbing set to lay off three quarters of employees

35 YEARS

1979

www.msbusiness.com

2014

May 2, 2014 • Vol. 36, No. 18 • $1 • 24 pages

CASINOS

Gaming summit may provide a splash in the face for industry leaders

R’evolution set for Ridgeland World famous chefs to employ as many as 150 in their new 10,000 square-foot restaurant slated to open in September

— Page 12

By FRANK BROWN I STAFF WRITER frank.brown@msbusiness.com

Around town {P 3} » PGA approves move of Sanderson Farms golf tournament to Jackson Strictly Biz {P 4} » Banking department looking for new home in the Metro area

BILOXI — There’s few things more refreshing than a splash of cold Gulf of Mexico water in your face while visiting a Mississippi beach. Larry Gregory hopes participants in next week’s Southern Gaming Summit will leave Biloxi with that same sensation about casinos in Mississippi.

Gregory is executive director of the Mississippi Gaming and Hospitality Association, a major sponsor of the summit, a gathering of inSee

GAMING, Page 2

WEATHER

PREPARING FOR THE WORST » Emergency officials ready for storms

MBJ Focus {P 14}

» Making the right moves » Still looking good at 60 List {P 17-18} » Our Favorite Restaurants

By WALLY NORTHWAY I STAFF WRITER wally.northway@msbusiness.com

WALLY NORTHWAY / MBJ

Robert Latham addresses his staff last Friday morning.

When all the damage and losses are assessed, the storm system that ripped through Mississippi April 2729 will go down as one the largest outbreaks of severe

weather in state history. The scope of the destruction was so vast and so widespread — from North Mississippi to the Pine Belt — that officials were still trying to verify the losses and damages at press time.

On Monday, April 28 as the most severe storms entered Mississippi and damage reports started arriving, See

STORMS, Page 10

http://msbusiness.com/events/health-care-heroes-nomination-form/

2 I Mississippi Business Journal I May 2 2014 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE

Women’s Foundation of Mississippi gains place in Aspen Institute effort » Inclusion in Ascend Network is recognition of potential for success with ‘two-generations’ approach The Women’s Foundation of Mississippi’s efforts to help single mothers further their education received a significant boost with its inclusion in the Aspen Institute’s Ascend Network, a new network of leading organizations using “two-generation approaches” to create economic mobility for families.

The “two-generations” approaches help mothers continue their education while receiving quality care and schooling for their children. Education, from early childhood through postsecondary, is a core component of two-generation approaches.

The 10-year-old Women’s Foundation of Mississippi will receive a $25,000 one-time grant to develop and implement a two-generation strategy at Hinds Community College in Jackson and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gulfport.

The WFM is partnering with three organizations already familiar with the two-generation approach — the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (Washington, D.C.), Springboard To Opportunities, affordable housing program in Jackson and Moore Community House, early head start program in Biloxi. They will work to create tools that can be used by other community colleges, the WFM said in a press statement.

The Women’s Foundation is one of the initial 58 organizations, including the Children’s Defense Fund’s Southern Regional Office, selected from more than 24 states that represent a national movement around two-generation approaches.

“These leaders are fueling change for America’s families,” said Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute. “As we reflect on the 50th anniversary of the ‘War on Poverty,’ the Aspen

Institute is proud to invest in transformational ideas to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.”

Carol Penick, executive director of the Women’s Foundation of Mississippi, said the effort will provide women the opportunity to further their education, while at the same time giving their children the opportunity to learn.

“It can change their lives forever by breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty,” she said. “As one mother at a community college in Mississippi told us, ‘My children are proud of me for going to college and taking care of them at the same time.’ Others tell us that their children are doing better in school as a result of seeing their mothers study and work hard to prepare for a better future.”

The Women’s Foundation has already started working toward implementing the two-generation approach with matching funding of $575,000 to help incentivize community colleges across the state. In early 2013, WFM granted $160,000 to the Mississippi Community College Board. The MCCB will use the WFM grant to provide transportation, child care, and tuition assistance to low income women enrolled in a dual GED/information technology certificate program at five community colleges.

The Aspen Institute identified the Women’s Foundation through a highly selective national competition. More than 250 organizations applied to join the Network and receive funding from the Aspen Institute Ascend Fund. The selected organizations ranged from community colleges seeking to better serve student parents and their children, to early childhood centers engaging parents in pathways to employment, to two-generation partnerships spearheaded by Promise Neighborhoods, United Ways, and women’s foundations.

— by Ted Carter

Delta Council to hear ag official in charge of implementing Farm Bill Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Krysta Harden — the official in charge of leading the government’s implementing of the new Farm Bill — will be the keynote speaker for the 79th Annual Meeting of Delta Council May 30 in Cleveland.

Harden’s talk will be at 10:30 a.m. in Delta State University’s Bologna Performing Arts Center. Gov. Phil Bryant will introduce Deputy Secretary Harden to the Delta Council audience.

Harden, who was raised in South Georgia in a farming family, took over as deputy secretary last year, having served previously as chief of staff to the Secretary and Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations.

Delta Council President Gibb Steele, a Greenville farmer, Harden said the Delta Council has worked with Harden in a number of capacities during her career, including her tenure as CEO of the National Association of Conservation Districts, the American Soybean Association, and as staff person on Capitol Hill concentrating on agricultural issues. “Since being nominated as deputy secretary, she has already been charged with implementation of the 2014 Farm Bill over the coming months, and we look forward to her talking to our members and guests about the future of rural America," Steele said.

Harden was instrumental in implementing programs under the 2008 Farm Bill that have resulted in record investments in America's farms and rural communities, record agricultural exports and record conservation efforts. Harden worked to pass and implement the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, ensuring the availability of nutrition assistance to struggling Americans. A chief advocate of conservation, Harden continues leading efforts to build close stakeholder relationships with an ultimate goal of enhancing land and water conservation, improving economic opportunities through increased outdoor activities and expanding modern forest management, the Delta Council said.

From 2004 to 2009, Harden was the CEO of the National Association of Conservation Districts.

Also May 30, Delta Council will honor more than 140 high school seniors as Delta Honor Graduates with the ceremony beginning at 9 a.m., located ‘under the tent in the parking lot’ next to the Bologna Performing Arts Center.

The tradition of a fried catfish luncheon will conclude the 79th annual event on the grounds of the Quadrangle on the Delta State campus.

— by Ted Carter

GAMING

Continued from Page 1

dustry leaders from the Southern region and across the country. The event is May 6-8 at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center in Biloxi. For more information on the summit and for registration options and pricing, visit www.sgsummit.com/ In addition to the more than 100 vendors on the expo floor, the summit also offers two days of education conferences ranging from the latest games to marketing strategies.

“I think the speakers we have at this year’s gaming Southern Gaming Summit are going to showcase some of the leaders in our industry and tell the story of what we have and were we need to go,” said Gregory.

For the last eight years, a variety of punches — the explosion of gaming nationwide, an economic recession, Hurricane Ka-

trina, The 2011 Mississippi River Floods — have staggered Mississippi’s 30 state-regulated casino and one American Indian resort. While the northwest corner of the state has been hit hardest and continues to suffer, the Gulf Coast is being resuscitated with the help of casinos owners who have made large-scale investments in an attempt to keep the area tourist destination site.

“Everyone knows we’ve got to get away from casinos being just a slot machine place,” said Gregory. “Those days are over.

There have to be incentives to get tourists to return.

“We’ve see marketing on the Gulf Coast that takes in the whole tourism package. Just look at the entertainment every weekend and look at the investments the casinos have made there.

Among those investments are a just-completed $100 million-plus renovation at the Golden Nugget, $50 million to restore the Katrina-damaged hotel tower at the Island View in Gulfport, about $30 million for a

new hotel tower at the Hard Rock in Biloxi, $17 million for a hotel at the Silver Slipper in Bay St. Louis, and a new $36 million minor league baseball stadium which opens next year across from the Beau Rivage.

“I think It’s like splashing cold water on your face,” said Gregory. “We’re waking up.

We’re waking up to see the challenges we’re facing in Alabama, Louisiana and Florida, and we have to stay current.

“I think you’re going to see this come out with our speakers, people like State Rep. Richard Bennett, chairman of the House Gaming Committee, Tilman Fertitta (owner of Landrys, Inc., and the Golden Nugget), and Geoff Freeman, president of the American Gaming Association. We have Chief Phyllis Anderson of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Holly Gagnon from Pearl River Resort. We also have representatives of the manufacturing industry and slot machine companies.”

While the Gulf Coast has seen a slight uptick in gross gaming revenue (the casino’s

profit after subtracting payouts from wagers) in the first three months, the Mississippi River casinos have seen a 5 percent drop in that same period — extending a trend that surfaced during the spring floods of 2011.

Those problems will also be a topic of discussion, especially since Caesar’s Entertainment said it will be closing it’s Tunica Harrah’s casino — the largest of the Tunicaarea casinos — on June 2.

“We saw the loss of Harrah’s,” said Gregory. “What I hope to see over the next year is a lot of smart people putting on their thinking caps and deciding where to go from here.

“What I think is that we’ll see is a change in Tunica. We may see less casinos in the market, but that’s not a bad thing. I think you’ll see a different model. I think you’ll see a smaller scale market. With a smaller market you’ll see more creative ideas to entice people. It’s evolving.”

May 2, 2014

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GOLF

Sanderson Farms Championship gets PGA approval to move RIDGELAND — The PGA Tour Policy Board has approved the move of the 2014 Sanderson Farms Championship to the Country Club of Jackson, Century Club Charities announced.

Earlier this month, Century Club Charities endorsed the move to the Country Club of Jackson from Annandale Golf Club for the 2014 Sanderson Farms Championship –pending PGA Tour Policy Board approval. The move is seen as an opportunity to

generate more charitable dollars for Friends of Children’s Hospital, the tournament’s primary beneficiary.

The location switch is the latest in a series of forward moves — including Sanderson Farms’ threeyear commitment through 2016, an increase in the purse from $3 million to $4 million, a date change from summer back to the fall and the hiring of Steve Jent as the new tournament director, along with a

full-time staff.

“We are very thankful for the 20-year relationship that we have had with Annandale Golf Club, who has been a terrific partner,” said Century Club Charities President John Lang. “We are on a mission to raise more money than ever for Friends of Children’s Hospital while showing the players, spectators and the general public what first-class Southern hospitality looks like — that’s not a task we take lightly.”

Lang continued: “The main reason this tournament exists is to raise money for Mississippi’s only children’s hospital. We feel like we’ve made necessary strategic moves to make that happen.”

The Sanderson Farms Championship will take place at the Country Club of Jackson from Nov. 3–9.

— from staff and MBJ wire services

Southern Co. moves startup date for Kemper County plant KEMPER COUNTY — The Southern Co. says the expected startup date of its coal gas-fired power plant in Kemper County is being pushed back to the first half of 2015.

In a regulatory filing earlier this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company also says the plant’s cost is expected to rise by $196 million to a total of about $5.4 billion.

The Atlanta-based company says it will take a pretax charge of $380 million — $235 million after taxes — against its income for the first quarter of 2014.

A spokesman for Southern-affiliate Mississippi Power Company says the utility will not seek to recover the increased costs from ratepayers.

Earlier this month the company blamed poor weather, unexpected turnover of construction employees and installation inefficiencies for contributing to extra costs.

— from staff and MBJ wire services

The First sees earnings increase, declares dividend HATTIESBURG — The First Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: FBMS), holding company for The First, A National Banking Association, has reported earnings for the first quarter ended March 31.

Net income available to common stockholders for the three months ended March 31 amounted to $1,321,000, or $0.25 per diluted share, compared to $1,119,000, or $0.35 per diluted share for the same quarter in 2013, an increase of $202,000, or 18.1 percent, in net income available to common stockholders with a decrease of $0.10 per diluted share due to an increase in average common shares outstanding associated with the capital raise in 2013.

The First Bancshares also announced a quarterly dividend of $.0375 per common share. The record date will be May 6, 2014 with a payable date of May 20, 2014.

— from staff and MBJ wire services

Open For Business.

The State’s health insurance marketplace for small businesses, One, Mississippi™, was established by the Mississippi Insurance Department. It’s a one-stop shop where businesses with 50 or fewer full-time equivalent employees may choose from a variety of affordable health insurance options.

Open enrollment begins May 1.

Enroll online, or through a licensed insurance agent or broker.

Your Health Insurance Marketplace Call 1-855-967-7467 or visit www.onemississippi.com

www.msbusiness.com

One, Mississippi is the State’s Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Marketplace as outlined by the Affordable Care Act. © 2014 The Mississippi Health Insurance Marketplace. All Rights Reserved.

4 I Mississippi Business Journal I May 2 2014 STATE AGENCY

AGRICULTURE Special to the MBJ

Jo Lynn Mitchell stops near the construction of Tiny Town, an addition to the agritourism venture at Mitchell Farms in Collins.

Crops and agritourism growing together at Mitchell Farms

BY KAITLYN BYRNE I MSU Ag Communications

COLLINS — When Jo Lynn Mitchell started an agritourism business to add income to the family farm, she had no idea she would end up proving that people can still farm for a living.

Mitchell fell in love with farming as a way of life after marrying her husband, Don Mitchell, and she wanted to introduce farm life to children and adults. In 2006, she planted pumpkins and invited schools and churches to visit for an educational experience on how crops grow.

The children each received a pumpkin to carry home as a reminder of what they learned at the farm.

“We didn’t really have anything like our farm within a 60-mile radius of us, so it was a great experience for the children to see a farm up close,” Mitchell said. “I have learned most of the kids that come out here -- and the adults, too -- are amazed people still farm for a living. It’s opened a whole new world for them, which shocked me.”

The entire Mitchell family is involved in running the 1,600-acre row-crop and pine farm. Jo Lynn said she wanted to be part of that but knew she needed to find a way to generate additional income if she were to make the farm her full-time job.

“I thought, ‘Wow, we have such a beautiful farm, and I really think people would love to come here,’” Mrs. Mitchell

said. “Around that time, agritourism really started taking off in Mississippi, so I traveled across the state to see how other farmers were bringing tourism to their farms.”

Since 2006, Mitchell has expanded the farm’s agritourism component to include seasonal events, corn mazes, birthday parties, corporate events and weddings, in addition to scheduled school tours and open weekends for the public to visit.

“We’ve added something new to the farm every year,” Mitchell said. “We’ve added numerous buildings and playgrounds to transform the farm into an entertainment and education facility for kids to have hands-on experiences with farming.”

As president of the Mississippi Agritourism Association, Mitchell travels to events throughout the state to share her experiences bringing agritourism to Mitchell Farms.

“One thing I tell people when I speak is to build on what you already have,” she said. “Farmers need to understand we are not really in competition with one another. We help each other to reach people the best we can. People like the personal experience. They feel like they’re part of the family, and that feeling of family carries over to all operations.”

