Sunday, May 11, 2008
Michelle, Frank...
In this morning's paper, you wrote:
Shouldn't that have read,"Pollster, highly paid Nagin consultant and Xavier University political scientist Silas Lee..."?
Silas, if the mayor paid me$60,000 $73,500, I'd probably defend him too. But, you also said,
He delegates? Maybe so, but he doesn't delegate like an effective corporate executive.
I'll have more detailed comments on the articles after I attend to Mother's Day obligations. I will cite the article's opening paragraph:
The accompanying scorecard on p. A16 (couldn't find it online) implicitly praises the mayor for the 2005 city layoffs. I'll say it again, I didn't blame the mayor for my pink slip, but I certainly expected the city's remaining payroll to go to productive employees. But instead of retaining building inspectors, the mayor kept highly paid aides, department heads, assistant department heads and upper level bureaucrats on the payroll. It's certainly fair, though possibly naive, to suggest that blighted houses don't get cited and sound houses get condemned because of the mayor's failure to set budget priorities.
On a related note, I've been complaining for months that NOBC gets the funding, NORA gets the publicity. Not that I'd want Rob Couhig and company the money to bulldoze every thing that doesn't fit into their ideas for a post-Katrina New Orleans.
Pollster and Xavier University political scientist Silas Lee said Nagin, like any mayor of a large American city, often gets judged for successes and failures in areas outside his direct control, such as the pace of work on federal levee projects. Some of the criticism leveled at the mayor is misplaced, he said.
Shouldn't that have read,"Pollster, highly paid Nagin consultant and Xavier University political scientist Silas Lee..."?
Silas, if the mayor paid me
"People want to hear more from (Nagin), see more of him, to reassure them. But he operates from a corporate leadership perspective: He delegates."
He delegates? Maybe so, but he doesn't delegate like an effective corporate executive.
I'll have more detailed comments on the articles after I attend to Mother's Day obligations. I will cite the article's opening paragraph:
When New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's administration quietly shut down the Good Neighbor anti-blight program last fall without reviewing thousands of complaints, howls of protest arose from citizens fed up with moldering, rat-infested houses.
The accompanying scorecard on p. A16 (couldn't find it online) implicitly praises the mayor for the 2005 city layoffs. I'll say it again, I didn't blame the mayor for my pink slip, but I certainly expected the city's remaining payroll to go to productive employees. But instead of retaining building inspectors, the mayor kept highly paid aides, department heads, assistant department heads and upper level bureaucrats on the payroll. It's certainly fair, though possibly naive, to suggest that blighted houses don't get cited and sound houses get condemned because of the mayor's failure to set budget priorities.
On a related note, I've been complaining for months that NOBC gets the funding, NORA gets the publicity. Not that I'd want Rob Couhig and company the money to bulldoze every thing that doesn't fit into their ideas for a post-Katrina New Orleans.
Labels: city budget, Nagin
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.
