Comments on: Laissez la révolution rouler

By: Aavaisha

Aavaisha — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 02:23:58 +0000

Thanks man, i agree

By: schroeder915

schroeder915 — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 10:34:14 +0000

I have my doubts about that as well Ashley.

BTW MAD, Celcus and po’boy, thanks for those media reviews.

By: ashley

ashley — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 06:56:38 +0000

The “zero tolerance” thing seems like it would work in just about any American city. I don’t think it would work in New Orleans, I really don’t.

By: schroeder915

schroeder915 — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 03:21:36 +0000

David. No. Absolutely not. I agree, and Nagin isn’t the first to give plum salaries to his friends. I’m talking about programmers, database administrators, people who do GIS work, competent project managers — or how about people who can simply reboot a computer by themselves for chrissakes. They need to reward those highly-educated people most who most improve the efficiency and responsiveness of government.

By: bayoustjohndavid

bayoustjohndavid — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 00:56:14 +0000

“Don’t stop with police officers. Work throughout the system to improve the quality of all personnel who the police rely upon to do their jobs. The entire city bureaucracy, for example, is crippled technologically because it relies upon civil service descriptions (and pay scales) which in many cases haven’t been updated in more than thirty years.”

If you’re talking about a total overhaul of civil service, I agree with you, but civil service rules would have made that easier during a state of emergency. But if you’re talking about more pay raises on top of the targeted pay raises for police and fireman and the absurd and wasteful 10% ACROSS THE BOARD pay raises that’s just ridiculous. It would be another slap in the face to the 2500 laid off workers and a waste of resources. Remember the upper level employess who got huge pay increases at the start of Nagin’s term.

Beyond that most of what you said involves resource allocation and until people ask specific questions about that (I know it’s a boring subject) people are just going to get vague answers and excuses about New Orleans being the greatest natural disaster (as Nagin continues to say) to ever hit an American city.

When I emailed most of the city council –left out Midura — about the pay raises two months ago, I recommended rehiring the laid off civilian employees of the NOPD as a beter use of funds than all but a few of the civilian pay raises, especially for the upper level employees. The only serious response I received was from Head, who said she’d introduce a motion to exclude people making over a certain amount (90K, I think). But the paper made it clear that the council accepted dishonest pay figures from the administration.

By: Katrinacrat

Katrinacrat — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:24:24 +0000

Let me know if you need some pics. I got quite a few from differant angels.

By: celcus

celcus — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:18:22 +0000

The march was mentioned on NPR this morning, and they largely blew it. They did note the large numbers, but stated that marchers carried signs “criticizing the Mayor, the Governor, and President Bush.” I saw one or two mentioning Bush, but that was not an accurate description by any means. Seems like a classic case of lazy reporting, I mean, what protest doesn’t criticize Bush these days?

By: da po' boy

da po' boy — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:08:41 +0000

ABC 26 carried the march live from 11:30 to its conclusion, with three reporters live along the route and Rafael Goyoneche and Jim Letten on set providing commentary on the criminal justice system.

By: ashley

ashley — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:08:48 +0000

Good stuff from CNN.

By: MAD

MAD — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:29:32 +0000

The march was a great experience. The TV coverage that I saw was mostly weak. No surprise with WDSU-TV. Their news reporting has slipped so badly in recent years. Norman Robinson often seems confused and ill-prepared.
While I rarely listen to radio anymore, Kaare Johnson at 690am two days ago devoted his show to discussing the grossest food sold in New Orleans.