Carolyn Conger, Covington County Extension agent, has known Mrs.

Mitchell for years and has seen her agritourism vision flourish.

“Jo Lynn is very creative and extremely dedicated to making agritourism a success,” Conger said. “She has offered to help many others who are interested in pursuing a similar venture.

She is always coming up with new ideas for the farm. I don’t believe there is another woman like her.”

Rachael Carter, an Extension instructor of enterprise and community resource development, said agritourism helps farmers add value to their businesses while keeping Mississippi communities involved with agriculture.

“Jo Lynn is on the cutting edge of the industry, and she is an excellent role model for Mississippi agritourism,” Carter said. “She combines creativity with strong business practices, and she has seen great success with agritourism because of it.”

Mitchell Farms hosts more than 4,000 visitors each year for the Mississippi Peanut Festival the first weekend in October. The festival is open to the public, and about 100 vendors are expected to set up booths with arts, crafts and antiques for sale.

For more information about Mitchell Farms or the Mississippi Peanut Festival, contact Mitchell at 601-765-8609.

Banking Department looking for new home in metro area

By TED CARTER I STAFF WRITER ted.carter@msbusiness.com

Downtown Jackson could lose a state agency with the pending move of the Mississippi Department of Banking & Consumer Finance from the Woolfolk Building next store to the capital.

Banking Commissioner Jerry Wilson said the agency is willing to remain downtown if a suitable space of around 12,000 square feet and 85 parking spaces is available. However, the department has no special need to be near the Capitol, Wilson said.

A Request for Proposals with a deadline of 5 p.m.

May 6 specifies space available in Hinds, Ranking or Madison counties.

Sherri Hilton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Finance & Administration, said only about 4,000 square feet of usable office space is available in state-owned buildings.

The 63-member Department of Banking & Finance occupies 6,000 square feet but needs to double that to accommodate the work of state bank examiners who will be reviewing banking records and documents remotely. Until now, the examiners would visit the individual state-chartered banks and spend several days at a time at them, often alongside examiners from the FDIC. “We plan to do more offsite exams,” Wilson said in an interview last week.

With the remote exams, Wilson needs more office space and parking for examiners, as well as visitors.

Wilson said for the security of the sensitive banking materials under review, the agency wants either a building of its own or its own secured floor.

The department expects to be in its new quarters within the next four months. Wherever it ends up, lease rates must be in line with rates other state agencies nearby are paying, according to Wilson.

As the regulator of state-chartered banks, the Department of Banking & Consumer Finance has become the nation’s 17th largest state banking agency. That came with the state’s two largest banks – Hancock Bank and BancorpSouth – being state chartered and a third, Renasant Bank, giving recently expanded with the acquisition of Merchants & Farmers Bank in Kosciusko.

“We’ve got $10 billion more in assets than last year,” Wilson said of his department’s expanded realm.

Two other banks, FNB Oxford and Commerce National Bank in Corinth, have applied for conversion to state banks.

While downtown could lose the banking department, it has gained an annex office of the Secretary of State and up to 90 new office workers. The annex office moved from 700 North St. and reopened April 29 at Capital Towers, 125 South Congress St. Moved to the new location are the Business Services, Regulation and Enforcement, Public Lands, Securities and Charities divisions of the agency.

May 2 2014

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MANUFACTURING

Sanderson Plumbing set to lay off three-fourths of 230-person workforce » Owner-CEO says modernizing Columbus plant would let it regain dominance of toilet seat market

By TED CARTER I STAFF WRITER ted.carter@msbusiness.com

Three-quarters of the 230-person workforce at bankrupt toilet seat maker Sanderson Plumbing Products are out of a job by the end of this week unless an investor steps in with money to keep the company running.

The layoffs likely would have occurred already but for a federally required 60-day plant closing notice that expires April 29.

The prices at which big box retailers such as WalMart sold the well-known Beneke and Tuffy brands toilet seats could not match the costs of making them, according to CEO Tom Whitaker.

“I expect the layoffs at the end of April,” he said late last week.

Workers who remain at the 360,000 square-foot plant will fill pending orders before a total shutdown occurs, Whitaker said.

Potential buyers have shown interest, according to Whitaker and Fred Cross, managing director Heritage Equity Partners, an Erie, Pa., firm that specializes in selling distressed properties.

Whitaker said one scenario is that a potential buyer could inject money into the plant to keep it operating and viable until a full purchase can be made. He added he does not see that a happening in the short term.

Buyer interest, according to Cross, has come from bath-and-kitchen manufacturers as well as investment groups look to enter the fixture business.

A month-long auction on the plant and equipment closed at noon last Friday. Cross indicated the auction has not produced a viable buyer.

A dozen years ago, Sanderson Plumbing Products was Columbus’ largest manufacturing employer with more than 1,000 workers. Lower product pricing attributed to Chinese competitors forced the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Oct. 30.

Sanderson Plumbing has two main lenders — the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA), which has an approximate $1.5 million first lien on the plant situated on 30 acres, and New Orleans-based BizCapital BIDCO II LLC, which has a $1.9 million first lien on the plant’s equip-

ment, inventory, patents and other assets, bankruptcy court documents show.

The MDA also has an $800,000 second lien on equipment and other assets, according to the court filings.

The MDA and Small Business Administration-backed loan from BizCapital came as part of a purchase of the company in 2012

by Whitaker and other Sanderson executives. They have operated Sanderson under the Beneke Magnolia name.

In the two years since, big box retail cus-

“We kept thinking things would turn around” Tom Whitaker CEO, Sanderson Plumbing Products

tomers such as HomeDepot and Walmart have refused to pay higher prices to accommodate increased costs Sanderson incurred in making the toilet seats and in importing foreign-made seats for U.S. distribution, Whitaker said.

Sanderson has moved half of its production to China since 1999. The seats made in China came through Sanderson and on to the market. “Then the customers started going directly to China and cutting us out as middleman,” he said.

When the 58-year-old Whitaker and the other investors bought the company in 2012, they believed the price pressures from the direct buying of lower priced toilets seats had gone as far as they would go, Whitaker said.

“We kept thinking things would turn around,” he added.

Today, Chinese manufacturers can

Special to The Mississippi Business Journal

Sanderson Plumbing’s headquarters will see less traffic if an investor is not found and 75 percent of the company’s workforce is cut.

make the product, ship it to the United States and distribute it for sell at prices lower than Sanderson can make the seats, Whitaker said.

The CEO said he expects the long-established Beneke and Tuffy brands to live on.

“Everybody we’ve talked to is interested in the Beneke and Tuffy names,” he said.

Sanderson sells the Tuffy brand on the wholesale plumbing market under the Beneke logo and on the retail market under the Magnolia line, according to the Heritage Equity Partners sales listing for the company.

Whitaker, who has been with the company since graduating from college more than 35 years ago, said he is willing to stay on under new ownership. A new owner who installs more modern and efficient equipment could make a quality toilet seat to compete at prices offered by foreign seat makers, he said.

“It’s a great opportunity for someone who can come in here and put some capital into it,” Whitaker added. “I feel that in a couple of years they could own the market again.”

New levels of manufacturing can be reached “with robotics and other things,” he noted. “It doesn’t replace workers. You just retrain the workers to use the equipment.”

Sanderson has one of only a few woodflour manufacturing units in the nation. The process, which Sanderson began doing in 1955, involves recycling soft and hardwood scrap lumber and grinding it into granular particles that bring a smooth sturdiness to plastic. Beyond toilet seats, the Sanderson plant uses woodflour to make furniture parts such as arm chairs and casket handles for other manufactures.

Sanderson used to ship the woodflour to its Butler, Ala., plant for making plastic and vinyl toilet seats. The woodflour manufacturing has been done in Columbus since the

Butler plant’s closing a couple years ago, according to Whitaker.

The main woodflour line can produce 12,000 toilet seats in an eight-hour day.

Woodflour is but a small part of the operation compared to the plant’s use of plastic injection molding and extruders, he said.

At nearly 50 plastic injection molders, the plant has one of the largest inventories of that kind of machinery in the South, Whitaker noted. The equipment can produce 6,000 toilet seats in a 24hour day, Heritage Equities Partners’ sales material notes.

That sort of capacity explains why nearly every aircraft in the world today has a plastic seat produced through Sanderson’s mold injection process, he said.

The plant’s 15 extruders clean recycled materials and pelletize them for manufacturing use, Whitaker explained.

While the plant’s equipment has value all its own, Whitaker said the best value is for a buyer to buy the plant and all its furnishings.

Sales literature for the plant note its equipment capacity makes it possible for a new owner to come in and gain an increased market share. The owner can also use Sanderson’s excess injection molding and woodflour molding equipment to make new products in “any number of different industries,” Heritage Equity Partners say.

“The plant could be refitted for any type of manufacturing,” Fred Cross, the Heritage Equity managing director, said.

The depressed national economy became a major factor for Sanderson beginning with shrinking sales in 2008. Still, the company reached sales of $50 million in 2009. But by 2012, sales dropped to $29 million, of which about half came from distribution of toilet seats made by foreign manufacturers.

A member of the Mississippi Press Association www.mspress.org

200 North Congress, Suite 400 Jackson, MS 39201-1902 Main: (601) 364-1000 Faxes: Advertising (601) 364-1007; Circulation (601) 364-1035 E-mails: mbj@msbusiness.com, ads@msbusiness.com, photos@msbusiness.com, research@msbusiness.com, events@msbusiness.com

Website: www.msbusiness.com May 2, 2014 Volume 36, Number 18

ALAN TURNER Publisher alan.turner@msbusiness.com • 364-1021 ROSS REILY Editor ross.reily@msbusiness.com • 364-1018 WALLY NORTHWAY Senior Writer wally.northway@msbusiness.com • 364-1016 FRANK BROWN Staff Writer/Special Projects frank.brown@msbusiness.com • 364-1022 TED CARTER Staff Writer ted.carter@msbusiness.com • 364-1017 LISA MONTI Contributing Writer mbj@msbusiness.com • 364-1018

MBJPERSPECTIVE May 2, 2014 • www.msbusiness.com • Page 6

OUR VIEW

Smithville’s recovery shows resilient spirit

A

s Smithville officials and townspeople, joined by the governor and first lady, gathered Sunday to dedicate their new town hall, ominous weather forecasts abounded.

It was an eerie reminder, exactly three years to the day after a tornado devastated the Monroe County community, that Mississippi always has lived with the threat of dangerous weather this time of year and always will. Gov. Phil Bryant had to cut his time at the occasion short in order to get a briefing from state emergency management officials on the situation.

No community in Mississippi has taken a

bigger hit proportionately from a natural disaster than Smithville. Most of the town was flattened, and 16 of its residents perished that Wednesday afternoon in 2011.

The death toll and property damage in the town of about 900 were proportionately greater than even the death and devastation of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2005.

Yet what a remarkable recovery the town has made. Businesses, churches and school facilities have been rebuilt and reopened. A resilient spirit by Smithville people coupled with the rallying assistance of neighboring Northeast Mississippi communities, as well as state and local government, have turned

BOBBY HARRISON Contributing Writer mbj@msbusiness.com • 364-1018 TAMI JONES Advertising Director tami.jones@msbusiness.com • 364-1011

» THE OUTSIDE WORLD

» INSIDE MISSISSIPPI

Memoir shows changes in state race relations

MELISSA KILLINGSWORTH Sr. Account Executive

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what could have been a death blow to the community into a rebirth.

Much remains to be done, of course, but what has been accomplished in three short years is testimony to the toughness and tenacity of the people of this region.

Sunday’s dedication of its town hall marked the last remaining government building to reopen. It was in the old town hall that Mayor Gregg Kennedy and staff took cover under desks when the storm raged through town. They survived, but the building was demolished, as were so many nearby and for blocks around.

So, even with the storms of this week, we are reminded by the people of Smithville, that we will survive and we will move forward.

» HOW TO WRITE Letters to the editor are one of the most widely read features of the Mississippi Business Journal, and they give everyone a chance to voice their opinions about current affairs. We’re interested in what you think and we welcome Letters to the Editor for publication. Here are the guidelines: >> Letters should not exceed 300 words in length as a general rule. >> All letters must bear the writer’s address and telephone number. Street addresses and telephone numbers will not be published, but may be used for verification purposes. Letters may not appear without the author’s name. >> Form letters, thank you letters and letters to third parties generally are not acceptable. >> Letters must be typed or e-mailed. >> Letters must conform to good taste, not be libelous and not involve personal attacks on other persons.

>> All letters are subject to editing, and become the property of the Mississippi Business Journal. >> Letters can be sent to The Editor, The Mississippi Business Journal, 200 North Congress, Suite 400, Jackson, MS 39201, delivered to the newspaper during regular business hours or e-mailed to editor@msbusiness.com. They may also be faxed to Ross Reily at (601)-364-1007.

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avid Jordan was born on a Mississippi Delta plantation during the Great Depression, when segregation and poverty created a bleak outlook for a son of black sharecroppers.

Eighty years later, Jordan is a retired science teacher, longtime Greenwood City Council member and prominent state lawmaker known for advocating public education funding and opposing measures he sees as suppressing civil rights, including a new law that takes effect this year requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls.

In his new memoir, "From the Emily Pettus Mississippi Cotton Fields to the State Senate," Jordan writes about growing up in the segregated South.

Before graduating from high school with future Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman, Jordan picked cotton and worked at a white-owned store that sold illegal liquor.

Jordan said one day in the mid-1940s, when he was 12 or 13, he had just served beer to white people sitting in a car outside the store. Then a black man, who appeared to be drunk, walked by and touched the car. The white man jumped out of the car and attacked the black man, while his wife and children stood by helplessly.

"He kicked him down to the ground, just kicked him, stomped him," Jordan recalled in an interview at the Mississippi Capitol. "The whole family was hollering — 'Don't kill him!' The children were hollering, 'Don't kill my daddy!'"

The white man went inside to demand the store owner's gun. The owner refused, and the black man's See PETTUS, Page 7

PERSPECTIVE

May 2, 2014 I Mississippi Business Journal

» RICKY NOBILE

PETTUS

»PERCOLATING WITH BILL CRAWFORD

McDaniel’s record at odds with rhetoric

D

o you favor politicians who vote for earmarks funded with borrowed money? How about those who vote for tax increases?

If your answer is “no” and you want to throw the rascals out, then there won’t be many Republicans left in the Mississippi Legislature.

Huh? Yep, Republican legislators regularly vote to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in borrowed money for earmarks — for zoos, museums, cemeteries, colleges and universities, and more. They consistently vote in favor of allowing local tax increases and voted for increased tobacco taxes in 2009 and taxes on hospitals in 2008.

Oh, and amongst those Republican legislators who voted for earmarks and tax increases is a state senator named Chris McDaniel.

All this points out two things: One, a lot of our Republican legislators talk a stronger conservative game than they play.

