city government

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Next governor should be a better friend to New Orleans, Marc Morial says

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That old Morial magic still works. When the invitations went out from National Urban League CEO Marc Morial’s office for a Friday luncheon at Dooky Chase’s Restaurant, you could feel the stir in the political community. Last Friday, with the restaurant closed for the private event, there wasn’t an empty chair in the place. Among those working the room were many of the candidates on the upcoming ballot in New Orleans, including Mayor Mitch Landrieu who stopped at every table to shake hands, and former Civil District Court Judge Michael Bagneris, Landrieu’s last-minute major opponent. The Bagneris candidacy has turned what looked like a walk-over for Mayor Landrieu into a real race.

city government

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Kennedy assasination anniversary remembered by all

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We could not let this week pass without commenting on the 50th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s death. Allan was a reporter at the States Item Picayune when Kennedy died and actually met and talked with Lee Harvey Oswald during a trip to the newsroom just weeks before. Allan’s memory of Lee Harvey Oswald 50 years ago is that Oswald was considered a very weird, insignificant guy who was an advocate for Fidel Castro, not a very popular point of view in 1963 New Orleans. At the time, Danae was in junior high school in Hot Springs, Arkansas. New Orleanians, like Allan, who encountered Oswald would tell you that Oswald was a very unlikely assassin of a President.

city government

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Could Andy Kopplin be preparing to carry the Landrieu torch?

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Mayor Landrieu could be encouraging his CAO Andy Kopplin to enter the At-Large Council race against Stacy Head in order to preserve his legacy when the Mayor runs for Governor, according to the hottest rumor circulating among politicos lately — and the theory may make some sense. Like sister Mary before him, Mitch Landrieu has had his eyes on the governor’s mansion. Like his father, Mitch could have a relatively easy re-election. Mitch could enter the governor’s race in 2015 and find it is too difficult to serve as mayor and travel the state as a gubernatorial candidate at the same time. He just might have to resign and an At-Large Councilmember (presumably the one with the most seniority) would step in as interim mayor.

city government

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: How many judges are enough — but not too many?

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So who gets to decide how many judges are too many? Mayor Mitch Landrieu has strong feelings on the subject, based on his own experiences when he was in the private practice of law and his observations from the mayor’s office. There are too many judges and the money devoted to supporting empty courtrooms and under-worked judges could be better spent if the money was instead in the city’s general fund, Landrieu says. We might mention in passing that one of the mayor’s sisters, Madeline, is an excellent judge in the Court of Appeals. She previously served as a Civil District Court judge.

city government

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Tulane scholarships need reform — will they never learn?

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Even Tulane alum Allan Katz thinks that Mike Perlstein of WWL and Gordon Russell of the Advocate certainly did a bang up job on their first-rate investigation regarding Tulane’s century-old scholarship program.  Like many old habits in New Orleans, there is an aversion to change.  But change is definitely necessary for this program. There is little doubt that the thousands of students who received the scholarships benefited from their Tulane education. But the university has benefited even more from strong relationships with state and local government.  Although the program probably was set up to give legislators and the New Orleans mayor the opportunity to bestow blessings on their friends, times have changed.  We think the scholarships now should be given strictly to students who have real financial need and could not otherwise afford to receive the high-quality education Tulane has always provided.  We think all of this should have been settled at least 20 years ago when the issue first became public. State Rep. Patrick Connick has the right idea by vetting his potential recipients through the Jefferson Dollars for Scholars program. We think Connick should introduce a bill at the Legislature next year that would require each legislator (and the New Orleans mayor) to rely on a established non-profit to review candidates’ financial needs and scholastic standings.  This would insure not only the best and the brightest get a quality Tulane education but also one that his or her parents could not afford.  If the Legislature is too stubborn to reform the process, then Tulane should step up.

city government

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Landrieu speech addresses juvenile crime epidemic; economic action needed now

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We were pleased to hear Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s remarks yesterday in Washington. The epidemic of youth committing crimes is a national problem that every city faces. New Orleans and many American cities are strapped for cash and don’t have the available resources to implement clear solutions. It would be great if Congress allocated funds to create innovative programs that would address the problem. But we think the real issue lies in economic equity for young African Americans.

court

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Letten’s treatment of senior staff like family led to new Danziger trial

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We were shocked and saddened this week about the latest developments in the Danzinger Bridge case.  Who are the worst perpetrators?  The cops who tried to cover up what they had done? The U.S. Attorney’s Office for using anonymous blogs to spin their tale? Or the Justice Department, while charged with providing oversight for local U.S. Attorneys, almost turned a blind eye to what might be going on here in the Big Easy. It leads us to ask – what kind of oversight and by whom  – could have stopped this tragedy? The families of the victims will now have to relive those horrible days.

city government

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Can Nagin beat the rap?

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In our opinion, C. Ray Nagin was the worst mayor of our lifetimes. It is entirely possible that Nagin was the worst mayor in New Orleans’ 295-year history, going all the way back to the French and Spanish chief executives whom Danae has been studying recently. However, being a terrible mayor is not of itself a crime. Later this month, a jury will be convened in federal court to consider whether accepting some $200,000 in cash and gifts, along with several truckloads of free granite, is indeed a federal crime. The jurors will presumably hear Nagin’s Chief Administrative Officer Greg Meffert and big-time vendor Mark St.

city government

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: New Orleans’ own historic civil rights march

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In a few weeks, civil rights advocates from across the nation will come to New Orleans to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the city’s largest civil rights march that took place on September 30, 1963. At the time, Allan was a first-year reporter at the States-Item, New Orleans’ afternoon paper. The editorial pages of The Times-Picayune and States-Item were adamantly opposed to the civil-rights movement then gaining steam throughout the South. The newspapers’ opposition to civil rights was based on the theory of “States Rights,” which held that the federal government had no right to impose an end to segregation on the sovereign states of the United States. Today, we all know how that has turned out in the last 50 years but, at that time, it was legal linchpin to the fight conducted in the courts by segregationist entities.

city government

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Not all Civil District Court judges ready to move to Charity

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Several weeks ago, we wrote a column listing a number of reasons why Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s plan to move City Hall to the iconic but empty Charity Hospital was an excellent idea. In the course of our interview with him, Pres Kabacoff said he hoped that the Civil District Court judges would reconsider their plans to build a new Civil District Court building in Duncan Plaza – adjacent to the current City Hall on Loyola Avenue – and instead decide to join Mayor Landrieu’s administration and the City Council in the move to Charity. That all seemed reasonable enough to us, but then we received a visit from Civil District Court Judges Michael Bagneris and Kern Reese who told us the court is dead set on building their own structure and won’t be swayed by the mayor to move to Charity. The CDC judges have been diligently working on their plans for a new building since 2009, having been thinking about the new building for the last 20 years or more. Anyone who has visited the current Civil District Court – adjacent to City Hall – can see that the Court’s current quarters are hopelessly outdated, inadequate and obsolete.