Jackie, Jackie, Jackie

Council President Jackie Clarkson went on Fox 8 this morning to talk shop.




Here's the important passage:

"I think Veronica White should be reprimanded and dismissed. That is not my prerogative. That is not Council's prerogative. That is the Mayor's prerogative. But I truly think what she did was wrong...

"When we can't get our own emails. When we can't make our emails accessible to the public... And she can get emails? That's wrong. And she's not even the City Attorney. I'm sorry, that's wrong. Whether it's ethically wrong, morally wrong, or legally wrong makes no difference to me. It's wrong because she's getting more service than the public. We can't service the public and she can be serviced? I'm sorry. Whatever motivated her is immaterial. It's wrong."

I'm sorry Jackie Clarkson, you're driving me crazy.

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It's not Council's prerogative? Is she serious?

Then what was she thinking in 2004 when she supported slimeball Jay Batt's ordinance to have Veronica White removed from office? In fact, she was the only Councilperson to do so. Her little dance to abscond from her responsibility as a civic leader is transparent nonsense.

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You're the Council President! Make yourself useful for something other than a ribbon-cutting.

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Then Clarkson claims that she doesn't have access to your own emails and that she wants her emails to be accessible to the public. This is also a cruel falsehood. Brad Ott of the Commitee to Reopen Charity Hospital has been trying for well over a year to obtain Clarkson's records in connection to the LSU/VA side selection process. Not even a month ago, he had to hold a press conference to publicly shame her for her failure to comply with the law. Remember?

Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital

PRESS RELEASE & NOTICE:

Press Conference Contesting the City of New Orleans’

Law Department Louisiana Public Records Act Policy

Thursday March 5, 2009 / 10:00am to 10:30am

In front of New Orleans City Hall, 1300 Perdido

This Press Conference is being held in direct response to the City of New Orleans’ Law Department policy directive and practice of compliance with the Louisiana Public Records Act. We contend that the effective exercise of this directive thwarts the timely and complete fulfillment of Public Records Requests made by individuals and organizations concerned with influencing municipal governance and recovery from Hurricane Katrina in the city of New Orleans. The policy and its execution must be reconsidered – as well as any public policy decisions made as a result of the lack of public transparency with the lack of timely and complete compliance with the Louisiana Public Records Act.

The Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital specifically supports member K. Brad Ott’s November 13, 2008 outstanding Louisiana Public Records Request of New Orleans City Council President Jacquelyn B. Clarkson. Pursuant to Louisiana Public Records Act (R.S. 44:1 et seq), Ott request included “for review and possible copying any and all records, memos, agendas, orders, directives, surveys, notices, communications printed and electronic, including e-mail, by fax, and/or postal mail in regards to the public and collaborative party dealings of the proposed VAMC/LSU Academic Medical Center, Section 106 Consultation, National Environmental Policy Act [NEPA], and National Historic Preservation Act [NHPA] through November 13, 2008 … as well as the Rev. Avery C. Alexander Charity Hospital, Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans.” (Bold type his emphasis)

The Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital contends Councilmember Clarkson’s Office as well as the City Law Department thwarted complete public participation in the decisions about the issue in which Ott’s Louisiana Public Records Request referenced. Deadlines for public comment without formal litigation have passed, effectively preventing alteration by the general public as well as by affected parties impacted by the New Orleans City Council’s authorization of funds in its 2009 City Budget for the expropriation of properties, homes and businesses within the Mid-City Historic District for the proposed VAMC/LSU Academic Medical Center – causing undue hardship and the potential internal displacement of area residents, workers and businesses. We are calling on Councilmember Clarkson and the City Council’s Attorneys to fulfill this Public Records Request, as well as to meet with similarly-situated parties to fully comply with the Louisiana Public Records Act. Other similarly-situated parties, individuals and organizations are invited to share their stories during this press conference.

Ott’s Public Records request is attached to emailed press notifications and will be made available at the press conference. We thank and credit The Times-Picayune and Nola.Com for links to the City of New Orleans’ Law Department Inter-Office Memo on Compliance with the Public Records Act, as well as the interview with Mrs. Clarkson regarding her handling of public records:

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Council President Jackie Clarkson: a do-nothing and a hypocrite.