And, two, McDaniel is nothing special when it comes to earmarks and taxes.

But wait, that last point deserves a second look.

You see, McDaniel in his campaign for the U.S. Senate portrays himself as a special candidate, one with strong character who takes principled stands with “no compromises, no surrenders.” He calls his candidacy part of “one last great stand for liberty.” A lawyer and former talk radio host, he does have a gift for compelling rhetoric.

While compelling rhetoric aligned with courageous stands indicates steadfastness, compelling rhetoric at odds with real behavior indicates something more shifty.

McDaniel proclaims his opposition to earmarks, calling them an “unfair and costly practice.”

But, since taking office in 2008, records show he has voted for nearly $50 million in earmarks funded by borrowed money – for pet legislative projects like the Jackson and Hattiesburg zoos, the Bill Crawford Ohr-O’Keefe and B.B. King museums and the Port of Greenville. And that doesn’t count hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks for colleges and universities.

Not bad projects, but earmarks just the same.

The Greenwood Commonwealth called his hand on this, pointing to McDaniel’s vote last year for a $2 million earmark for the Grammy Museum in Cleveland: “What we do criticize is the apparent hypocrisy of McDaniel’s campaign. He may say now what his tea party fans want to hear, but some of his votes before he was a candidate for the U.S. Senate say something else.”

McDaniel also proclaims his opposition to tax increases, saying he “will never vote for a tax increase.”

But, he has often voted for tax increases. Most votes were to authorize local tax increases, but he also voted for the controversial hospital tax to help fund Medicaid and he voted for the tobacco tax increase before he voted against it. A tax increase is a tax increase.

McDaniels’ record on earmarks and taxes is at odds with his compelling rhetoric. » Bill Crawford (crawfolk@gmail.com) is a syndicated columnist from Meridian.

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Continued from Page 6

family was able to move him away from the scene.

Jordan writes that the attack "made me realize just how deeply entrenched was the hatred for African-Americans. I knew then that I didn't want to grow up and witness such horrible acts of racial brutality and do nothing to try to prevent them."

Jordan and Freeman were classmates at Greenwood's all-black Broad Street High School, graduating in 1955. The senator writes that Freeman was an exceptionally gifted actor as a teen. During a school play, one student forgot his part, so a teacher sent Freeman onstage.

"Morgan rushed to the stage and quickly developed a new character," Jordan writes. "He ended the play with an impromptu performance and the audience never knew the difference."

In September 1955, when Jordan was a freshman at what was then Mississippi Valley State College, he and three other young men pooled their money, bought a tank of gasoline and drove about an hour up the road to attend the internationally reported trial of two white men accused of killing Emmett Till. The slaying of the black 14year-old, who was visiting Mississippi from Chicago, galvanized the civil rights movement after Jet magazine published photos of his mutilated body.

Jordan writes that the courtroom felt like a sauna and he could feel people staring at him and his friends.

"I guess the local whites figured four young black men should be somewhere picking cotton," he writes.

An all-white jury acquitted Roy Bryant and his half brother, J.W. Milam. Months later, in a paid interview with Look magazine, the men confessed to the kidnapping and killing.

Jordan and his wife, Christine, married in their early 20s and both worked as educators while raising their four children. He earned a master's degree in chemistry at the University of Wyoming, traveling there for three consecutive summer breaks in the late 1960s while he taught science at an all-black Mississippi high school that had shabby, outdated lab equipment.

Jordan writes about working to increase black voter registration and participation, particularly after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned poll taxes, literacy tests and other obstacles. Mississippi now has hundreds of black elected officials, from constables to county supervisors to a congressman. Still, he sees potential new obstacles to voting rights.

"I am totally against voter ID because in my opinion it's too similar to the hated poll tax," Jordan writes, echoing an argument he has made often during Senate debates since the mid-1990s.

"Voter ID can also be an intimidating factor that could possibly deter voters from voting, especially black seniors who once faced various forms of threat for attempting to vote."

Jordan wrote his memoir with assistance from Robert Jenkins, professor emeritus of history at Mississippi State University. It was published in March by the University Press of Mississippi. » Emily Wagster Pettus covers Mississippi politics for the As-

8 I Mississippi Business Journal I May 2 2014

JOB CREATION

Passing the test … Mississippi’s economic development incentives must now prove their worth » Bill author Rep. Brad Mayo says new law to ‘ferret out’ incentives no longer worthwhile or ones not worthwhile to begin with

By TED CARTER I STAFF WRITER ted.carter@msbusiness.com

The Pew Charitable Trusts has moved Mississippi to the front of the class among states with effective strategies for evaluating the value of taxpayer-supported incentives for economic development.

Mississippi’s elevation to national leader from Pew’s laggard list just two years ago comes after Gov. Phil Bryant’s signing last week of House Bill 1365, the Economic Development Programs and Tax Incentives Evaluation Act of 2014. HB1365, which unanimously passed the House and Senate, requires periodic evaluation of the value of tax credits, sale tax rebates and other incentives the Mississippi Development Authority uses to bring businesses into the state, retain other businesses and help ones already here expand.

The bill’s author, Rep. Brad Mayo, said the new law is designed to “ferret out” incentives that are no longer worthwhile or that were not worthwhile in the first place. Further, Mayo said in an interview last month, HB1365 could be a big first step toward modernizing a state tax code he says is littered with incentives for businesses “that maybe were smart at the time but we have gone through evolutions” as businesses and industries change.

Mayo, an Oxford Republican and investment adviser, said he intended his bill to go beyond the high-dollar economic development incentives..

“The standard line of thought is that we’re thinking only of major incentives,” he said. “My reading is that we’re” looking at all “preferential tax benefits used for recruitment and retention of businesses.

“They may be working. And if they are working, all the better,” Mayo added. “I’m a data man. I want to see the data and go from there.”

Many of the provisions he wants looked at did not come from the MDA or its predecessor agencies, he said. “They were thought up by legislators,” not professionals in recruiting into the state or keeping them here.

The Pew Charitable Trusts, a national non-profit public policy institute, urged Mississippi to adopt new evaluation standards after the center in spring 2012 released a state-by-state review of methods for assessing the effectiveness of tax incentives for economic development. The review put Mississippi in with more than two dozen other states it described as “trailing behind” other states in the scrutiny given tax incentive packages.

Robert Zahradnik, a principal researcher in that report and director of Pew’s economic development tax incentives work, said the state has taken a big step toward ensuring its taxpayers gain genuine value through awards of public dollars to private businesses. “This legislation stands to make Mississippi a national leader in tax incentives evaluation,” Zahradnik said in an inter-

BRYANT SIGNING KILLS SALES TAX REBATES FOR NEW RETAIL DEVELOPMENTS

By TED CARTER I STAFF WRITER ted.carter@msbusiness.com A stroke of Gov. Phil; Bryant’s pen April 23 brought to a close Mississippi’s short-lived experiment in granting sales tax rebates to new retail shopping as a way to boost visitor numbers and create jobs.

The Mississippi Development Authority so far has awarded up to $155 million in potential subsidies for three shopping malls since legislators widened the sales tax rebate program last year to include “cultural retail attractions,” or what are more commonly known as retail centers and shopping malls. House Bill 1358 puts an end to the rebates – at least for now.

Bryant HB1358 sponsor Rep. Rita Martinson, a Madison Republican, proposed in an earlier bill -- HB1233 – to extend the incentives for three more years. Lawmakers balked at giving the renewal a vote, arguing the state has a dearth of evidence that the incentives brought much value to the state beyond creating low-paid retail jobs and created unfair competition for merchants not receiving the tax incentives.

With more study and hard data to provide their value, the sales tax rebates could return.

Martinson said in an interview with The Associated Press she thinks incentives have been helpful, but conceded: “It might be at the point to sit back and see what we’ve done.”

The incentives that expire on July 1 returned 80 percent of sales taxes collected at a development over 10 years, until the total collected reaches 30 percent of the construction price.

Many economists voice doubts about subsidizing retail development. Good Jobs First, a nonprofit group that is skeptical of business subsidies, is particularly critical of giving money to retailers, saying they don’t pay well or create spinoff jobs, the AP reported.

“Building new retail space doesn’t grow the economy, it just moves sales and lousy jobs around,” the group writes.

The first retail development to qualify for the widened incentives was Pearl’s Outlets of Mississippi, where Spectrum Capital could get up to $24 million of its $80 million investment back. That mall opened in November.

Since then, Memphis developers have won certification for the proposed Outlet Shops of the Mid-South in Southaven, which could get $34 million of its $113 million construction cost.

Now, the third and largest development has been certified. CBL & Associates has been approved for up to $96.3 million of a projected $321 million investment for the Gulf Coast Galleria, which it hopes to build in D’Iberville, according to the AP. MDA has also certified developers of a proposed Westin hotel in downtown Jackson to collect up to $15.7 million from their proposed $52.3 million investment. Hotels, museums and other tourist attractions were already eligible for the rebates before last year, but may not reach the 30 percent ceiling. Jackson’s King Edward Hotel had only collected $1 million of up to $19.5 million by the middle of 2013.

Through mid-2013, the program had paid out only $20.8 million. Of that, almost 75 percent went to another stage of the Pearl development including a Bass Pro Shops store and the Trustmark Park baseball stadium, AP reported.

view shortly after the April 23 signing of Mayo’s legislation.

“Regular evaluations help the state base its economic development strategy on evidence” of what works, he said.

The University Research Center and its economists have analyzed the effectiveness of incentives for specific economic development projects. Now, the economists will periodically appraise the costs and benefits of individual incentives.

Zahradnik said Pew is especially pleased to see the new law connect the evaluations to the policy making process by requiring annual hearings of a joint panel made up of members of the House Ways & Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.

Pew’s 2012 review, conducted by an arm of the organization for formally called the Pew Center for the States, has generated renewed interest among the states for gauging the effectiveness of public-provided business incentives. Rhode Island adopted new evaluation methods last year. Mississippi drew some elements of its new law from the Rhode Island legislation, according to Zahradnik, who called Rhode Island’s law “a starting point” for what Mississippi adopted.

Indiana also drew from Rhode Island in passing a new law in its recent legislative session, he said. Nebraska lawmakers this spring agreed to appoint a task force to recommend new evaluation methods for their state, he added.

Mississippi legislators were prepared to pass a similar law last year but held back until ways could be found to protect proprietary information on businesses the state Department of Revenue would be sharing with state economists.

But getting to that point in 2013 took a multi-year effort. Mississippi tried in the 1990s to measure effectiveness of its spending on business incentives, but those measures have been ignored in recent years, The Associated Press noted in a January 2013 report on new efforts to require more stringent evaluations.

All along, state economists have looked at some of the incentives before they’ve become law, said Bob Neal, a senior state economist. ““We’ve had input into changing the structure of some of the incentives.”

Neal, in an interview last month after legislators approved the new review requirements, sad the a challenge will be to overcome the problem of determining the value of an individual incentive when packaged with other incentives. “By evaluating individual incentives you are assuming no other incentives were offered at the same time.”

But if two incentives were put in place, one may have provided all the benefits and the other none of the benefits, Neal said.

The job is made even more challenging by the mixand-match approach Mississippi uses in its incentives packages, a method that gives the MDA flexibility to design incentives for a specific company’s mission and operation, according to Neal.

See

INCENTIVES, Page 9

May 2 2014

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Mississippi Business Journal

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9

SPACE EXPLORATION

Stennis Space Center welcomes SpaceX to test site

By LISA MONTI I CONTRIBUTOR mbj@msbusiness.com

HANCOCK COUNTY — Stennis Space Center traces its beginnings back in the 1960s and the Apollo manned lunar missions. Now the Hancock County propulsion facility is on the verge of testing rocket engine technology to propel humans to other planets through a new partnership between NASA and SpaceX. SpaceX announced in 2013 that it would bring the initial testing of its Raptor methane rocket engine components to Stennis, where NASA, the Department of Defense and others in the private sector test rocket propulsion systems on a variety of structures. SpaceX is developing the Raptor as a reusable engine for a heavy-lift launch vehicle.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday, Stennis director Rick Gilbrech said, “This is a great partnership between NASA and SpaceX. These types of activities are opening new doors of commercial space exploration for companies.

SpaceX is another example of the outstanding progress America’s commercial space industry is making, and we are happy to welcome them as our newest commercial test customer.”

Under an agreement with NASA, SpaceX upgraded the E-2 test stand with methane capability under an engine testing agreement. E-2 will be available for future testing by the government and commercial ventures.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the company was ready to put the sophisticated high pressure test stand to work.

“SpaceX is proud to bring the Raptor testing program to NASA’s Stennis Space Center and the great state of Mississippi,” she said. "In partnership with NASA, SpaceX has helped create one of the most advanced engine testing facilities in the world, and we look forward to putting the stand to good use.”

SpaceX’s head engineer at Stennis said testing would get under way within a month of Monday’s invitation-only event.

Gov. Phil Bryant was among the dignitaries who spoke as part of the ceremonial

INCENTIVES

Special to the MBJ

NASA and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) cut the ribbon at the E-2 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center on April 21 to mark the beginning of a new testing partnership. SpaceX will test components of its methane-fueled Raptor rocket engine on the stand. Participants in the ribbon-cutting ceremony were (l to r): Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell, U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo of Mississippi and NASA’s Stennis Space Center Director Rick Gilbrech.

ribbon cutting and called Stennis “one of Mississippi’s greatest assets.”

The Mississippi Development Authority and the Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission provided assistance for improvements to the test stand. MDA Executive Director Brent Christensen said in a release that SpaceX “strengthens the state’s position as an industry leader in the global aerospace sector and demonstrates to the world that Stennis is an ideal location for aerospace companies with sophisticated research and development needs.”

Following the ceremony, Ashley Edwards, executive director of the Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission, said, “SpaceX is leading a paradigm shift in the space industry. As the home of Stennis Space Center, Hancock County is an

Continued from Page 8

The economist said he thinks credible assessments can be made, nonetheless.

“Even if it is an imperfect evaluation, it’s still a good idea,” he said.

Zahradnik of the Pew Charitable Trusts said other states have concerns similar to those voiced by Neal. “What we’ve found in our research is that a number of states have found

important marker on the path of human space exploration. We are honored to partner with a company like SpaceX, which is revolutionizing our approach to the frontier of space.”

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX was founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk in 2002 with the aim of revolutionizing space transportation so that people can ultimately live on other planets.

Musk co-founded PayPal and is CEO of Tesla Motors.

The Hawthorne, Calk., company designs, manufactures and launches what it calls the world’s most advance rockets and spacecraft. In 2012 SpaceX won a $440 million agreement with NASA to develop the Dragon spacecraft to transport humans into space. The company’s goal is to reach

ways to tackle that question,” he said.

A start is to ask by asking specifically what amount of jobs did the new business bring and factoring in a calculation of its effect on a competing business.

