Nagin’s relocation plan surprises council

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

When Mayor Nagin announced at his final “State of the City” address this week that he wants to relocate City Hall to the former headquarters of Chevron, it was news to more than just the general public.

Some members of the City Council said they had no idea of Nagin’s plans, according to media reports.

Here’s an excerpt from a Times-Picayune story:

Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, chairwoman of the Budget Committee, said she recently toured the Chevron buildings with top administration officials. But she said she thought the building was being considered as a way to save money by centralizing city offices now housed in private buildings, including the Amoco Building.

During her tour, Hedge-Morrell said, someone mentioned the idea of relocating all of city government, but she added she was surprised to hear Nagin pitch it as a serious plan.

Council President Jackie Clarkson said she also has toured the Chevron site.

“It is a great building at a great price,” said Clarkson, a Realtor. But although she said she was aware of the idea of uprooting municipal functions to the new location, she did not realize plans were progressing so quickly.

The council’s other at-large member, Arnie Fielkow, and Councilwoman Stacy Head, whose district includes the current City Hall campus and the Chevron buildings, said they had no idea the purchase was being considered.

According to the story, members of the City Council would have to sign off on the purchase.•

City Hall e-mail concerns grow

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

The brouhaha over the New Orleans sanitation director’s release of City Council members’ e-mails has been the topic of the week in New Orleans.

New Orleans sanitation director Veronica White is accused of handing over council members’ e-mails to lawyer Tracie Washington, in an apparent breach of City Hall protocol. As any member of the media knows, requests for e-mails must go through the city attorney’s office because the e-mails must be reviewed to make sure privileged information is not released to the public. But Washington apparently did not have to go through that process. Moreover, she has received e-mails while the media in the past have been unsuccessful at getting the Nagin administration to fulfill requests for e-mails. Needless to say, many of us in the media are stunned.

Washington said she wanted the e-mails for a Web site on which she apparently wanted to publish public records. Many in the public have wondered why Washington, who is black, asked for e-mails sent to and received by only the four white council members. The council also has three black members.

But according to a story by The Times-Picayune today, Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, who is black, said she believes Washington may have received e-mails for other council members and their staffers.

On a New Orleans radio station, 99.5 FM, this morning, talk show hosts were discussing another e-mail controversy coming out of City Hall, the reported deletion of the mayor’s e-mails. On Feb. 17, an Orleans Parish Civil Court judge blasted the Nagin administration after learning that nearly all e-mails Mayor C. Ray Nagin sent and received in 2008  — and a lot of the items on his 2008 calendar — have been erased.

The hosts and the callers said they did not believe that the e-mails were not recoverable. Caller after caller, some of whom claimed to be in the IT industry, said the e-mails had to be backed up somewhere. The hosts also played a soundbyte from Nagin, in which the mayor said there are two servers: one for cityofno.com and another for mayorofno.com. Apparently, the mayor was trying to explain why council e-mails are recoverable while his are not, but I did not hear the entire interview and so I don’t know what point the mayor was trying to make. One blogger, upset about the e-mail deletion controversy, accused the city of fraud.

While so much attention is being focused on the Washington e-mail issue, a scathing report from the New Orleans inspector general’s office about the city’s crime cameras does not seem to be getting as much attention. The report, which has been turned over to the feds, claims Nagin’s technology office overpaid underperforming contractors by $4 million and vendors were not made accountable while many cameras didn’t work.•

Council’s plans seen as racist

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Earlier this month, the New Orleans City Council adopted an ordinance to make transparent the awarding of professional services contracts. Mayor C. Ray Nagin vetoed the ordinance, making the council have to decide whether to override his veto.

In the meantime, the issue is seen by some in the black community as an attempt by white council members to take power away from a black mayor.

Here’s how the issue evolved: Nagin, early in his administration, created a panel that involved a public representative to award the contracts, which total $150,000 or more. On Feb 5, the council decided it wanted the awarding process to be totally open to the public, and it adopted an ordinance to make the process adhere to the state’s open meetings law.