Booooo!

But where do I put the stamp?

WDSU:

In his accounts, Boyd does not recall anyone in his department duplicating Clarkson’s materials, Lane said. Council members have been reacting to the belief that the files of four members – including Clarkson – were improperly released by city Sanitation Director Veronica White.

“I haven't been able to get an answer as to why or an explanation as to why Miss Clarkson's emails have never been turned over,” Lane said.

“It may be because she doesn't e-mail as much as the others or it may be because Miss White didn't feel her e-mails should be turned over, so we'll just have to find out. But that is why the Office of Inspector General was created -- to find out when wrongdoing has occurred.”

Ha.

Of course, Jackie Clarkson couldn't be reached for comment because her stagecoach broke down en route from a "talkie" picture and 'DSU's telegram didn't reach her in time.

Jackie Clarkson: Niceties Necessary

Not enough has been done to make fun of our City Council President.

Much of the impetus for this hard-charging petition effort is our City Council's failure to act as an equal branch of government to Mayor Nagin's executive. After this piece by Frank Donze featuring liberal quotations from several angry Councilors, our representatives went right back to in-fighting over how to proceed in parsing the ridiculous crime camera contract the very next day. That week of course culminated with Council members snapping at each other over some pretty basic and appropriate criticism of Sanitation Director Veronica White.

At the time, I highlighted my favorite quote from the original Donze article (emphasis mine of course).

"I am fed up. Nothing has to take this long, " said Council President Jackie Clarkson. "Something is really wrong. So little is getting done, I can't get a handle on this."

I found that funny because usually Jackie Clarkson is so on top of things. Normally, when the administration isn't delivering, Jackie pushes back hard, right?

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As the NOAH scandal emerged, it was Jackie Clarkson who stood in support of the Mayor.

Then when the Mayor stood in front of Council regarding the matter, Jackie Clarkson proudly sat in silence, determined not to ask a single question.

More recently of course, as citizens were railing for Council to confront the Mayor and win concessions on issues of transparency and accountability, it was Jackie that negotiated another ridiculous detente with the Mayor over fancy French Quarter dinner. Did she secure dismissals or demotions for incompetent department heads that have lost the trust of the public? No. Did she secure the free flow of information between the administration and Council? According to the Times-Picayune today, apparently not.

Instead, Jackie Clarkson and the Mayor worked together on creating a protocol for more quickly silencing human expression that breaks from the atmosphere of friendship and good cheer that is so effectively steering the city toward the golden gates of recovery.

And not a moment to soon!

Last Friday, the public might have actually had an opportunity to present their displeasure to City Council directly. But thanks to Council's new found commitment to tranquility, Lower Mid City was given all of 60 seconds to defend its right to exist.

Councilwoman Clarkson's new protocols were so effective that she didn't even need to be there to enforce them.

Does the President of City Council really need to be there to listen to the Mayor's office and the Recovery Director present their 2009 budgets anyway? I mean, those are just minor departments and budget hearings only happen once a year anyway. So it couldn't have been important. I don't begrudge her one bit for skipping out.

She had an award luncheon to attend.

There's a photograph I'd like to reproduce for you, but doing so without permission would cause major legal problems for me.

What does every good blogger want during this holiday season?

Repeat after me kids: An 11x14 print of that photograph of Councilwoman Clarkson in her trademark red/pink suit thing mounted on stretched canvas.

Mom and Dad, it's only $180!

And we're talking about the real article too:

"Our photos are taken by experienced photojournalists and come with a signed Certificate of Authenticity (at no extra charge), documenting their exceptional value."

And the emphasis there is NOT mine.

Accept no imitators.

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Someone should put together a list of quotes from Jackie Clarkson related to her endless quest to unearth congeniality.

It doesn't matter how many relevant investigations of the administration get in her way, there will be taxpayer-funded friendship dinners and luncheons!

Finally. The change New Orleans has been waiting for.