It’s also important to evaluate the “offset” of using a state resource such as a tax incentive “and having to cut spending or increase taxes to pay for it. “You have to evaluate how to evaluate the offset of that,” he said.

If the goal is to get the picture of the economic impact, Zahradnik said, the evaluator must look closely at the metrics used in determining the cost per job created. This

Mars in the next 15 or so years.

SpaceX has compiled an impressive list of milestones since its incorporation. In 2008, its Falcon 1 prototype rocket became the first privately developed liquid fueled rocket to orbit the Earth. In 2009 Falcon 1 became the first privately developed rocket to deliver a commercial satellite into orbit.

In May 2012 SpaceX’s Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to attach to the International Space Station, deliver cargo and return to Earth. That was followed in October 2012 by the first cargo resupply mission to the station.

The company’s third cargo trip to the Space Station arrived Easter Sunday when SpaceX 3 Dragon delivered tons of supplies to the crew.

should give an idea of which incentives are the most cost effective, he said.

In an email follow-up Tuesday, Zahradnik said determining the value of an individual incentive when packaged with other incentives may require the state to find ways to improve data collection and reporting. “Pew has launched the business incentives initiative to develop standards and best practices that Mississippi and other states can use to successfully gather and report data on economic development incentives,” he said.

10 I Mississippi Business Journal I May 2 2014

STORMS

BUILT TO LAST

WALLY NORTHWAY / The Mississippi Business Journal

The EOC floor is the “war room” of MEMA’s headquarters and offers cutting-edge telecommunications assets.

200 miles per hour.

The facility is also air pressurized. If facing an airborne biological or hazardous threat, the facility has the ability to Nowhere is the impact of Hurricane Katrina more evident ventilate its own air. than at the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency The Haley R. Barbour Building employs two large (MEMA) headquarters. generators. If weather threatens to cut the power, MEMA In 2005 when Katrina made landfall, emergency staff will go ahead and turn on the generators. According to personnel crowded into a tiny Emergency Operations Flynn, the building can operate for nearly a week solely on Center (EOC) floor in the Mississippi National Guard backup generator power. headquarters on Riverside Drive in Jackson to coordinate In operation since July 2006, funding for the $16.6-million response to the largest natural disaster to ever hit the state. Barbour Building came from grants, including $6.6 million "To put it in perspective, the entire EOC floor at the former from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and $9 facility was about the size of our current conference room," million in state bonds. said MEMA public information officer Greg Flynn.

In 2011, the Mississippi Legislature voted to rename the As officials monitored the approaching storm system facility for former Gov. Barbour, who is perhaps best known early this week, they did so in the Haley R. Barbour for his leadership during the immediate response to and Building. The entire facility, which is located in Pearl, recovery efforts for Katrina. A dedication ceremony was encompasses 72,000 square feet. The EOC floor — held Jan. 2012. essentially the state's war room during disasters — Ironically, one of the tornadoes that hit Mississippi on totals 4,000 square feet and boasts four mammoth April 28 passed nearly right over the EOC. Tornado sirens video screens and banks of communication equipment. were sounding as Gov. Phil Bryant held a press conference It sits 30 feet below ground to help safeguard against a at MEMA headquarters. tornado strike.

At the end of the news conference, Bryant said to the The new EOC is built to last. The walls and roof are crowd, “I would advise you that we are under a warning. constructed of eight-inch concrete panels with reinforced You don’t have to go outside. You’re in the safest place you steel. The building is designed to withstand winds of up to can be.”

By WALLY NORTHWAY I STAFF WRITER wally.northway@msbusiness.com

Fulton Crossing Corinth, Mississippi Retail Investment Opportunity

Kris Cooper Managing Director Direct +1 404 995 2271 kris.cooper@am.jll.com

Margaret Caldwell Managing Director Direct +1 404 995 2270 margaret.caldwell@am.jll.com

Continued from Page 1

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) executive director Robert Latham said, "I've been doing this a long time, and I've never seen anything like this before."

Fortunately, emergency officials had some time to get ready. If not for advanced warning and preparation by MEMA and emergency personnel statewide, the destruction and losses seen in Mississippi would have almost certainly been higher, and the response would have been less effective.

On Friday, April 25, the weather was pictureperfect outside MEMA's Haley R. Barbour Emergency Operations Center. Inside, however, the climate was anything but sunny.

MEMA staff members and other disaster response personnel were already monitoring the storm system that was brewing to the west, which was expected to impact the state as early as Sunday, April 27. All the elements were right for the spawning of large tornadoes as well as hail, wind and flooding.

At 10 a.m. that Friday, MEMA officials participated in a joint teleconference with the Storm Prediction Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The teleconference was called because forecasters were predicting that the event would impact multiple regions over several days.

After the call, Latham reminded his staff that while the National Weather Service (NWS) commonly conducts such a teleconference, it is a rare event when the Storm Prediction Center and FEMA do so.

Looking at MEMA public information officer Greg Flynn, Latham said, "Somehow we have to get the word out that this is no ordinary weather event. My fear is people have become numb to these warnings."

Latham, however, warned Flynn of overreaching. MEMA was to receive a report from the NWS at 2 p.m., which should give a clearer picture of where the threat stands now.

Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) is pleased to exclusively offer for sale the 179,905 square foot neighborhood center Fulton Crossing, located in Corinth, MS, just to the north of Tupelo, MS. The Property is anchored by national tenants Kroger and Kmart. Fulton Crossing is strategically situated on ± 19.60 acres along Highway 72, the primary traffic artery in Corinth. The Property’s design with multiple buildings and available suites lends to multiple scenarios for an owner to maximize the value of the Property.

“Somehow we have to get the word out that this is no ordinary weather event” Robert Latham MEMA executive director

Perhaps the most chilling moment of the meeting was when Latham and Flynn discussed the 2011 tornado outbreak that caused widespread damage, fatalities and obliterated the town of Smithville.

Latham turned to a staffer and said, "I want us to go back and look at any problems we saw in 2011. I don't want us to have those problems this weekend."

A representative with the Mississippi National Guard reported that Monday, April 28 represented a day off for Guardsmen, but assured Latham they could be ready at a moments notice with assets, including six Black Hawk helicopters based in Jackson.

Then meeting personnel went over a long list of preparedness needs. Latham also instructed his staff to do an assessment of any large outside events that might be scheduled for the weekend, and ordered them to check with emergency management personnel in north and central Mississippi to insure they were ready for the worst.

Other issues raised centered on communication systems and protocol, debris removal, coordination with the Governor's Office and state agencies, the availability of state, county and local personnel and equipment — even assessing the emergency needs in Alabama that MEMA could furnish should Mississippi be spared.

After the meeting, Latham said in a statement, "As a government we are as prepared as we can be and will respond as necessary to support local governments and our citizens. Now we are asking the public to get prepared."

On Sunday, April 27, the storm system blasted multiple states, leaving 17 dead in Arkansas and Oklahoma. That day, Latham briefed Gov. Phil Bryant and his staff on the forecast and all preparedness activities. Bryant declared a state of See

MEMA, Page 13

May 2 2014

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Mississippi Business Journal

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11

»IDENTITY THEFT

Securing (or taking back) your identity

T

he Federal Trade Commission recently reported in its Consumer Sentinel that identity theft complaints increased to 369,132 for the year ended December 31, 2012.

This appears to be a small number; but it grew by 25% over 2011. As with other fraud schemes, experts generally agree that identity theft is extremely under-reported for a number of reasons. The increased reporting reflects greater awareness of the issue; and, to a certain degree, increased frequency.

Since identity theft is not going away, it behooves us to consider how thieves steal identities, what can be done to prevent such theft, and how to take back identities that have been stolen.

As a part of daily life, everyone leaves a trail of his / her personal information. This information includes one’s name, address, social security number, bank accounts, credit cards, and debit cards. We send and receive this information through the mail, via the internet, and other means. Mundane daily transactions carry one’s personal information and expose it to the possibility of theft. Thieves position themselves where they can access other’s personal information as it is transmitted. Some of the more prevalent ways that thieves get access to a victim’s personal information are: 1. Stealing your wallet or purse.

2. Intercepting your incoming or outgoing mail.

3. Taking information that his / her employer has obtained legitimately from the victim.

4. Sifting through the victim’s trash (i.e., dumpster diving).

5. Watching the victim enter log-in and passwords to gain access (i.e., shoulder surfing).

6. Stealing credit / debit card information using a magnetic strip reader (i.e., skimming).

7. Posing as a financial institution or other business to get you to reveal your personal information online (i.e., phishing). If this scam is perpetrating using a phone, it is known as pre-texting.

8. Hacking into a business’s information system (e.g., compromising of Target’s credit card processing system).

Certain precautions can mitigate or prevent the theft of one’s identity. Such preventive measures include: 1. Order your credit report annually from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). One free report can be ordered directly from each bureau per year.

2. Put passwords on all bank, credit card, debit card, phone, and other utility accounts. Use strong passwords that cannot be easily deciphered. If allowed, use numbers, symbols, upper and lower case letters. Do not use the same passwords on multiple accounts. Do not write passwords down.

3. Mail checks and correspondence containing personal information from U.S. Postal Service mail-

box. Do not use your mailbox at home. Consider getting a post office box for bills and other sensitive correspondence.

4. Carry only the identification, credit cards, and debit cards that you truly Charley Rafferty need. Never carry your social security card or number.

5. Avoid giving out your social security number.

Request to use another form of identification.

6. Have your social security number removed from your driver’s license.

7. Shred all documents with personal information before throwing it in the trash. This includes bills, receipts, and credit card offers.

8. Review every transaction on your bank and credit card statements to verify authenticity.

9. Follow up on any bills or statements that are late in arriving at your mailbox.

10. If you are contacted by phone or email regarding one of your accounts, do not share any personal information. Contact the account issuer’s fraud reporting department directly to investigate the issue.

11. Consider obtaining insurance against identity theft.

If you suspect that your identity has been stolen, you should take the following actions: 1. Place an initial fraud alert. Contact the fraud department of one of the three credit reporting bureaus and request that an initial fraud alert be placed on your credit report. Verify that they will contact the other two bureaus. The fraud alert will require businesses to verify your identity before extending credit. This will generally require them to contact you directly.

2. Order your credit reports from the three credit reporting bureaus.

3. Contact your local police department and file a report of the theft.

4. Submit an Identity Theft Affidavit to the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office. See their website (http://www.ago.state.ms.us/wpcontent/uploads/2013/IdTheftBook.pdf).

5. Contact the fraud department for any credit cards, debit cards, or other accounts that you believe may have been compromised or stolen. Inform them of the theft and cancel existing cards / accounts and have new ones issued. Secure them with a personal identification number (“PIN”) or password.

The websites for the Federal Trade Commission and the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office have exhaustive information on preventing and responding to identity theft. Consult these websites for further information.

Charley Rafferty is a partner at GranthamPoole CPA firm.

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AA/EOE/ADAI UC 70667.5016 4.14

12 I Mississippi Business Journal I May 2, 2014 SEAFOOD R’EVOLUTION

SEAFOOD R’EVOLUTION FACTS AND FIGURES » Executive Chefs: John Folse and Rick Tramonto » Address:1000 Highland Colony Parkway, # 9017 Ridgeland, MS 39157 » Restaurant Phone:601-853-FISH or 601853-3474 » Pre-Opening Phone: 225-644-6000 » Website:www.seafoodrevolution.com » Facebook: facebook.com/seafoodrevolution » Twitter Handle:@SeafoodRevJxn » InstaGram:seafoodrevolution

FOR THE MBJ

Hours of Operation: » Dinner: 5:30 – 10:00 p.m. » Sunday: Jazz Brunch 10:30 am. – 2 p.m.

Dinner 5:00 – 10:00 p.m. » Bar R’evolution: Monday – Wednesday: Open at 5 p.m.

Thursday – Sunday: Open at 11 a.m. » Cuisine: Chefs John Folse and Rick Tramonto will innovatively combine Folse’s classic Southern approach to seafood with Tramonto’s contemporary new-world style. While paying homage to Mississippi’s heritage, Seafood R’evolution will celebrate a cultural fusion of the foods and flavors that have shaped the culinary landscape of the Gulf Coast over generations.

Seafood R’evolution, which is being constructed at The Renaissance at Colony Parkway, is set to open in September and is expected to employ as many as 150.

New restaurant set to start R’evolution in Ridgeland

By SARAH DILL REILY I CONTRIBUTOR mbj@msbusiness.com

The 10,000-square-foot Seafood R’evolution with seating for 317 is set to open in September at Ridgeland’s Renaissance at Colony Park.

Louisiana’s culinary ambassador to the world, Chef Folse, was doing a pretty good job lifting up Mississippi as he introduced himself and the second act of their restaurant Seafood R’evolution with partner, Chicago’s Chef Tramonto.

Their restaurant development company, Home on the Range’s first endeavor, Restaurant R’evolution, opened in the New Orleans Royal Sonesta Hotel in 2012 and instantly won culinary acclaim.

Folse with his downhome “Cajun by the grace of

Gov. Phil Bryant admitted he doesn’t make it to many restaurant announcements to sample gumbo.

“This one is very special,” he said.

One day earlier the governor was photographed cutting the ribbon on the NASA SpaceX testing partnership in Hancock County. This day, Bryant welcomed iconic chefs John Folse and Rick Tramonto’s Seafood R’evolution with the gusto he afforded the auto industry. “We are going to put people to work in this state,” said Bryant, announcing the 150 jobs the venture is slated to bring.

Bryant also touted the boost to the state’s culinary image the two celebrity chefs, both with award-winning restaurants, television series and best-selling cookbooks, would bring the state.

“It’s a real vote of confidence for FOR THE MBJ Mississippi’s culinary Rendering of the main dining room at Seafood R’evolution. culture,” said John T. God” drawl connected the dots on how their team Edge, the director of the Southern Foodways Alliance arrived in Ridgeland. The Chef reminisced with at the University of Mississippi. “What is significant excitement on his childhood vacations to Biloxi’s once about the restaurant is that Folse and Tramonto are flourishing Broadwater Beach Resort, flying over the not of Mississippi and yet pay homage to Mississippi state’s catfish ponds as Delta Pride’s executive chef; thru it’s food culture.” he talked of the relationships of supplying food to the

Sarah Reily / MBJ

Casino Magic Biloxi as well as being one of the founders of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi in Oxford and his PBS television series partnership with Viking Range for more than 20 years. It was clear Mississippi had left Folse good memories and good luck in the growth of the chef’s career.

Chef Folse pronounced Mississippi as the “new culinary epicenter of the South.”

Folse said his and Tramonto’s new restaurant location visible from Interstate 55 was not chosen lightly. The chef duo spent time dining over fish at Chrechale’s Restaurant and mentioned longtime restaurants like Mayflower of Jackson, Doe’s Eat Place of Greenville and City Grocery of Oxford as paving the way for new food revolution in the region.

