Friday, May 11, 2007
No Hobgoblin of Little Lying Minds
It's been too busy a week to finish that Spirit of Mendacity Index, or do much other blogging for that matter. But there was a report on WWLTV last night that pointed out how just little the Nagin administration feels the need to even bother making its lies consistent:
Oh, really:
Really, really:
Also from the WWL report:
Electrical inspections slowing city's recovery
..............
The city lost five of its eight electrical inspectors after the storm and requested bids to hire a private contractor to do the inspections.
..........
"A public official had called me and said, ‘Ray, you've gotta get started right away.’ He said, ‘So how many people you got?’ I said I've got three or four...He said, ‘No, you need more like ten,’" Canzoneri said.
So Canzoneri hired all five of the city's inspectors that left after the storm.
Oh, really:
The department’s electricity inspectors fell from 10 to two in the weeks after Katrina while permit applications soared 80 percent, said Greg Meffert, Mayor Ray Nagin’s chief technology officer. The staffing problem was not the result of mass layoffs after the storm. Instead, some inspectors failed to return to work, and others have quit, Meffert said.
After several false starts, the department last week hired a private firm to resupply the depleted electricity inspector ranks. The department should have 10 inspectors working by the end of the week and more on the way, Meffert said.(January 2006)
Really, really:
New Orleans has six inspectors on the city's payroll, compared with ten before Katrina. (October 2006)
Also from the WWL report:
So far, Canzoneri has billed the city for $8 million worth of work. And the city, in turn, asked FEMA for reimbursement.
"The permitting process and the inspection process is a city responsibility,” said Ronnie Simpson, a FEMA spokesman. “We had an immediate danger, so an emergency measure needed to be taken."
A project worksheet obtained by Eyewitness News shows that FEMA agreed to pay for $2 million worth of inspections. However, the city thought FEMA would cover the costs for all the inspections, $20 million worth.