Some in the black community worry that what is being marketed as a way to make City Hall more transparent is actually an attempt by white council members to water down Nagin’s authority. (The council is made of three black and four white members.)

The concerns are being aired on the radio, such as 1230 AM, a station that discusses issues important to the black community in New Orleans.

The concerns are also being voiced in e-mails, such as one sent today by new@nola.tv. Here’s the e-mail, which in the subject line says “City Council’s Smoke Screen”:

URGENT!! COME OUT TO CITY COUNCIL 9AM TODAY
Some City Council Members Want To Change City’s Charter In The Name Of Transparency
It’s A Smoke Screen
TIE City Council Member’s VOTE  to Re-Election Bid
DON’T OVER-RIDE VETO

Yesterday, Vincent Sylvain of The New Orleans Agenda, in another column that’s being e-mailed around the city, wrote that Councilman James Carter “has reportedly received pressure from both sides of the issue; hate e-mails for his failure to vote for the override largely from the white community, pleas from his Black constituents to remain firm and vote against the measure. This sentiment has been echoed on WBOK 1230-AM Talk Radio with a majority of the listeners and bloggers supporting a no vote. “

Here’s another excerpt from Sylvain’s column:

Others have pointed out that the forced resignation of former District Attorney Eddie Jordan; the refusal of any charges against the Gretna Police Department for the blockage that kept hundreds of evacuees from crossing the Mississippi River bridge after Hurricane Katrina; the lack of a conviction in the Levon Jones case, the Georgia college student who died after a clash with Bourbon Street bouncers on New Year’s Eve 2004; the acquitted of the officers who participated in the beating of retired 66 year-old teacher Robert Davis; the dropping of all charges against the officers involved in the Danziger Bridge shooting of Ronald Madison and others; the lack of a formal investigation of the alleged vigilante shooting in Algiers Point during hurricane Katrina as uncovered in A.C. Thompson’s Katrina’s Hidden Race War documentary; frequent clashes between NOPD and cultural organizations are all examples of why Black view many of the proposed revisions to the governmental make-up of New Orleans with a suspicious eye.

Readers, do you see the move for more transparency as racism or reform?•

Nagin critic sells bumper stickers

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Drivers might notice a new anti-Mayor C. Ray Nagin bumper sticker in New Orleans soon.

Today, someone using the nickname Super Ray sent e-mails announcing that the stickers were for sale.

The e-mail was sent the day after the City Council failed to override a Nagin veto of an ordinance that would have opened to the public the process of awarding professional services contracts.

Here’s what was in the e-mail:

Nagin becomes the decider

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

In a move that critics say represents a step backward for City Hall transparency, Mayor C. Ray Nagin has proposed giving himself total control over the city’s awarding of professional services contracts — just when you thought things could not get more strained between the mayor and City Council.

Nagin was scheduled to hold a press conference on the issue at noon today.

His plans are not being well received by some, including Councilman Arnie Fielkow, who, in a CityBusiness story yesterday, called removing a review panel from the selection process a “scorched earth policy.”

Nagin’s move comes after the council voted unanimously to open the contracting of professional services to full transparency. Nagin vetoed that ordinance last week, even though two opinions from state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell support more openess in the process of awarding the contracts.

Under Nagin’s new executive order, a public representative would not be part of the selection process for the contracts. Instead, city Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Hatfield, City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields or recovery director Ed Blakely will suggest to Nagin who should get the contracts.

Nagin created the panel to improve transparency at City Hall. So why is he now apparently going to destroy it?

Is it just a game of one-upmanship with the council, with which Nagin has been at odds? It’s clear the council and Nagin administration are having a tough time getting along, as evidenced by the recent dispute over enhanced cleaning services in the French Quarter.

According to news reports, Nagin thinks the council’s call for more openess violates his authority.