“We won’t disappoint you. The food will be great,” said Tramonto.

Gov. Phil Bryant and Malcolm White welcome Seafood R’evolution Executive Chefs John Folse and Rick Tramonto to Mississippi during a welcome event at Renaissance at Colony Parkway in Ridgeland last week. Their new restaurant, which is expected to create 150 jobs, is slated to open in September.

He has a passion for mentoring young chefs and plans to give back to their new Mississippi community.

If Folse can do for the culinary reputation of Mississippi what he did for the catfish industry and Delta Pride in the early 1980s, everyone had better hold on. He brought Mississippi catfish to Moscow and in the process, “Catfish brought down the iron curtain,” joked Folse. “I can proudly say it’s great to come home to Mississippi.”

Lead architect Bill Johnson of the The Johnson Studio in Atlanta said Seafood R’evolution will be a “Feast for the eyes as well as the palate.” Johnson has a longtime relationship with the chefs, designing their first restaurant of Chicago and R’evolution of New Orleans. For the Ridgeland location, Johnson has designed two main dining rooms inspired by “great Gulf resorts of the past”, a raw bar, three private rooms, outdoor patio dining and Bar R’evolution.

May 2 2014

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Mississippi Business Journal

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13 DeSoto 5.5 Tunica 15.4

MISSISSIPPI’S MARCH UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES

Tate 9.3

Feb ’14 1,259,600 100,200 7.4 8.0 1,159,400

Mar ’13 1,285,600 109,100 9.0 8.5 1,176,500

’13 Avg. 1,286,400 110,800 XXX 8.6 1,175,700

Coahoma 13.2

Yalobusha 9.3

STATE OF MISSISSIPPI Unemployment Insurance Data •• Initial UI Claims Continued Claims Benefits Paid Weeks Paid First Payments Final Payments Average Weekly Benefit

Mar ‘14 155,627,000 10,537,000 6.7 6.8 145,090,000

Feb ’14 155,027,000 10,893,000 6.7 7.0 144,134,000

Mar ’13 154,512,000 11,815,000 7.5 7.6 142,698,000

Mar 2014 7,979 84,601 $11,989,748 62,998 3,095 1,714 $190.32

’13 Avg. 155,389,000 11,460,000 XXX 7.4 143,929,000

Feb 2014 6,538 81,946 $11,740,537 61,681 3,523 1,757 $190.34

Leflore 12.5

Carroll 7.8

Montgomery 10.2

Humphreys 13.7

Holmes 16.3

Yazoo 10.4

Issaquena 17.5

WALLY NORTHWAY / The Mississippi Business Journal

With Robert Latham looking on, Gov. Phil Bryant addresses the media last Monday morning as severe storms began moving into the state.

Lowndes 9.2

Oktibbeha 8.0

Winston 11.2

Leake 8.8

Neshoba 6.2

Scott 5.4

Newton 6.8

Noxubee 15.9

Kemper 15.3

Madison 6.1 Warren 9.0 Rankin 4.7

Hinds 7.2

Claiborne 13.5

Adams 7.6

Franklin 8.5

Wilkinson 10.8

Lincoln 7.2

Pike 9.0

Covington Jones 6.4 6.0

Walthall 10.0

Continued from Page 10

emergency ahead of the storms in order to be able to mobilize assets more efficiently, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency positioned a liaison at MEMA headquarters in case federal resources are requested.

On the morning of Monday, April 28, the mood was grim at MEMA. According to Brett Carr, MEMA spokesperson, damage in Mississippi on Sunday had been minor, mainly downed power lines and trees and lightning strikes, and no injuries were reported. But, he added, the worst was to come.

On Monday morning at 10 a.m., officials received a weather report from the NWS. After the report, Gov. Phil Bryant and Latham held an impromptu news conference at MEMA to discuss preparations.

“This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint,” Latham said flatly, and again urged residents to heed the warnings.

On the EOC floor, which is the MEMA war room for such events, personnel from the Mississippi National Guard, Mississippi Department of Education, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, Mississippi Department of Health, American Red Cross, Salvation Army and other organizations were already gathering and watching large clusters of storms that had entered North Mississippi.

Over the next hours, reports of damage started flooding in.

Massive tornadoes were confirmed, leaving large areas of destruction and injuries, particularly in Tupelo and Louisville, where response efforts were crippled when the local hospital was hit forcing patient evacuations.

By 5 p.m., 23 tornado warnings had been issued and six tornadoes had been confirmed. Bryant, who was still at MEMA headquarters,

Marion 9.0

Lamar 5.4

Pearl River 7.6

Hancock 7.6

Lauderdale 7.7

Clarke 9.0

Wayne 9.7

Lawrence Jeff Davis 8.9 9.7

Unemployment Rates Unem ates 4.7 - 6.0 6.1 - 8.9 9.0 - 15.3 15.4 - 17.5

Jasper 8.1

Smith 6.8

Simpson 6.3

Copiah 8.5

Amite 8.8

— Mississippi Department of Employment Security

MEMA

Monroe 11.1

Clay 17.2

Choctaw 8.7

Attala 10.5

Jefferson 14.8

** Average for most recent twelve months, including current month •• Unemployment Insurance amounts presented in this section only represent regular UI benefits, federal program amounts are not included.

Labor force amounts are produced in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Note: Unless indicated state and county data presented are not seasonally adjusted.

Tishomingo 8.3

Itawamba 8.0

Chickasaw 10.3

Webster 12.0

Washington 13.3

Moving Avg.** 155,473,000 11,026,000 XXX 7.1 144,447,000

Mar 2013 9,488 102,861 $13,626,717 71,631 4,074 1,886 $190.23

Calhoun 9.4

Grenada 8.1

Sunflower 14.0

Lee 7.8

Pontotoc 7.0

Quitman 12.7

Bolivar 10.0

Moving Avg.** 1,278,100 105,300 XXX 8.2 1,172,800

Lafayette 5.8

Sharkey 10.5

UNITED STATES Labor Force Data Civilian Labor Force Unemployed Unemployment Rate (Adjusted) Unemployment Rate (Unadjusted) Employed

Alcorn 6.9

Tippah 9.4 Union 6.3

Tallahatchie 10.9

Mar ‘14 1,264,400 100,200 7.6 7.9 1,164,200

Benton 10.3

Prentiss 8.6

Panola 10.5

Labor force and employment security data STATE OF MISSISSIPPI Labor Force Data Civilian Labor Force Unemployed Unemployment Rate (Adjusted) Unemployment Rate (Unadjusted) Employed

Marshall 8.9

Forrest 7.0

Perry 7.7

Stone 6.8

Harrison 7.2

Greene 9.3

George 7.7

Jackson 8.2

Source: Labor Market Data Publication March 2014 Design: Labor Market Information Department, MDES

said he and other officials were trying to sift through all of the information.

“There is a bit of a rush to get info into MEMA. We’re filtering through that information, trying to verify as much of it as we can,” he said.

Latham said, “As good as our plans are, there is a certain period of chaos” in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophic natural disaster.

However, pre-storm preparation was already evident in the response efforts. For instance, over the weekend officials decided to staff three mobile command centers with personnel from key state agencies.

Latham said usually only one mobile command center would be activated, but because they foresaw a widespread disaster, they tripled the staffing. That allowed emergency response leadership in multiple areas.

Also, National Guardsman had already been activated to Tupelo and Louisville, and a six-bed mobile emergency room had been sent to Louisville. Due to effective communication assets, emergency personnel in unaffected counties were ordered in behind the storms to aid efforts in affected areas.

Later that evening, tornadoes hit the metro Jackson area, causing significant destruction across the area, particularly in Rankin County communities of Brandon, Pearl and Richland, and a tornado in Wayne County left nearly a dozen injured.

On Tuesday, April 29, scattered storms prompted a handful of watches and warnings, but the worst had passed. As of that evening, MEMA was reporting damage in 20 counties and 12 fatalities.

Flynn said while he was convinced that MEMA had prepared as well as it could, the injuries and deaths were frustrating and sad, and the agency would work to be more effective when the next natural disaster hits.

“We learn something from every one of these events,” Flynn said.

May 2, 2014 • MISSISSIPPI BUSINESS JOURNAL • www.msbusiness.com

AN MBJ FOCUS:

RESTAURANTS, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

MAKING THE RIGHT MOVES » Krilakis owner happy with results after relocating restaurant to Ridgeland

By LYNN LOFTON I CONTRIBUTOR mbj@msbusiness.com

Moving a successful business from one town to another town can be a risky thing.

However, the move for Krilakis, a Greek restaurant, from Byram to Ridgeland in 2011 has been good.

Owner Drew Creel admits he was nervous about the move, which took him out of his comfort zone.

“We’ve had a great response far beyond what I thought it might be,” he said. “The day we opened I had to buy another grill.

It was a wonderful move.”

Business continues to be brisk as more diners in the Jackson metro area discover they like Greek food, and Creel definitely enjoys being the catalyst for that discovery.

He learned to love Greek food the ideal

way by living in Greece where his parents, Robert and Rebecca Creel, were missionaries for the Assemblies of God. “I developed a love for Greek food in the 10 years I lived there and it’s in my blood,” said Drew Creel, who speaks fluent Greek. “In Greece, gyros are like McDonald’s here; there’s one on every block in Athens. Many of them have a sidewalk window with a grill right there in the window. I enjoyed the food, the night life and strolling around the city squares.”

Greeks love to eat, and their food is not bland even though the ingredients are See

KRILAKIS, Page 22

Drew Creel and his wife, Missy, show off Krilakis’ gyro salad and double-cheese burger. Krilakis relocated their restaurant to 207 W. Jackson St., Suite D, in Ridgeland in 2011.

Frank Brown / The Mississippi Business Journal

RESTAURANTS, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

May 2, 2014

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Mississippi Business Journal

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15

MISSISSIPPI HOSPITALITY AND RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION

Still looking good at 60 Âť Restaurant group provides training, legislative support for businesses in Mississippi

By BECKY GILLETTE I CONTRIBUTOR mbj@msbusiness.com

There aren’t many people around who remember the early days of the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association (MHRA), which is celebrating turning 60 years old this year with a big event, the Restaurant University & The Summer of Seafood Extravaganza/Anniversary Bash Drawdown June 23 at the Old Capital Inn. MHRA began primarily as an informal networking organization. Today, it is far more than that. It provides training that helps restaurants become more efficient and profitable, there are group purchasing programs that allow members to take advantage of the best deals on things like credit card processing, and its lobbying program has had a major impact on restaurant profitability. “It gives us a voice in Jackson,� said Scott Weinberg, owner of the Blow Fly Inn in Gulfport and a past president of MHRA.

“Some of these tax increases were so large you couldn’t pass them on to the consumer in a way the consumer would accept. Businesses would have had to eat it, and there is not enough room in the bottom line for them to do that.� — Mike Cashion, executive director, MHRA “It also helps us keep in touch with what is going on in Jackson as far as what legislation might be coming to a vote.But it also does more than that. It allows you to be in touch with people in your field who understand what you go through, people who can help you with questions you might have about your industry. We are all in this together. We certainly help each other out.�

The importance of trying to defeat bills harmful to the industry and passing favorable legislation including those that reduce burdensome regulations all give restaurants

more money to their bottom line, said MHRA Executive Director Mike Cashion. “We scored our past two legislative sessions regarding what we were able to do passing good legislation and defeating bad legislation, and it has had a $17,000 per location per year average positive impact on restaurants,� Cashion said. “We have been able to grow our Political Action Committee fund so we can get more actively involved in elections and candidate recruitment. We work to support candidates who are pro restaurants.

We have developed ways to raise contribu-

tions, which are really important to our legislative effort.�

Over the years, the biggest concerns MHRA has had are the areas of taxation and regulation. Businesses are interested in minimizing their tax liability and regulatory burdens. Cashion said they have been able to ward off some increases in excise taxes on liquor and sugared beverages that would have been a dramatic financial hit to restaurants. “Some of these tax increases were so large you couldn’t pass them on to the consumer in a way the consumer would accept,� Cashion said. “Businesses would have had to eat it, and there is not enough room in the bottom line for them to do that.�

Passage of pre-emption legislation this past year that keeps counties or cities from being able to create their See

MHRA, Page 16

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16 I Mississippi Business Journal I May 2, 2014

MHRA

Continued from Page 15

own laws regulating restaurants was of critical importance.

“If there needs to be legislation passed regarding our industry, it needs to be done at the state level,” Cashion said.

“We are seeing in other states one city will do this and another will do another thing. That creates major headaches.”

MHRA’s biggest legislative issue for the next couple of years will be regarding the nine percent privilege fee against

RESTAURANTS, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

restaurants that has been in place since 1967. For every $5,000 incremental purchase of alcohol, restaurants are automatically taxed $450.

“In 1967, you had to buy a lot of alcohol to get to $5,000,” Cashion said. “Today, in this market, $5,000 is not a whole lot. You have restaurants that collect that every week. It gets to be pretty expensive.”

MHRA also has training programs for its members, which represent 1,400 locations or about 30 percent of the restaurants in the state.

In addition to the Restaurant University

“There is not any question when you increase the minimum wage, you decrease the number of hours someone can work, and cut jobs. It is just not what we need in the economy right now. The economy continues to be challenging. The cost of doing business increases. This is another cost increase we just don’t need.”

— Mike Cashion, executive director, MHRA that will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 23 as part of the 60th anniversary celebra-

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This magazine will profile all AWARD RECIPIENTS and pay tribute to their excellence in business and community achievements. » Your ad will be seen by all MBJ subscribers. » The Top 40 Under 40 recipients will know that you supported them at this special time in their lives.

tion, MHRA will also come to the restaurants to offer training in customer service and issues such as restaurant finances.

“In the past 20 years we have really been able to expand our education and training offerings,” Cashion said.

“We know a lot of independent restaurateurs who get into the business are missing key training components. They may be good at cooking, but don’t understand finances, or how to train employees. We have developed a whole menu of training programs we are able to offer free to members.

We don’t do any of it online. The type of training we do requires face-to-face interactions with questions and answers.”

MHRA has also levered the size of its organization to add programs, products and services that have been really attractive to the profitability of restaurants throughout the state. Cashion said there are programs that provide discounts in areas such as credit card processing, all types of insurance including worker’s comp, marketing tools and industry assessment tools.

MHRA is also active in lobbying on national legislation. Cashion recently traveled to Washington, D.C. regarding legislation that is proposed to increase the minimum wage.

“It has major implications for our industry,” Cashion said. “There is not any question when you increase the minimum wage, you decrease the number of hours someone can work, and cut jobs. It is just not what we need in the economy right now. The economy continues to be challenging. The cost of doing business increases. This is another cost increase we just don’t need.”