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Does Clarkson believe that if Council gets along with the Mayor, the people of New Orleans will get along with each other?

Fielkow: "I Don't Think That's Democracy"

Arnie Fielkow isn't particularly enthused about the latest detente negotiated between Councilwoman Clarkson, Councilwoman Hedge-Morrell, and Mayor Nagin.

Responding to a question about Councilwoman Hedge-Morrell's plan to cut off microphones in the event of future heated exchanges, Councilman Fielkow concludes:

"I don't think that's Democracy."

He doesn't believe it's addressed the underlying issue that lead to the recent spat over decorum - whether or not the Nagin administration is providing the information that Council requests.

“Ultimately, that is the most important question. Does the council have the information needed to formulate an opinion on the particular sanitation contract? I don’t know the answer to that,” Fielkow said.

Here's another WWL report.

Apparently, then-Councilman Jay Batt tried to get Veronica White removed in 2004 with an ordinance.

The only other 'yea' vote in that effort belonged to none other than Jackie Clarkson.

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I did not know that.

I wonder if Jackie has signed this petition, which calls for Veronica White's dismissal from her post as Director of Sanitation.

Sign it and spread it, friends.

All Better Now?

Earlier tonight, Ray Nagin, Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, and Jackie Clarkson emerged laughing from an expensive French Quarter restaurant where agreed to do absolutely nothing substantive to address the status of Sanitation Director Veronica White.

They have a new "system" in place that will prevent future disturbances from occurring, one in which committee chairpersons will be faster to cut off the microphones of whichever speakers might be disagreeing too loudly.

Flat-out unacceptable.

Dismiss Veronica White NOW!


UPDATE:

WWL now has the raw video.

Jackie Clarkson and Cynthia Hedge-Morrell were actually surprisingly insistent that they did press upon the Mayor that Department Directors are going to have to actually answer questions now.

It will be interesting to see whether or not Council asks about sanitation contracts with Richards, Metro, and SDT. I wonder whether or not Council asks about recycling.

And I especially want to know about demolitions...



Of course there are the answers to look forward to as well.

No More Useless Truces - Dismiss Veronica White NOW

WWL is reporting that Mayor Nagin is meeting with Councilwomen Clarkson and Hedge-Morrell this evening to discuss last week's blowup involving Sanitation Director Veronica White.

The Mayor will likely offer some sort of detente arguing that the city can't afford to be distracted with allegation after allegation because it undermines this great recovery we're having.

Council and the Mayor have sparred on a number of occasions over the last 12 months or so. It always ends with some sort of worthless mutual understanding in which the Mayor concedes little or nothing.

That's not good enough anymore. The legislative branch is an equal partner in this and I'd like them to stand up and demand a serious concession from the Mayor's office.

Can Veronica White really continue in her current position and maintain ANY semblance of credibility with Council after this? She certainly has none with the public.

Later tonight or tomorrow morning, we should know something about what the Mayor discussed with the two Councilwomen.

In the mean time...

If you care about accountability in the executive branch, it is absolutely critical that you apply pressure now. Call and write your Council representative.

Sign this petition calling for the dismissal of Sanitation Director Veronica White

Help spread the word. Send a link to the petition to your friends, neighbors, and colleagues.

There is strength in numbers. When constituents get angry, Council notices. A lot of these cats want to run for higher office. They need us. So let's use that power.

Respectfully, Jackie Clarkson. No Charge for Extra Deference

Jackie Clarkson responds to Nagin's email.

From WDSU:

Dear Mayor Nagin:

I am writing to acknowledge receiving your letter concerning the recent appearance of Sanitation Head Veronica White before the City Council Wednesday afternoon. Thank you for taking the time to address me directly about this issue.

You wrote in your letter that we should focus on recovery and not “allow mean-spirited accusations to destroy the integrity of hard-working public servants now or ever.” And I agree. I agree there should have been more professionalism exhibited in the Chambers Wednesday. But I respectfully disagree with your assessment of who was out of line.

Councilmembers, Mr. Mayor, are elected by the people to ask tough questions. Department heads are appointed to give accurate answers.