Here are some excerpts from a Times-Picayune story today:

Nagin, meanwhile, has leaned on a legal opinion from his in-house attorney in calling the requirement an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers, as well as a nuisance. He has said the City Charter is not subservient to state law and that if the council wants contract panels’ meetings to be public, voters must amend the charter to require it.

He maintains the council-backed ordinance would “cause serious delay to the city’s recovery efforts.”

Nagin spokesman James Ross said Tuesday that based on the city’s experience last year entering into more than 800 contracts and other legal agreements, “it is impossible to have public meetings for each of those and keep with the pace of the recovery.”

Who’s side are you on? Is Nagin right, or is the council right?•

Nagin could use veto pen for budget

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Mayor Ray Nagin is considering using his veto powers in the wake of the City Council’s approval of changes to his 2009 budget proposal, according to news reports.

Nagin wanted the council to roll forward the millage rate by 10 mills, a request he said was needed to prop up the $486 million general fund. But the council rejected raising property taxes, because, they said, the city is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Rolling forward the millage rate would have generated nearly $25 million for the city, according to reports.

Nagin is upset by other changes the council made to his budget proposal, including council decisions to spend the last $10 million of $240 million in federal Community Disaster Loans and to slash more than $1 million for the city’s much-criticized crime camera program. Nagin is also displeased that the council moved to place about $50 million for the sanitation department and housing and blight fighting in reserve.

The council’s budget changes would result in deterioration of city services, Nagin said.

“We won’t be able to sustain the current level of services,” Nagin said, according to a story on wwltv.com. “2009 will be a challenge. 2010 will be a train wreck.”

At one point, tempers flared between Nagin and Councilman Arnie Fielkow over the budget. To view video of that exchange, click here.

Here’s what someone named katnipkat had to say on nola.com:

Nagin said:
“Most likely we’re looking at services in the city that will deteriorate, ” he said.

Now, this is something that I want to see–as I don’t possibly see how services in the city could deteriorate. What services do we currently receive?

Nothing from nothing is nothing.

Then there was this nola.com comment by xman20002000:

Citzens in NO generally don’t want to pay for public services. The property tax issue is a budget balancing request.•

Cerasoli’s battle

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

British news agency Reuters on Thursday published a story about New Orleans’ first inspector general, Robert Cerasoli, who last year took on the job of rooting out corruption in city government.

According to the story, Cerasoli is still struggling to get office necessities.

“I started last September and they only switched my phone lines on two weeks ago,” Cerasoli says in the story. “Everything has been a battle since, everything has been a fight.”

He has office computers, which were delivered last month, but they have yet to be connected to a secure network, the story says. Cerasoli also said he has only 13 staff members, although he was promised 30 by the city.

To read the story, click here.•

A new home for City Hall

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Remember when City Hall was supposed to move into Dominion Tower, that pinkish office building next to the Superdome?

The plan collapsed in 2006 when a proposal to create a jazz park went up in smoke.

But now, there’s once again talk about City Hall possibly relocating to the tower, as the state agency that runs the Dome considers buying the building, according to a CityBusiness story this week.

From the CityBusiness story:

But while state officials are only in the very earliest stages of exploring possibilities to remake the Central Business District properties, the proposal presents a chance for Mayor C. Ray Nagin to reopen discussions on moving City Hall and the city’s civil courts to the 26-story office building, something downtown planners say he should take.
Nagin’s spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett said that while the mayor hasn’t been briefed recently on the state’s plan for the site, he has spoken about the move to Dominion and would be “eager to look at it again.”
“I am very confident that he would entertain possibilities of making that move a reality,” said Quiett, adding that it was too early in the process to say if talks would go further than they did in 2006.•

Why 311 doesn’t work

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Mayor C. Ray Nagin’s administration continues to be beaten up about the performance, or lack thereof, of the 311 system, the city’s customer service hotline.

Residents have long complained that the system doesn’t work. CityBusiness reported on residents’ complaints in an October story.