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OUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS Restaurants Name

May 2, 2014

Address

I

Mississippi Business Journal

Phone

17

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Website

Abe’s Bar-B-Q

616 N. State St., Clarksdale, MS 38614

(662) 624-9947

www.abesbbq.com

Bar-B-Que by Jim Smokehouse & Grill

203 Commerce St., Tupelo, MS 38804

(662) 840-8800

www.bbqbyjim.com

Blue Canoe

2006 N. Gloster St., Tupelo, MS 38804

(662) 269-2642

www.bluecanoebar.com

Breaud’s Seafood & Steak

511 Main St., Natchez, MS 39120

(601) 445-8502

www.breaudsseafoodandsteak.com

Carriage House Restaurant (Stanton Hall)

401 High St., Natchez, MS 39120

(601) 445-5151

www.stantonhall.com

City Grocery (Oxford)

152 Courthouse Sq., Oxford, MS 38655

(662) 232-8080

www.citygroceryonline.com

Como Steakhouse

203 N. Main St., Como, MS 38619

(662) 526-9529

www.thecomosteakhouse.com

Crawdad’s

104 S. Park St., Merigold, MS 38759

(662) 748-2441

www.crawdads1.com

Delta Bistro

117 Main St., Greenwood, MS 38930

(662) 455-9575

www.deltabistro.com

Doe’s Eat Place

502 Nelson St., Greenville, MS 38701

(662) 334-3315

www.doeseatplace.com

Elite Restaurant

141 E. Capitol St., Jackson, MS 39201

(601) 352-5606

NA

Ely’s Restaurant & Bar

115 W. Jackson St., Ridgeland, MS 39157

(601) 605-6359

www.elysrestaurant.com

Fat Mama’s Tamales

303 S. Canal St., Natchez MS 39120

(601) 442-4548

www.fatmamastamales.com

Giardina’s Restaurant (The Alluvian)

314 Howard St., Greenwood, MS 38930

(662) 455-4227

www.thealluvian.com

Handy Andy’s

800 N. Lamar Blvd., #5, Oxford, MS 38655

(662) 234-4621

NA

Harbor View Cafe

504 Jeff Davis Ave., Long Beach, MS 39560

(228) 867-8949

www.harborviewcafe.net

Hey Joe’s

118 E. Sunflower Rd., Cleveland, MS 38732

(662) 843-5425

NA

Hickory Pit

1491 Canton Mart Rd., Jackson, MS 39211

(601) 956-7079

www.hickorypitjxn.com

Keifer’s

120 N. Congress St., Jackson, MS 39201

(601) 353-4976

www.keifersdowntown.com

http://www.msbusiness.com

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OUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS

18 I Mississippi Business Journal I May 2, 2014 Restaurants Name

Address

Phone

Website

KOK (Kermit’s Outlaw Kitchen)

124 W. Main St., Tupelo, MS 38804

(662) 620-6622

NA

Leatha’s BBQ

6374 U.S. Hwy. 98, Hattiesburg, MS

(601) 271-6003

NA

Lillos Restaurant

606 E. 3rd St., Leland, MS 38756

(662) 686-4401

NA

Little Dooey

100 Fellowship St., Starkville, MS 39759

(662) 323-6094

www.littledooey.com

Local 463

121 Colony Crossing Way, Madison, MS 39110

(601) 707-7684

www.local463.com

Lusco’s

722 Carrollton Ave., Greenwood, MS 38930

(662) 453-5365

NA

Magnolia Grill

49 Silver St., Natchez, MS 39120

(601) 446-7670

www.magnoliagrill.com

Mama Hamil’s

480 Magnolia St., Madison, MS 39110

(601) 856-4407

www.hamils.com

Manhattan Grill

705 Washington Ave., Ocean Springs, MS 39564

(228) 872-6480

NA

Mary Mahoney’s

110 Rue Magnolia, Biloxi, MS 39530

(228) 374-0163

www.marymahoneys.com

Mayflower Cafe

123 W. Capitol St., Jackson, MS 39201

(601) 355-4122

www.mayflowercafems.com

Nautical Whimsey Italian Bistro & Wine Bar

210 W. Main St., Tupelo, MS 38804

(662) 842-7171

NA

Nick’s

3000 Old Canton Rd., Jackson, MS 39216

(601) 981-8017

www.nicksrestaurant.com

Park Heights Restaurant

335 E. Main St., Tupelo, MS 38804

(662) 842-5665

www.parkheightsrestaurant.com

Parlor Market

115 W. Capitol St., Jackson, MS 39201

(601) 360-0090

www.parlormarket.com

Petty’s BBQ

103 Miss. 12, Starkville, MS 39759

(662) 324-2363

NA

Phoenicia Gourmet Restaurant

1223 Government St., Ocean Springs, MS 39564

(228) 875-0603

www.phoeniciagourmet.com

Primos Cafe

2323 Lakeland Drive, Flowood, MS 39232

(601) 936-3398

www.primoscafe.com

Purple Parrot Cafe

3810 Hardy St., Hattiesburg, MS 39402

(601) 264-0656

www.purpleparrotcafe.net

Restaurant 1818 (Monmouth Historic Inn)

36 Melrose Ave., Natchez, MS 39120

(601) 442-5852

www.monmouthhistoricinn.com

Rib Cage

311 S. Lamar Blvd., Oxford, MS 38655

(662) 238-2929

www.theribcageoxford.com

Roca Restaurant & Bar

127 Country Club Dr., Vicksburg, MS 39180

(601) 638-0800

www.rocarestaurant.com

Sal & Mookie’s New York Pizza & Ice Cream Joint

565 Taylor St., Jackson, MS 39216

(601) 368-1919

www.salandmookies.com

Sao Thai

725 N. Gloster St., Tupelo, MS 38804

(662) 840-1771

NA

Shapley’s Restaurant

868 Centre St., Ridgeland, MS 39157

(601) 957-3753

www.shapleysrestaurant.com

Squealer’s Hickory Smoked Bar-B-Que

4805 29th Ave., Meridian, MS 39301

(601) 693-0910

www.squealersbbque.com

Tabb’s BBQ

1770 Miss. 1, Greenville, MS 38701

(662) 334-1166

NA

Taylor Grocery and Restaurant

4 First St., Taylor, MS 38673

(662) 236-1716

www.taylorgrocery.com

The Castle Restaurant and Pub (Dunleith Historic Inn)

84 Homochitto St., Natchez, MS 39120

(601) 446-8500

www.dunleith.com

The Crystal Grill

423 Carrollton Ave., Greenwood, MS 38930

(662) 453-6530

www.crystallgrillms.com

The Shed Barbeque & Blues Joint

7501 Miss. 57, Ocean Springs, MS 39565

(228) 875-9590

www.theshedbbq.com

The Strawberry Cafe

107 Depot Dr., Madison, MS 39110

(601) 856-3822

www.strawberrycafemadison.com

Tico’s Steak House

1536 E. County Line Rd., Ridgeland, MS 39157

(601) 956-1030

www.ticossteakhouse.com

Trapani’s Eatery

116 N. Beach Blvd., Bay St. Louis, MS 39120

(228) 467-8570

www.trapaniseatery.net

Ubon’s Restaurant

801 Jerry Clower Blvd., Yazoo City, MS 39194

(662) 716-7100

www.ubons.net

Vanelli’s

1302 N. Gloster St., Tupelo, MS 38804

(662) 844-4410

www.vanellis.com

Walker’s Drive-In

3016 N. State St., Jackson, MS 39216

(601) 982-2633

www.walkersdrivein.com

Weidmann’s

210 22nd Ave., Meridian, MS 39301

(601) 581-5770

www.weidmanns1870.com

Woody’s Tupelo Steakhouse

619 N. Gloster St., Tupelo, MS 38804

(662) 840-0460

If you have a restaurant you would like to see added to this list, please send it to Wally Northway at research@msbusiness.com.

www.woodyssteak.com

NEWSMAKERS Firm adds O’Connor

Rosati, Goerger make news

George O’Connor, former trial attorney with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and former vice president for Entergy Corporation, is joining Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, PLLC. O’Connor will bring his extensive energy and regulatory experience to Brunini’s Washington, D.C. office.

O’Connor served as an advisor to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Charles A. Trabandt from 1985-1993 prior to working in FERC’s Office of General Counsel. His experience includes regulatory practice, FERC and Senate staff leadership and he has a proven record of working with Congress and at the FERC. From March 2008-November 2010, he was hired by Entergy Corporation as vice president of federal governmental affairs.

Dr. Julie Dean Rosati, Coastal Inlets Research Program (CIRP) manager for the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, was recently presented the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) Presidential Award for her work on behalf of America’s coasts. The nomination cites Rosati as “an exceptional public servant with a strong desire to integrate cutting-edge research findings into USACE operations and the coastal engineering community at large. She is an invaluable partner to the ASBPA Board of Directors and highly deserving of this award.”

A Virginia native, Rosati began her career as an ERDC research hydraulic engineer as a co-op student in August 1981. She earned full career status in August 1985. Rosati leads a team of nine principal investigators in coastal inlet navigation research with an annual budget of nearly $3 million. Her team has conducted research to characterize long-term coastal inlet and adjacent beach morphologic evolution, which have improved methods to dredge and plan sand for regional sediment management.

Also, Dr. Simon Goerger, a researcher with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, is participating as the ERDC and Engineered Resilient Systems (ERS) representative in the review of proposals to establish the Digital Manufacturing Design Initiative (DMDI) Institute in Arlington, Va. Goerger is a member of the Long Gray Line, earning his bachelor’s degree from the United States Military Academy in 1988. He continued his education with a master’s degree in computer science and a doctorate in modeling and simulations from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif., in 1998 and 2004, respectively. He added a master’s degree from the National War College in 2009, focusing on national security strategy.

A native of Horace, N.D., Goerger is married to Dr. Niki Goerger, business development director for ERDC.

Former editor Hight dies Juanita McCown Hight, former editor the Winston County Journal in Louisville, has died. She was born in Winston County near Plattsburg and was a 1934 graduate of the Mississippi University for Women with a bachelor of science in home economics. Hight began her career as a teacher.

The Hight family formerly owned the Winston County Journal. She joined its staff when her husband, William H. Hight, took over the newspaper in 1943. She later was editor and chief. Hight was also active in the Mississippi Press Association until 1958 when the family sold the newspaper to Joe Cook.

She also was involved with the First Baptist Church and in establishing its education building and church media ministry.

She and William Hight were married 42 years. He died in 1982.

Smith earns promotion Peoples Bank has promoted Jason Smith to loan officer at the Puckett Branch. Born and raised in Puckett, after earning his associates degree from Hinds County Community College, Smith joined Byars Appraisal as a licensed real estate appraiser from 19972012. He began working at Peoples Bank in 2012 as the real estate officer, located in Magee.

Smith is a member of Oak Grove Baptist Church where he Smith serves as a Royal Ambassador teacher and on the Building and Grounds Committee.

He and his wife, Kim, have two children: Blair, 11 and Will, 7. Smith and his children have been very involved in the Simpson County Junior Livestock Association, where both children show animals each year.

Dedwylder leading police Ben Dedwylder, a veteran Gulf Coast law enforcement officer, has been chosen to lead the police department at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast. Dedwylder, who was the assistant superintendent of security at Southern Miss Gulf Coast, was promoted to lieutenant and head of the Gulf Coast division of University Police. He will manage operations at Gulf Park, Point Cadet and Cedar Point.

Dedwylder’s experience includes stints with the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office and the city of Long Beach Police Department.

Bank promotes Clark Bradley G. Clark has been promoted to senior vice president for Community Bank in Ellisville. He joined Community Bank in 2009, and will now support the Ellisville location as office manager. Clark specializes in consumer, commercial and poultry lending.

Clark is a 2005 graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, earning a degree in accounting. In 2012, he graduated from the School of Banking at Clark the University of Mississippi.

Active in the community, Clark is the president of the Lions Club of Ellisville. He is also involved in MEC, AES, DECA, the Ellisville Revitalization Committee and is a 2011 graduate of Leadership Jones County.

Jones gets new role Waggoner Engineering has named Anthony Jones to the position of CADD III technician in the company’s water resources division. He joined Waggoner in 2013 as a CADD technician in the firm’s civil, structural and aviation division. Jones has more than 19 years experience as a designer/draftsman, and has worked on projects including the Milan road and pedestrian ADA compliance improvements in New Orleans and Camp Shelby sewer replacement in Hattiesburg.

May 2, 2014 He holds a bachelor’s degree in drafting and detail design from Jackson State University. Jones and his family reside in Jackson where he is active as band booster president of Callaway High School, and where he serves as a squad sergeant in the Hinds County Deputy Reserve Program.

Neel-Schaffer welcomes Scheitz Maria Scheitz has joined Neel-Schaffer as a community planner in the Louisville office. Scheitz previously worked for the Louisville Metro Division of Planning and Design, the Boone County (Ky.) Planning Commission and the University of Cincinnati. She is experienced in land use planning, development review, land use code development, and GIS mapping and analysis.

Scheitz will have a variety of Scheitz duties, including marketing, data collection and analysis, and research and development of planned studies. She holds a degree in sociology from the University of Louisville and a master of community planning from the University of Cincinnati.

Board brings in Cagle The Mississippi Board of Education has hired Gretchen Cagle, a 20-year veteran special education teacher, advocate and administrator, as the new director for special education.

A Clinton native, Cagle began her career teaching students with significant disabilities at Hudspeth Regional Center in Whitfield. She attended the acclaimed Peabody College at Vanderbilt University in Nashville where she worked as a graduate assistant and research assistant on a Peer Buddy research project and was published as a result of her contributions to the project. Upon completion of her master's degree in special education for students with severe disabilities, she worked in the field of assistive technology and augmentative communication as the regional representative for the Prentke Romich company and as the Assistive Technology Unit (ATU) facilitator at Hudspeth Regional Center. She left Hudspeth's ATU to become the director of training for Parent Partners, a non-profit organization that oversaw the parent training and information center grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs. There she worked with parents of students with disabilities, training on the principles of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and advocacy techniques to use in working with school districts.

During this time she completed coursework to obtain a license in psychometry and worked for the Rankin County School District as assistant director of special education. Her duties included working with the statewide assessment system, running the extended school year program, conflict resolution, and a variety of other administrative functions. After eight years with Rankin County, she was selected as an educator in residence in the Office of Student Assessment at MDE. In this role, she has led Mississippi's transition to the Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) Alternate Assessment System and has represented Mississippi on the national level in the DLM consortium, the Council of Chief State School Officers’ Assessing Special Education Students work group, and the PARCC Accommodation, Accessibility, and Fairness work group.

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This summer she will present at the National Conference on Student Assessment. Cagle is continuing her education and is a doctoral candidate at Delta State University.

