Friday, January 12, 2007
The One Thing
After listening to Rob Couhig (see Wednesday's post), say that Nagin told him, at the start of his second term, that crime was the one thing he cared most about, I decided to see just how much attention crime received in the mayor's 100 day announcements. Crime was mentioned in passing but, after the promised transparency, housing received the most attention. However, Nagin apparently already had big spending plans in mind:
So while the mayor was telling Couhig that crime was the one thing he cared most about, he was already making plans to award "very lucrative" (the mayor's words) to two of his biggest campaign donors.
In fairness to Couhig, it's quite possible that Couhig's memory combined a conversation from the start of the second term with one that occurred after the city's first second term crime wave. Whatever the case, the conversation wasn't followed by any action. How many crime waves are we up to in just the second term? If we had that promised transparency that Couhig promised us, we might have more resources available for crime fighting. Isn't it time for Couhig to be man enough to admit that he was duped and demand that the mayor deliver on that promised accountability? Instead he uses his talk show to make excuses for the mayor.
More importantly, Nagin may have been talking to Couhig about crime but he was already making plans to for a broke city to spend much, much more on garbage collection. During the election, Nagin talked about improved sanitation but he didn't reveal any of the details that he had apparently already worked out, why? Probably because the local media might have asked about Nagin's campaign contributions. Why did he wait until the end of the Summer to reveal any more details? Because by the time he revealed the details, the city council had "no choice" but to approve the contracts. Millions are now gone that could have been spent elsewhere, like on anti-crime measures. I have no idea whether the mayor was motivated by a desire to help his campaign donors, or inspired by Kimberly Williamsom Butler or if God told him that we needed to spend more on garbage collection, the fact is the mayor was more interested in making the city look like Disneyland than making the city safe. The crime may have been inevitable, the inaction wasn't. There was a direct connection between what Rob Couhig and Ray Nagin had to say in May, and what Karen Gadbois and Bart Everson had to say in January.
Finally, I can't write that much about the sanitation contracts without mentioning the elephant in this week's Picayune. The Times Picayune mentioned Metro Disposal, and, for that matter, Roy Rodney in articles about a corruption and Morial associates. You know man, for a paper that's out to get Nagin, The Picayune isn't throwing a lot of elbows. You know man, I'm just saying.
At a news conference Sunday, Nagin further said he will spearhead an aggressive effort to get trash off city streets. He said his administration will seek new proposals for a garbage collection contract that would divide the city into three zones to expedite clean-up.
So while the mayor was telling Couhig that crime was the one thing he cared most about, he was already making plans to award "very lucrative" (the mayor's words) to two of his biggest campaign donors.
In fairness to Couhig, it's quite possible that Couhig's memory combined a conversation from the start of the second term with one that occurred after the city's first second term crime wave. Whatever the case, the conversation wasn't followed by any action. How many crime waves are we up to in just the second term? If we had that promised transparency that Couhig promised us, we might have more resources available for crime fighting. Isn't it time for Couhig to be man enough to admit that he was duped and demand that the mayor deliver on that promised accountability? Instead he uses his talk show to make excuses for the mayor.
More importantly, Nagin may have been talking to Couhig about crime but he was already making plans to for a broke city to spend much, much more on garbage collection. During the election, Nagin talked about improved sanitation but he didn't reveal any of the details that he had apparently already worked out, why? Probably because the local media might have asked about Nagin's campaign contributions. Why did he wait until the end of the Summer to reveal any more details? Because by the time he revealed the details, the city council had "no choice" but to approve the contracts. Millions are now gone that could have been spent elsewhere, like on anti-crime measures. I have no idea whether the mayor was motivated by a desire to help his campaign donors, or inspired by Kimberly Williamsom Butler or if God told him that we needed to spend more on garbage collection, the fact is the mayor was more interested in making the city look like Disneyland than making the city safe. The crime may have been inevitable, the inaction wasn't. There was a direct connection between what Rob Couhig and Ray Nagin had to say in May, and what Karen Gadbois and Bart Everson had to say in January.
Finally, I can't write that much about the sanitation contracts without mentioning the elephant in this week's Picayune. The Times Picayune mentioned Metro Disposal, and, for that matter, Roy Rodney in articles about a corruption and Morial associates. You know man, for a paper that's out to get Nagin, The Picayune isn't throwing a lot of elbows. You know man, I'm just saying.