Now, the public has learned why their complaints are not being answered.  On Monday, Nagin administration officials revealed that two-thirds of 28 departments covered by 311 are not connected to 311’s database. That means 311 operators can’t tell residents the status of their complaints.

But Nagin administration officials are promising a fix. Interim Chief Technology Officer Anthony Jones said the 28 departments will be linked to the database by October.

Did crime march make a difference?

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

 

Today marks the anniversary of a march on City Hall that drew protestors from all walks of life angry over violence in a city struggling to rebuild from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

 

The march was huge. It brought together multiple races. I’ve heard estimates of 3,000 attendees. It even attracted the likes of CNN.

 

At the time, Mayor Nagin pledged to make curbing crime his top priority.

 

A year later, has the march made any difference? Has Nagin kept his promise?

City’s Web site misses the mark on customer service

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

 

As for customer service, there’s always room for improvement at New Orleans City Hall.

 

I’ve been a reporter in New Orleans for nearly five years. So, I’ve had many interactions with City Hall staff in various departments.

 

To be fair, some are very helpful. They treat you warmly, call you baby and actually smile. Others will ignore you or, worse, be flat out rude. They seem to be miserable to be at work and want to make you miserable, too.

 

But bad attitudes are only one form of bad customer service coming out of City Hall. Bad customer service can also be found on the city’s Web site.

 

In his column this week, CityBusiness Publisher Mark Singletary pointed out that one page of the city’s Web site lists only fax numbers for various divisions of the Department of Public Works. But they are not labeled as fax numbers. So, when you call them, expecting to get a person or answering machine on the other end, you instead get an earful of that painful, annoying faxing sound.

 

I hate that.

 

This is not good customer service. Why list only fax numbers for the maintenance and parking divisions and construction and traffic engineering? Better yet, why not label them as fax numbers so callers won’t get blasted with that awful noise?

 

Bad customer service is bad for business. Everybody knows that.

 

The city needs to take a closer look at its Web site. We need to make it easier for businesses and residents to get in touch with City Hall.

 

What about you? Have you had bad experiences with customer service at City Hall or on the city’s Web site? I want to hear your gripe. Leave a comment.

Who deserves credit for moving N.O. forward?

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

In our online Question of the Week last week, CityBusiness asked people which New Orleans department has been the most effective since Hurricane Katrina.

We gave people options to choose from: City Council, Sewerage and Water Board, Office of Recovery Management, Public Works Department, New Orleans Police Department, district attorney and the office of Mayor C. Ray Nagin.

These are powerful departments, which made them obvious choices for the poll.

But it turns out the most popular choice was “Other,” meaning most people were not impressed with the post-K performance of any of the offices we listed.

Our poll also allows people to leave comments. Several people wrote “none of the above.” In the comments section, people suggested nonprofits and grassroots groups have been more successful in helping the city recover.

But it’s not all bad news for public agencies. The City Council did receive the second-largest number of votes, which means some folks are pleased with the performance of some people in city government.

Om: City Hall turns to deep breathing for stress relief

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Who knew Mayor Nagin was into deep-breathing exercises?

Lately, the mayor has encouraged City Hall workers to learn stress-relieving techniques from the International Association of Human Values, an organization founded by a guy named Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Shankar, described on the association’s Web site as “a spiritual leader, visionary, and humanitarian of international renown from Bangalore, India,” visited New Orleans in April. Since then, Nagin has developed a partnership with the group.

“We are open to review the proposals of his holiness Shankar’s for the achievement of harmony, stress management and clarity of mind,” Nagin said.

Mr. Mayor, your intentions are good. But I have to tell you that some City Hall workers already appear stress-free. In fact, some already seem to be engaged in deep meditation, so much so that it takes them several minutes to notice you are standing at their counters. I’m usually the one who becomes stressed when dealing with City Hall.

But who am I to cast dispersions on the mayor’s idea? This may do some good.

After all, I hear oxygen is good for the brain.