Although there ought to have been more civility displayed on both sides Wednesday, I strongly believe no department head should behave toward an elected representative of the people as Ms. White behaved toward Councilmember Head. Before sending you this letter, I reviewed the tapes several times, in addition to being present at the meeting myself. And it was Ms. White who made a professional conversation personal, accusing Councilmember Head of being motivated by a desire to malign the Sanitation Department and implying Councilmember Head was a crook and thief. Moreover, never once did I hear Councilmember Head pronounce any “race-baiting remark.”

I’d like to take this opportunity to reaffirm my professional respect for you and the city’s department heads and make clear my determination to lead the council in acting in a civil manner toward the executive branch of government. I believe this best serves the people to whom my greatest loyalty belongs – the residents of New Orleans, who elected me to lead their council, and who expect and deserve representatives that will diligently weed through the budget.

I believe that you and I ought to discuss this incident, face-to-face, and move on for the sake of our residents and continued recovery.

Respectfully,

Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson

President

New Orleans City Council

For Councilwoman Clarkson, this is pretty much throwing down the gauntlet.

C. Ray Nagin Throws the Red Challenge Flag

And like Andy Reid, he'll lose a timeout.

The Mayor has an opinion about what happened at City Council. He sent an email to every member of City Council. WDSU kindly reprinted the whole thing:

It is my understanding that a council member verbally abused the City sanitation department head, used profanity, and boldly proclaimed very crude race-baiting remarks during a public meeting.

What? At what point did Stacy Head use profanity? Did she race-bait?

Let's review an actual tape of the confrontation. Go ahead and invest the two minutes and twenty six seconds it takes to ascertain what actually happened.

Seems to me that Stacy Head caught Veronica White in a lie and then expressed her displeasure with Ms. White's repeated stonewalling of information requests. Then Stacy Head moved on to ask another question, which Ms. White refused to answer. Then Councilwoman Head said that Ms. White was not being truthful. Then Ms. White got belligerent and stormed out of the room.

For the sake of comparison, watch that video of the confrontation between Stacy Head and Veronica White and then watch this one. Even Bush administration officials are more graceful in stonewalling inquiries from Congress, many of which are far more strident than what occurred here.

So did Ray Nagin even see what happened?

The answer is no.

From the transcript:

I have not reviewed the full tape yet, but it has been reported that the employee was publicly chastised, threatened, belittled, and carelessly accused of being a liar in spite of any clear facts being presented. I am formally requesting a copy of the videotape from this meeting and a formal investigation to include obtaining statements from all witnesses immediately.

And thank God he's formally requesting a tape. He could just watch it on TV or online like everybody else. But it's clearly better to go through an administrative process that will take as much time as possible. He shouldn't actually just look at the video, he should wait as long as possible so that Jackie Clarkson backs down and the issue goes away.

And while we're at it, why don't you encourage Veronica White's response to questioning from all of your department heads:

This type of behavior must stop immediately as I am instructing all department heads that if they are verbally assaulted or personally insulted at a council meeting that they should immediately leave. Tough questioning is generally appropriate. Personal attacks are just not acceptable. I also believe that professional rules for council members should be updated and enforced at all times.

When the questions get tough, it's much better to 'immediately leave' than to incriminate yourself by providing answers.

So what is Mayor Nagin's play here? He writes an email accusing Stacy Head of race-baiting and expects that this will put her on the defensive and totally obscure the waste he seems to encourage from his department heads. Is that it? Is it that easy?

Or is he just hoping that Council President Jackie Clarkson forgets what she saw?

Either way, I think Nagin is overplaying his hand. First of all, everyone in this city and around the country knows that Ray Nagin is a sell-out of elephantine proportions. His recovery ideology prioritizes the fantasies of the business community. He won't raise the minimum wage because of his ridiculous delusion that po-boy shop workers are making $60k a year. He's a national laughingstock and Democratic party leaders do somersaults to avoid being pictured near him.