Malone named superintendent The Mississippi Board of Education has named Jo Ann Malone, state administrator and former teacher, as the new superintendent of the Mississippi School for the Blind, effective June 1. Malone, a Flora resident, taught grades 7-12 mathematics, business and pre-vocational education courses at the school from 2001-2006. She joined the Mississippi Department of Education’s Office of Student Assessment in 2006 as a division director, and in 2012, she moved to her current position as director of accountability systems in the Office of Accreditation.

A licensed administrator, Malone is certified in visually impaired K-12 instruction, special education mild/moderate K-12, special education - severe/profound K-12, mathematics 7-12, business education 712, elementary education 4-8, and English 7-12.

Malone said she is honored to be given the opportunity to assist the MDE with its vision of creating a world-class educational system for all students.

Malone earned her undergraduate degree from Belhaven University and master’s degree in special education from the University of Southern Mississippi. She is currently a doctoral candidate at Delta State University.

She is an active member of several professional organizations, including the PARCC Accessibility, Accommodations and Fairness Operational Working Group and the Mississippi Library Commission’s Blind and Physically Handicapped Services.

Wade, Barker joins staff Willmut Gas has added Dean Wade and Joseph Barker to its staff. Wade will serve as the company’s residential marketing specialist. He will focus his efforts on serving residents living inside the Willmut Gas service area who are looking to add natural gas to their homes or businesses. Dean recently worked as a news anchor for WDAM-TV as wells as FOX 23 TV in Hattiesburg. He also spent more than nine years in the pharmaceutical sales industry.

Barker is the new environmental, health and safety specialist. He will handle all facets of the company’s training, reporting and compliance in environment, health and safety.

Barker

Wade

College inducts attorneys The Mississippi Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers has inducted Thomas M. Fortner, J. Cal Mayo Jr. and David W. Upchurch into the Fellowship. Lawyers must have a minimum of 15 years trial experience before being considered for Fellowship and membership in the College cannot exceed 1 percent of the total lawyer population of any State or Province.

NEWSMAKERS

20 I Mississippi Business Journal I May 2, 2014

Azadbakht receives honor

MC Law presents awards

Elena Azadbakht, a reference librarian for health sciences at the University of Southern Mississippi, recently received the 2014 EBSCO American Library Association (ALA) Conference Sponsorship. The award provides up to $1,000 in reimbursements for expenses to attend the 2014 ALA Conference in Las Vegas June 26-July 1.

Azadbakht is one of seven librarians to receive this sponsorship. At the conference, she will participate in a breakfast to honor the recipients, and there will be a special exhibit featuring the award winners on display in the registration area.

Mississippi College School of Law leaders have selected Granville Tate and Jana EdmondsonCooper as the 2014 Lawyer and Young Lawyer of the Year. The awards, presented annually by the law school, recognizes lawyers who have been a credit to the law school and legal community. Tate is chairman of the board of directors at Brunini Law Firm in Jackson. In this role, he advises boards of directors and senior officers regarding corporate governance responsibilities. He is recognized in Woodward/White's Best Lawyers in America in the fields of banking and finance law. Tate was also named to the Mississippi Business Journal's 2013 Leaders in Law. Edmondson-Cooper serves as the bilingual staff attorney at Georgia Legal Services. In this role, she provides bilingual legal counsel and representation to low-income individuals in federal and state administrative forums as well as courts of law. Edmondson-Cooper was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court of Georgia Commission on Interpreters in 2013. She also serves as regional vice president for the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys.

The law school also selected Stephen Dillard, of the Georgia Court of Appeals, as the 2014 State Judge of the Year. The 2014 Federal Judge of the Year was given to Magistrate Judge Karen Hayes, of the Western District of Louisiana. Mary Largent Purvis, director of the Academic Success Program at MC Law, received the law school's Community Spirit Award.

Locals given community awards Five Pine Belt residents were recently honored for their commitment to caring for the community as winners of the Spirit in Action Awards. Dr. Rodney Bennett is the 10th president of the University of Southern Mississippi. But, before he even became president, he jumped into action leading the university’s recovery from the powerful EF-4 tornado that ripped thru the Southern Miss campus and the Hattiesburg area on Feb. 10, 2013.

Kathy Garner has worked diligently for more than 30 years to improve the city of Hattiesburg and the surrounding communities. Most recently, she has developed programs to address homelessness, HIV/AIDS and poverty.

Carolyn Hood has given freely of her time over the years and served on numerous boards — United Way, United Methodist Hour, Millsaps College, Diabetes Foundation, Governor’s Fitness Program for youth. She has always been very active in Parkway United Methodist Church and provides professional counseling to those in need. However, it is her work in missions in Honduras through Baptist Medical Dental International that emphasizes what a caring person Hood is.

Robert St. John is a father, husband, restaurateur, chef, author and columnist. Although those are significant achievements, it is his work with Extra Table that makes him so deserving to be named as a Spirit in Action Award winner. Extra Table was founded by St. John and is a statewide non-profit organization that helps supply mission pantries and soup kitchens with healthy, shelf-stable food.

Rick Taylor serves as executive director of the Hattiesburg Convention Commission and the Hattiesburg Tourism Commission. His hard work and vision is evidenced in the Lake Terrace Convention Center, the Saenger Theatre, two museums and most noticeably at the Hattiesburg Zoo.

Association taps Martin The Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association has named Beverly Martin as its new executive director of the Gulf Coast chapter. Martin brings a wealth of experience as a non-profit executive, most recently as the executive director of the Mississippi Casino Operators Association. Her career in tourism included appointments to the Mississippi Coast Coliseum Commission, the Harrison County Tourism Commission and the Mississippi GOCOAST 20/20 Commission.

She was one of only two Mississippians first named “25 People to Watch” by Global Gaming Business magazine and has won numerous awards and accolades, including the “Billy Creel Excellence in Tourism Award.”

PRCC inducts alumni Pearl River Community College recently honored six outstanding alumni with induction into the Lifetime Achievement Hall of Fame. Honored were entertainer Jimmy Buffett, the late Delos H. Burks of Picayune, James Ginn of Diamondhead, Francis Herrin of Hattiesburg, Howell Purvis of Purvis and Donnie Waits of Gulfport.

Burks graduated from PRCC in 1936, served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II and went on to distinguish himself in state government, including service in the state House of Representatives, and the Mississippi Air National Guard. He retired as a major general.

Ginn, a 1959 graduate, worked 42 years for Hancock Bank, retiring as executive vice president. Herrin also worked his entire career for Shell Oil after graduating from Pearl River in 1958.

Purvis, a 1955 graduate, served twice as a naval aviator and for 20 years as a U.S. Secret Service agent.

Waits also graduated in 1955, heading into a 40year career as an attorney while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. He retired from the military as a lieutenant colonel and from the legal profession as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi.

Pearl River County Justice Court Judge James Hal Breland accepted the award for Buffett, who lived with the Breland family while attending Pearl River in 1965-66. Buffett also sent a video-taped acceptance.

Powell-Young named dean Alcorn State welcomes Dr. Yolanda PowellYoung as new dean of nursing on the Natchez campus. Powell-Young has been in the nursing field for 21 years, 12 of which has been dedicated to educating both practicing and aspiring nurses. She has been an investigative member of funded research totaling

more than $7 million. Her most recent studies included a National Institute of Health funded project investigating the determinants of inflammation and effect of intervention among African-American adolescent females with metabolic risk factors for diabetes and heart disease in Sudanese families.

Powell-Young completed her baccalaureate at Grambling State University and her master’s at Northwestern State University.

Pickering, Brand earn promotions Scott Pickering was recently promoted to senior vice president at Community Bank, Coast. Pickering joined the bank in 2007 after graduating from the University of Mississippi with a degree in banking and finance. He is also soon to complete his studies at the LSU Graduate School of Banking. He has quickly become one of the top-producing loan officers at CBC. Pickering serves as vice Brand president of finance on the Gulfport Chamber of Commerce board. He resides in Gulfport with his wife, Emily, and daughter, Vera Grace.

Also, Gus Brand has been promoted to assistant vice president for Community Bank’s Brandon office. Brand started his career with Community Bank working summers as a teller and Pickering then later interning in the accounting department. Upon graduation, Brand started full-time as a credit analyst.

Benson wins runoff Southaven Fire Department training officer Stephen Benson has been elected as the municipal employee representative on the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi (PERS) board of trustees. At its April 22 meeting, the board certified results of the runoff election between Benson and Benson Deborah Lea, Monticello director of administration.

Benson is filling an unexpired term that runs through Dec. 31.

CMI chooses Bass Corporate Management Incorporated has named former Long Beach Mayor Robert Bass as the company’s chief administrative officer. Bass, a certified public accountant, will oversee all day-to-day matters and fiscal activities. Bass brings over 20 years of experience in the public accounting industry, with a special expertise in tax compliance and financial planning. Prior to joining CMI, Bass served as project manager for Gulf Coast operations of the Institutions of Higher Learning. He also is the former executive director of the Mississippi State Personnel Board.

Bass received his juris doctor from University of Mississippi School of Law and a bachelor of science in accountancy from Mississippi State University. He and his wife, Becky, reside in Long Beach.

Roberson succeeds McIllwain Becky Roberson, senior vice president of Information & Quality Healthcare (IQH), has been named chief executive officer of Information & Quality Healthcare (IQH), the Mississippi Medicare quality improvement organization. A certified public accountant who has the B. S. degree in accounting from Belhaven College, Roberson has been with the organization for 26 years. The senior vice president since 2007, Roberson she has served as vice president of operations and chief financial officer of the company that also operates the Tobacco Quitline for Mississippi. She is a member of the Mississippi Society of Certified Public Accountants and the North American Quitline Consortium, which she served as board of directors secretary. She has also chaired the American Health Quality Association’s finance and human resources network.

Roberson follows Dr. James S. McIlwain as chief executive officer. He has served as IQH president and chief executive officer since 1997 and is now assuming the duties of the IQH president of medical affairs.

He has been with the company for over 20 years and has served in the capacities of review physician, medical director and principal clinical coordinator.

Lindsey, King take top honors The Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) and the Mississippi Teacher Center have named Michael Lindsey, Gulfport High School principal, as the 2014 Mississippi Administrator of the Year (MAOY), and Mary Margarett King, an English teacher at New Albany High School, as the 2014 Mississippi Teacher of the Year (MTOY). A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Lindsey received his master’s degree in educational leadership from USM. He started his career as a biology teacher and head baseball coach. He taught and coached at Coldwater High School, Natchez High School and Gulfport High School. Lindsey has 19 years of educational experience, with 13 of those years in the Gulfport School District. This is his eighth year to serve as Gulfport High School principal.

King will represent Mississippi in the National Teacher of the Year competition. In addition, she will travel to Washington, D.C., to meet the President and First Lady and will participate in a Rose Garden recognition ceremony at the White House. King has been teaching English at New Albany High School for the past nine years. A graduate of the University of North Alabama, she teaches 11th grade accelerated and advanced placement English and dual-enrollment English Composition I and II. In 2008, she became a national board-certified teacher in English language arts.

For announcements in Newsmakers; Contact: Wally Northway (601) 364-1016 • wally.northway@msbusiness.com

May 2 2014

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» MISSISSIPPI LEADERS by Martin Willoughby

Born to lead Callicott succeeds as entrepreneur, politician

T

he age-old question about leadership is whether leaders are born or made. As I have interviewed hundreds of leaders, I think about this question a good bit. Scholarly research points us to the conclusion that leadership is about one-third born and two-thirds made. This question arose this week for me as I interviewed Alan Callicott, mayor of Senatobia and owner of Callicott Insurance. I don’t believe there is a leadership DNA gene, but when I visit with leaders like Callicott I start to wonder.

Callicott is the fourth generation to lead Callicott Insurance, which was founded in 1915, and his family for generations been leaders in the Senatobia community and the state of Mississippi.

Callicott grew up in the family insurance business and went on to graduate from Mississippi State University. He shared, “I graduated from Mississippi State on a Friday and started working full time in the family business on Monday.” After three years, he continued the family tradition by buying out his father. For the many families who are addressing succession planning today, the Callicott’s serve as a great example of how to do this right. Alan shared, “In a span of two

Up Close With ... Alan Callicott Title: Owner, Callicott Insurance; mayor of Senatobia First Job: “I worked at the Chromecraft Outlet Factory Story where I put furniture together.”

Proudest Moment as a Leader: “I really enjoy getting the calls that Senatobia has been selected as the home for a new industry or business.”

Hobbies/Interests: Outdoor actives, running, paddling a canoe and family time.

weeks, my father sold me the family business and completed a 12-year term as mayor of Senatobia.” Too often, when the family business changes hands, the elder family member just can’t let go. However, Alan shared that his father, Bill Callicott, allowed him to make his own decisions and was there when he needed him.

Alan showed innate leadership early on as he was an Eagle Scout and a leader in his fraternity in college. Upon graduation, he volunteered his time to lead scouts and became the local scoutmaster. He made two unsuc-

cessful attempts to run for the state legislature before being elected alderman at large where he served for eight years. In 2001, he ran unopposed for mayor and is currently serving in his fourth term.

As a leader in business and government, Callicott believes in surrounding himself with great people and letting them do their jobs. I have found that the only way for leaders to lead organizations of any substantial size is to learn this skill. As long as you have to be the smartest person in the room, you will never succeed as a leader. Callicott hires

“I graduated from Mississippi State on a Friday and started working full time in the family business on Monday.”

technical and professional experts and allows them to lead without micromanagement. Talented people want to work in that kind of work environment otherwise they become sti- Martin Willoughby fled and move on.

Callicott focuses his efforts on making decisions and strategic planning. Leaders understand the “buck stops here” idea and aren’t afraid to make the tough calls. Leaders also have to be able to see the big picture and guide their organizations toward future destinations.

When I asked Callicott about his advice for future leaders, he noted, “In order to be successful in business and life, you have to build great relationships.” In their insurance agency, Callicott and his team have been serving customers for generations by building trust and great relationships. This is sage advice that is simple in concept yet challenging in application. To build great relationships, we have to be others focused, authentic, and trustworthy. I am not sure how Callicott is able to juggle all of the demands on his time as a leader, but he was quick to point out that he could not do it without the support of his wife Liz and their three children. I don’t know if we have solved the “born or made” leadership question, but I am thankful that leaders like Callicott are willing to lean into their leadership potential and make a difference for the greater good.

Martin Willoughby is a business consultant and regular contributing columnist for the Mississippi Business Journal. He serves as Chief Operating Officer of Butler Snow Advisory Services, LLC and can be reached at martin.willoughby@ butlersnow.com.

An African writer’s tale of adapting to America inspires

I

n a world filled with constant distractions, with beeping and buzzing gadgets begging us for attention at every turn, and webpages upon webpages rife with content and opinions, why would anyone bother to read contemporary fiction? The answer, at least for me, is that well-written fiction can both entertain and educate. It can teach me something about the world around me, about the experiences of others, and most importantly, that despite our differences, we’re actually not all in this alone.

