Owen Courrèges
I think, by this point, I’ve managed to establish myself as a critic of the current mayoral administration. If Mayor Landrieu has an official fan club, I am not a member. I find his usual gaggle of sycophants and hangers-on downright nauseating.
That being said, one would think that I am clapping my hands with glee with the recent announcement that Judge Kern Reese held Landrieu in contempt and sentenced him to house arrest in the decades-old lawsuit regarding firefighters’ longevity raises. However, I am not.
Why the lack of glee? There are a few reasons. First of all, the order doesn’t strike me as being a legal one. Article XII, Section 10 of the Louisiana State Constitution of 1974 provides that the state, its agencies, and its political subdivisions (including the City of New Orleans) are not immune from suit. Thus you can sue the city. But can you collect?
The answer is maybe. Eventually. If you’re lucky. You see, the constitution also provides that “no public property or public funds shall be subject to seizure” and that “[n]o judgment against the state, a state agency, or a political subdivision shall be exigible, payable, or paid except from funds appropriated therefor by the legislature or by the political subdivision against which the judgment is rendered.”
This means that payment of outstanding judgments is essentially at the city’s discretion, which sort of means you get it in the shorts if you’re a plaintiff. Still, it’s the law.
This provision is the reason why Judge Reese’s order is unprecedented. For better or worse, state courts aren’t supposed to be able to enforce judgments against government entities. Holding Landrieu in contempt is (at least arguably) an end-run around the Louisiana Constitution.
Secondly, the city simply doesn’t have the money to pay these judgments, and Landrieu, for all his sheer hubris and inflated ego, can’t simply snap his fingers and make it happen.
I’ve heard some grumblings that the city has money coming in from judgments or could earn money by selling off certain properties, but the reality is that the city is already foregoing decent city services due to budgetary constraints. There is still some waste out there, don’t get me wrong, but pales in comparison with the sheer size of the judgments the city is facing.
Even if the city were to try to pay the judgment through tax increases, that would be a political issue subject to political processes, not something the courts can (or should) simply dictate.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, is the fact that while the firefighters may be legally entitled to the money, this whole mess is largely due to their own collective irresponsibility. The longevity raises were mandated by the state, which made no effort to fund them itself. Forcing raises through state law was a dubious tactic for firefighters; local taxpayers should have been given a say.
However, it’s not just the longevity raises that are at issue here. The firefighters are also suing the city to provide greater funding to their founding pension fund, which was managed by a board that followed the well-considered investment strategy of highly-risky investments and outright scams. The Joker’s investment strategy of simply burning all his money in the film “The Dark Knight” was not actually much worse.
And not content to simply waste the pension fund through mismanagement, the board also pissed away pension funds directly, treating itself to lavish meals that cost several thousand dollars a pop. They did all of this in the belief that the taxpayers (i.e., suckers) would have to bail out the fund regardless of their level of mismanagement.
This board, by the way, was made up mostly of members elected by current and retired New Orleans firefighters. Although some reforms have since been made, there is a prevailing sense that far more radical changes are required to ensure that such a debacle doesn’t happen again. That’s not going to happen if the city simply decides to cave on a major front.
Thus, as much as I hate to agree with Landrieu, his stand against paying the judgments in favor of the firefighters is good policy. We can’t afford it, and we shouldn’t have to pay it. The firefighters need to come back to the negotiating table.
Holding Landrieu under house arrest, even if the contempt citation survives appeal, is not going to make Landrieu fold. If anything, this has only emboldened him into sticking by his guns. In the end, it’s going to be up to the firefighters to recognize that their leaders have dealt them a bad hand, and they won’t win by stubbornly refusing to give ground.
Owen Courrèges, a New Orleans attorney and resident of the Garden District, offers his opinions for UptownMessenger.com on Mondays. He has previously written for the Reason Public Policy Foundation.
I too was a devoted hanger-on for Landrieu – until this year. Landrieu seems to be a mayor for a small, select group of people. As it turns out he is exactly who we thought he was when we elected Ray Nagin.
This drama is silly. The city and the firemen need a judicial ruling on the extent of the city’s constitutional protection.
The firemen pension problem needs state legislative action, since New Orleans is essentially a deadbeat dad, but the managers of the pension are guilty too. The larger issue is that a city can’t be allowed to ignore debts like this one has, so the constitution needs to be amended somehow to prevent this post-1974 refusal to pay behavior. New Orleans is gaming the system. Yes, we don’t have the money, but that begs the question of how did they waste the money we did have, knowing full well that they owed all this money?
The mayor belongs in a cell with Nagin, Jefferson, and the others. I thought house arrest on the weekends would be the first step. Landrieu is guilty of making verbal threats against the history and monuments of the city.
Bankruptcy? Allowed by law?