Meanwhile, if there's one thing Jackie Clarkson values, and I don't say many nice things about Jackie Clarkson, but if there's one thing she cares about, it's 'playing nice.' She might cave on issues but she certainly knows when someone owes and apology to someone else. She was there when all this went down and she was decisive in diagnosing Veronica White's behavior as wildly inappropriate. I don't think Ray Nagin's instant replay can convince her otherwise.

Apparently, Veronica White is filing a complaint with the EEOC.

Best of luck to her.


UPDATE

Councilwoman Head calls Nagin's accusations reckless and groundless.

She does well to draw parallels between her attempts to question Veronica White about the city's sanitation contracts to some of the Nagin administrations other reactionary responses to basic due diligence inquiry:

"Regularly, the Mayor becomes incensed when the Council exercises its charter oversight authority," Head wrote, adding that the mayor got similarly bent out of shape when his administration's oversight of the NOAH home-gutting program was questioned.

"This is no different than his defensive posture during the NOAH investigation," Head wrote. "Instead of looking into credible information that the NOAH program was fraught with problems, he challenged the Council and the media that we were off base."

We Do Not Have A Record But At Least You Have The Land

This is a portion of my Wednesday morning email to members of City Council advocating for the complete repeal of Executive Order 08-04:

I am reading in the Times-Picayune that the Mayor is granting some sort of "concession" on Executive Order 08-04, which suspended an unbroken NCDC review process in favor of a secretive process seemingly rife with opportunity for mistaken demolition, contractor fraud, and/or contractor noncompliance with environmental mitigation procedures. I believe this only serves to further complicates a process did not demand post-Gustav modification. Even if you don't care one iota about either transparency or the preservation of architectural heritage, you must still unequivocally demand the total repeal of 08-04. Executive Order 08-04 re-initiates the same types of cloudy demolition procedures that lead to the still-pending multimillion dollar lawsuit against the city for the tragic demolition of the homes of some neighbors. Why would the Mayor eliminate a functioning system of checks and balances that had no purview over the demolition of structures in imminent danger of collapse in favor of the same type of convoluted demolition process that could yield more lawsuits, more bad press for the city, and more mistrust between citizens and municipal government?

Such alarmists we are, just assuming the city would keep poor records and not properly inspect buildings put on the chopping block. I mean, shouldn't the Nagin administration be given the benefit of the doubt?

No it shouldn't. Not ever again.

Read the whole thing from WDSU:

After Hurricane Katrina, Williams put $34,000 of her own money into renovating the house. But when she returned from evacuating after Hurricane Gustav she got a phone call from her contractor she'll never forget."He said he didn't even know how to tell me -- that my house was gone. I thought he was clowning. I said what do you mean the house was gone?" said Williams.

Mayor Nagin's legally redundant and antagonistic executive order has just yielded another lot of demolished dreams and exposed city coffers to yet another demolition lawsuit.

Last week, Williams said she took the matter to the Safety and Permits department."The man was very nasty. He said it was emergency demolitions that they were doing around the city. It got torn down and there's nothing anybody could do about it. He said, 'At least you have the land,'" said Williams.

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The list of homes in imminent threat of collapse after Hurricane Gustav includes 4825 Laine Ave. When Williams went to city hall, she said there was a picture of the home she owned at 4829 Laine Ave. associated with the demolition order.

"We do not have a record of that property being demolished by the city. So we will investigate further," said James Ross, with the mayor's office.

Read today's T-P for some details on the city's imminent danger of collapse classification procedures. Here's a taste:

The city's code, however, provides no criteria for designating structures in "imminent danger of collapse." Instead, it places the determination solely in the hands of a "code official" and the Department of Safety and Permits.

Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson, whose presence on Council must be an increasing source of embarrassment for reporters, citizens, and colleagues alike on her hearing's "achievement":

"When the mayor walks in to a recovery meeting at my specific request and rescinds the order within 48 hours, you don't say, 'That's not good enough.' "

It's not like it's the Council's job to ask questions as to why the order was issued, why the city does not use structural engineers to evaluate properties, or why the Mayor allowed 'enterprising individuals' to game the system to push through their pet demolition projects without the approval of NCDC?