Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Isn't there an election coming up?
If you read the city's needed alternative, you'll find lots of speculation about an election that will be held next Fall, but almost nothing about an election that's coming up in ten days. If you think that there was no reason for an article about the D.A.'s office to mention the city council or the city council election, you could have a bright future in the New Orleans press corps. Nobody at the city's daily newspaper, or any of it weeklies, seems to see the connection either.
As I pointed out in September, the connection should be obvious. There's very little that the city council can do about most of the problems in the D.A.'s office, but one problem would seem to be a matter of setting budget priorities:
To find the money for most of the expenditures that the city needs, the council would probably need to take some money from things that Nagin wants. We have the great good fortune to have a council election at the same time as the city council is holdings budget hearings and no interviewers are taking advantage of it. An obvious question that any interviewer with half a brain would ask the candidates is, "where specifically would you get the money for that?" Better yet, "with so many pressing needs, would you be willing to tell the mayor that he's bat shit crazy if he expects the city council to allocate $1.5M for a tactical trash force, just to save Metro and Richards Disposal money?" There are other items that should be discussed before the election.
As I pointed out in September, the connection should be obvious. There's very little that the city council can do about most of the problems in the D.A.'s office, but one problem would seem to be a matter of setting budget priorities:
“The Violent Offenders Unit has very good lawyers but they get completely overwhelmed by the fact that they don’t have the support staff they need,” Snyder said.
To find the money for most of the expenditures that the city needs, the council would probably need to take some money from things that Nagin wants. We have the great good fortune to have a council election at the same time as the city council is holdings budget hearings and no interviewers are taking advantage of it. An obvious question that any interviewer with half a brain would ask the candidates is, "where specifically would you get the money for that?" Better yet, "with so many pressing needs, would you be willing to tell the mayor that he's bat shit crazy if he expects the city council to allocate $1.5M for a tactical trash force, just to save Metro and Richards Disposal money?" There are other items that should be discussed before the election.
Labels: city budget, city council election, D.A.
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We might get loads of moolah back if we go into mass recycling...of the damned trash cans the city chained us to.
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