As we’ve written about here before, reading literature (versus popular fiction) can strengthen your ability to empathize with your fellow human beings, and it’s important to realize that “literature” doesn’t just mean something published years and years ago. A book like Americanah, which was published » Americanah last year and subsequently named to multiple “best of” lists

By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie by publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post absolutely qualifies.

Published by Anchor Books Written by celebrated Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi $15.95 softback

Adichie, Americanah tells the story of Ifemelu and Obinze, two young Nigerians struggling to escape their country for the greater opportunities available in America. We learn what it’s like to grow up poor in Nigeria, under military rule, and the various ways people there deal with this tough situation. Some seek solace in a bottle, for instance, while others believe salvation lies with the church (usually led by a preacher who curiously is much wealthier than his parishioners). For the youth, Nigeria’s limited opportunities means many of them have to look elsewhere if they hope to have a career at all.

The book is about so much more than the story of Ifemelu and Obinze, however. It’s also a classic immigrants’ tale, of the difficulty in adapting to life in a new and strange country.

Specifically, too, the book explores the complicated feelings of Africans who choose to come to America, where they must face a complex racial landscape very different than that in their home countries. One of the themes throughout the book is that for many of them, it’s when they reach America that they “feel black” for the first time in their lives, because back home, nearly everyone was. It was a new perspective I appreciated reading about.

The characters of Ifemelu and Obinze are so lifelike and so compelling that I was sad to leave them at the book’s end. I learned so much from them, and I rooted for them. And, as great fiction should do, the book left me feeling both challenged and enlightened. For that, I am grateful.

— LouAnn Lofton, mbj@msbusiness.com

22 I Mississippi Business Journal I May 2 2014 THE SPIN CYCLE

The power of the pitch: Perfecting news hooks for your company or organization he pitch – that irreplaceable tool that PR practitioners across the globe use to advance the message of their brands or clients – is an elemental and powerful strategy for building your audience, stimulating awareness and broadening your reach in our digital age.

One of the most authoritative voices peddling the pitch these days is Bill McGowan, media coach for Facebook, and for executives, celebrities and artists ranging from Kelly Clarkson and Eli Manning to Thomas Keller and Tim Gunn. McGowan has also worked with major firms to help PR professionals hone the art of the pitch.

In McGowan’s latest book Pitch Perfect: How to Say It Right the First Time, Every Time, he draws on decades of experience working in front of and behind the camera to offer tips and tools on how to deliver a message efficiently and confidently.

PRNewser, a digital publication of Mediabistro, a leading media industry research firm, recently discussed the art or the pitch with McGowan, and here are some highlights from that interview:

T

What’s the biggest mistake people make when communicating in public?

They may do a decent job preparing talking points, but they don’t put the same amount of prep into the visual stories and examples that illustrate their points. They think they can pull the real content out of thin air, and that just doesn’t happen.

PR in particular needs to be able to speak experientially about the customer –what his or her problems are and how what you’re offering solves those problems – rather than relying on canned key messages and brand propositions.

The client’s default mode may not be to speak in relatable stories and examples, but it’s my role and the role of PR to compel and challenge them to do so.

What’s the most important topic you address in terms of media relations?

Helping to craft the soundbites that I know will interest the journalist.

Using analogies is always helpful: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was recently discussing women in politics and said: ‘While we understand macro-economic issues, we really excel at the macaroni and cheese issues.’

Yes, it was obviously written ahead of time – but that didn’t stop the journalists from using it.

It works because you don’t have to explain the concept for people to understand. That’s

with Storyful, a socialnews verification service that News Corp. acquired in December for $25 million. The service highlights content that has been posted by users and media entities that are reporting on breaking news events around the world, and comes complete with an easy-to-use “embed” function.

It’s pretty clear that Facebook wants this new feature to be seen as a goodwill gesture towards the media industry.

It also seems fairly obvious that Facebook is trying to elbow its way into the market nign, and for those loaded questions you that Twitter has mostly dominated for some want to address the broader topic without time now when it comes to being a source getting into the granular nature of the ques- of real-time and “user generated” news content. The FB Newswire even has a dedition. cated Twitter account, which either seems In the book you mention working with PR ex- clever or desperate, depending on how you look at it. And using the resources of Storyecutives. What were the biggest challenges ful to verify all that user-generated content they faced? is definitely a smart move.

We have been retained by firms to teach teams going out to pitch clients.

Golden Mic | Boston Marathoner Benjamin Most people don’t go into a client meeting doing enough listening and figuring out Maenza Benjamin Maenza is the epitome of what the client wants to accomplish.

Many junior account executives in their tenacity, valor and perseverance. After he 20s also haven’t received proper mentoring lost both legs to a bomb while fighting as a in how to convey an executive presence, or Marine in Afghanistan, he returned to the get rid of filler words and ‘uptalk’ to increase United States undeterred to be a positive ingravitas. The big question is ‘Do you have fluence. He finished his first marathon – conviction behind the pitch you’re selling?’ using a handcycle – only a year after he lost both legs below the knee. And he hasn’t but it goes much deeper than that: looked back. He’s completed seven 26.2» Are you being an attentive listener? » Are you sitting or standing with an ex- mile marathons. After last year’s Boston ecutive presence as opposed to leaning back Marathon tragedy, he vowed to race in that race to honor all those who lost limbs or in your chair and flipping your hair? » How do you begin the pitch with a com- died – not defending their nation overseas, but as a result of heartless terrorists who pelling thought and end it with a bang? » How do you interact with your slides? detonated bombs at the finish line of the world’s most famous marathon. Maenza raced side-by-side in solidarity with surFacebook Dives Deeper Into News Game vivors of the bombing, and in doing so sent Facebook has launched a new feature a ringing message of triumph over tragedy called the FB Newswire that is designed to that no one – not even cowardly terrorists – give media outlets and journalists a realcan steal our freedom! time feed of newsworthy content. But who Each week, The Spin Cycle will bestow a benefits most from that kind of relationship Golden Mic Award to the person, group or — those news outlets, or Facebook itself? company in the court of public opinion that It seems Facebook isn’t happy to just have best exemplifies the tenets of solid PR, mara News Feed that is designed to be a newsketing and advertising – and those who paper, or a mobile app called Paper that is don’t. Stay tuned – and step-up to the mic! also supposed to be a newspaper. So it has And remember … Amplify Your Brand! launched a new feature aimed at journalists called FB Newswire, which is just what it sounds like: a real-time feed of content re- Todd Smith is president and chief communilated to news-worthy events. And what cations officer of Deane, Smith & Partners, a fullwould Facebook like media outlets to do service branding, PR, marketing and advertising firm with that content? Why, share it and embed with offices in Jackson. The firm — based in Nashville, Tenn. — is also affiliated with Mad Genius. Contact him it on their news pages, of course.

The new wire service, which debuted re- at todd@deanesmithpartners.com, and follow him cently, is partially powered by a partnership @spinsurgeon.

Most people don’t go into a client meeting doing enough listening and figuring out what the client wants to accomplish. my goal with PR clients and their clients.

Generally speaking, what does PR need to do to better appreciate the journalist’s perspective?

Sometimes there’s an unrealistic expectation that the reporter will be a megaphone for your brand proposition, but his/her first response to every pitch is ‘How can I poke some holes in this narrative?’

Also, I have rarely read a suggested Q&A document in which I’ve seen one question I would legitimately ask as a reporter.

It’s important not to confuse the notion that they’re happy to let you help them do their jobs with the idea that they’re willing to let you tell them what the story should be.

What’s the key to pitching a product/campaign that might not be a legitimate story unto itself?

In announcing a new product, there’s not enough discussion about how your customers influenced the launch. You’ll never go wrong in highlighting the pipeline between your company and your customer and how it influences the decisions you make.

In the Don Draper chapter, you begin with his famous quote about changing the conversation. What about the art of gently guiding the conversation?

There’s an erroneous assumption that being good at media relations is about never answering the question – but that’s what makes you sound like a politician.

You want to steer the conversation, but you don’t want to hijack it. This is known as bridging, and the ultimate clumsy bridge is ‘I’m not here to talk about that today; what I am here to talk about is…’

There must be some conversational connective tissue between the reporter’s question and topic Y. For example: ‘There’s been a lot of conversation about this and rightfully so, but one of the things we’re also taking a look at is Y.’ The overwhelming number of questions you get from a reporter will be pretty be-

Todd Smith

SALES MOVES

May 2, 2014

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Mississippi Business Journal

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» JEFFREY GITOMER

Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich is full of timeless lessons houghts are things” is the title and the first words of the first chapter of the book.

When I first read those words, I didn’t really understand what they meant — even when I read the first chapter and the examples offered in Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich. It didn’t resonate until I got to the end of the chapter and read, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive, and believe, it can achieve.” Then I started to get it. That was 1972.

By coincidence, it was only a few days later that I heard the late, great Earl Nightingale say, “You become what you think about.” At that moment, I got it. It clicked. And it has clicked ever since then.

More reading and studying about thinking and the thought process revealed that neither Hill nor Nightingale had the original thought.

From Socrates to Samuel Smiles, to Orison Swett Marden, to Elbert Hubbard, to Dale Carnegie, to Napoleon Hill, to Earl Nightingale, to Jim Rohn – they all had their own way of saying THE SAME thing.

Your thinking becomes your actions. And it’s those dedicated, well-planned, and directed actions that lead to your outcomes. Your reality. Better stated, your success.

All of these legendary scholars can’t be wrong.

“T

All of them told me in their writings – the same way I’m telling you – that positive thought leads to positive actions and positive results, if the aim and the purpose are passionately believed.

Orison Swett Marden’s book, He Who Thinks He Can, written in 1908, says it in the title. It’s plain as day right on the cover of his book. It was Marden, by the way, that FOUNDED Success Magazine in 1888.

Hill’s title THINK and GROW RICH tells you first you gotta THINK! Your thinking will affect your BELIEF, your belief will help you create your MAJOR PURPOSE, your major purpose will clarify your DIRECTED ACTIONS, and your actions, combined with your DESIRE, your DEDICATION, and your DETERMINATION will determine your WEALTH. First THINK, then GROW RICH. Got it? Sure you do. Getting it, that’s the easy part. First you get it, you understand it THEN you agree with it. Easy so far. THEN the harder part, you have to believe you can do it. You have to THINK YOU CAN. Finally, the HARDEST part is you have to be willing to TAKE ACTION! Do it! That’s chapter one. Read it lately?

The rest of Think and Grow Rich contains the ideas, the definitions, and the clarifications that provide the ANSWERS. Hill describes it as the roadmap to riches. I’m telling you, it’s the most important

success thinking you’ll ever be exposed to – as long as you repeat it until it becomes your reality.

But I have to stop here and clarify the book.

Think and Grow Rich, and Hill’s writing, is not written in today’s language. There are no references to computers, email, the web, Facebook, social media, credit cards, or even television. Because none of those things existed when Hill penned this classic self-help book. Yet somehow the book has managed to sell more than 100 MILLION copies over the past seven decades.

To receive all the wealth in the book, you have to get over the fact Think and Grow Rich was written 70 years ago. As a country, we were fresh out of the Depression and the stock market crash of 1929. World War II was in full swing, the mood of the country was nervous, and Napoleon Hill – and his colleague Dale Carnegie – were screaming, “Make friends, be positive, believe in yourself, be influential, develop a goal and a plan, articulate yourself clearly, dedicate yourself to excellence, take directed action, and encourage others to do the same.” Pretty cool, eh?

These books aren’t 70 years old, rather they were 70 years ahead of their time. Maybe that’s why Hill’s Think and Grow Rich and Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People have been on bestseller lists for 70 years.

KRILAKIS

Frank Brown / The Mississippi Business Journal

Drew Creel’s Krilakis will prepare a meal as a takeout, such as this steak gyro salad.

Continued from Page 14

not spicy.

“Keeping it simple works. The basic seasonings are lemon, salt, garlic and oregano,” he said. “I love Greek flavors and their simplicity. That's what I try to do here; it's the base of a lot of our cooking.”

Along with simple ingredients, freshness reigns at Krilakis. Bagged salad greens are never used; heads of lettuce are cut every day as well as onions and tomatoes.

“Fresh and tasty Greek food at affordable prices is our goal,” Creel said. “I feel extremely blessed that people like it and keep coming back.”

It wouldn’t be a Greek restaurant without lamb gyros. Krilakis serves traditional lamb gyros and also has specialty gyros that include grilled chicken, shrimp and ribeye steak. Greek salads, including the villagers salad with tomatoes, cucumbers onion, feta cheese and olive bread are popular too. It is served with the house dressing that is made with 100 percent Greek yogurt, cucumbers, garlic and salt.

“Some diners say the could drink our salad dressing and our special tzatziki sauce,” Creel said. “We put different meals in our gyros, and any meal can be put on salads.”

Then, prefacing his comments with “believe it or not,” Creel explained that Krilakis serves an American favorite, burgers. It started as a dining option for children and

The first chapter ends the same way it began.

With one sentence of immortal wisdom. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive, and believe, it can achieve.”

I’m sharing this informaJeffrey Gitomer tion today in the hopes you will read or re-read this timeless classic.

Rededicate yourself to YOUR best thinking (first), so you can do your best for others (second).

That’s the secret! Please tell everyone.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of “The Sales Bible”, “Customer Satisfaction is Worthless” “Customer Loyalty is Priceless”, “The Little Red Book of Selling”, “The Little Red Book of Sales Answers”, “The Little Black Book of Connections”, “The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude”, “The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way”, “The Little Platinum Book of ChaChing”, “The Little Teal Book of Trust”, “The Little Book of Leadership”, and “Social BOOM!” His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at salesman@gitomer.com.

evolved into a full-fledged menu item for diners of all ages.

“We sell a ton of burgers, which may be because we use specialty buns and never use frozen beef,” Creel said. “We have a feta cheese burger and a two-cheese burger; both are very popular.”

With 13 tables inside and four on the porch, Krilakis isn’t a large place, but Creel and the 10 employees are able to serve diners quickly. “We have a relaxed atmosphere, and you can feel that from our staff,” he said.

“We focus on service.”

The odd name, Krilakis, is a nickname Greeks call Creel’s dad, “It’s a play on his name; a lot of Greek names end in lakis,” he said. “It’s an endearing, fun name for our family.”

Before opening Krilakis in Byram in 2009, Creel did a number of different things, including working in another Greek restaurant where he was able to communicate with the owner in Greek and learned a lot about running a restaurant. Originally from Alabama, Creel graduated from Southeastern College in Florida. He moved to Jackson at the request of his sister and brother-in-law, who was the administrator of Southside Christian School.

They recruited Creel to coach baseball at the Jackson school.

Creel and his wife Missy are pleased with the business move to Ridgeland and it's full steam ahead as more area residents get Greek food in their blood too.

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