Dude, Where's My Ordinance?

Updated

I listened live to Council testimony as DA Cannizzaro made the pitch for moving simple marijuana possession arrests out of the criminal court system. He was off-the-agenda a little bit so the matter will go before the criminal justice committee next week some time I think.

Councilman Carter asked Mr. Cannizzaro to advise him on the language necessary for a draft ordinance.

That sounds pretty damn promising if you ask me.

Why was this so impossible to do for so many years?

Update:

It look like the judges in criminal court might be stuck in the past in this one. I hope they won't obstruct this important reform.

I'm not sure what their logic is.

I would hope that a City Council ordinance mandating that possession cases be tried in municipal court could pass unanimously.

Cooler Heads Prevail

Fielkow makes the smart decision by choosing to back off the contract veto override vote. Council needs to find ways to compromise and it's not worth it to wedge coalitions on a purely symbolic vote when there is substantive progress to be made on other things, even on the issue of transparency in terms of a possible charter change amendment.

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I noticed this bit within that article:

Carter said last week that he had received "hate e-mails" because of his failure to vote. He said he missed the vote because of a personal commitment.

For the record, here is the hateful email I sent to Councilman Carter, which was not returned:

Hello Councilman Carter,

My name is Eli Ackerman, I maintain the blog We Could Be Famous. I'm hearing from a lot of readers who are upset that you left today's rancorous Council mtg prematurely. (Especially since Councilwoman Hedge-Morrell stayed to engage in a discourse) Would you please explain why you decided to leave the meeting?

Thanks,

Eli

But then again, he's never returned any of my emails.

James Perry, Leader?

I wanted to say something last week about Council's failure to override Mayor Nagin's veto last week but got caught up in Mardi Gras.

First off, there's been a lot of unfair criticism of Cynthia Hedge-Morrell's decision to abstain from voting. I think she made the right decision. She angered a lot of people by articulating people's mistrust for the good government crowd but I thought it would have been extremely useful as a starting point for negotiating a consensus response from Council to Nagin's executive order.

Part of the reaction derives from people's misunderstanding of what that vote meant. Hedge-Morrell did not kill a transparency law. The proposed ordinance, passed unanimously by Council and vetoed by Nagin would have brought professional services contract advisory committees under the purview of public meetings laws. Nagin circumvented the ordinance entirely by simply abolishing the advisory committees. So when the vetoed ordinance came back to Council for a potential override vote, it was totally worthless.

In my opinion, there was no reason to hold the vote. Hedge-Morrell suggested at City Hall that Council instead focus on discussing the language of a potential charter change - the only means Council has at its disposal to substantively alter the impact of Nagin's executive order. But instead, Fielkow and Clarkson pressed ahead with the vote, posing an unfair political challenge to Councilwoman Hedge-Morrell, who was the only African American willing to sit in on the meeting.

While I don't understand why Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis had to be in Washington D.C. with the US Conference of Mayors instead of at Council for this debate, at least she has an excused absence.

The person to be disillusioned and angry with is Councilman James Carter. He was at Council chambers when the contentious debate began, only to slink out when things got too hot. It was unforgivable gutlessness. He could have provided a level-head and helped foster a respectful conversation. Instead, Councilman Carter headed for the hills. I believe the best excuse his office mustered to the media was a "previously scheduled appointment" or some nonsense like that.

The disdain he seems to have for his own responsibility is increasingly noticeable and unfortunate. He's a coward.

As soon as Carter abandoned ship, the vote should have been postponed.

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Meanwhile, in a stunning juxtaposition....

What is all this?

Am I really seeing a New Orleans political figure synthesizing viewpoints to take a stand in the midst of a fiery controversy? Huh?

Go read what James Perry says in Race and Trust in NOLA:

To build trust we need to have information from disinterested sources. We need information that provides clear unbiased data that we can rely on.

In New Orleans there is strong racial mistrust and general mistrust of our elected officials. We can use honesty and transparency to overcome that distrust and create a new basis for working together. Information and data, are key components in building this new trust. When objective data is unavailable, regardless of what the truth is, people revert to historic racial dividing lines. In today’s information age, there is a new opportunity. We can share all data and information and build relationships in much the way that friends do.

In working towards a post-racial New Orleans, sharing data is key. If we all have the common goal of a better City then there is no harm in making information available to everyone. Decisions about contracts should be open, inclusive, and transparent. Transparency and openness provide a base allowing trust to endure even through disagreement and bad reasoning. We need transparency in New Orleans government now. The progress of New Orleans’ racial dialogue depends on it.

This is an interesting way to construct the argument in favor of transparency since a lot of folks have been saying that the whole reason we can't have common sense public meetings and records laws is because of racial mistrust.

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Certainly the issues last week were extremely frustrating but I'm at least glad that when things finally broke down last Thursday, there was some frank talk (in Council and online) about the racial tension that too often manifests in blood pressure doubling passive aggressiveness.

James Carter's cowardly display was not what we needed. Arnie Fielkow's poorly contrived attempt to symbolically rebuke Mayor Ray Nagin was not what needed.

What we need is leadership that isn't afraid to substantively and publicly tackle the political and racial controversies that hamstring our recovery.

District 02: Empty Suits or Worse

I agree with everything adrastos says in this post.

I was disappointed with the choice of candidates when this election started but I thought that someone would step up and say the right things. I thought someone would step up and make a play for progressive voters.

Nobody went after Jefferson, who is clearly amongst the front-runners. Why not?

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I'm most disappointed in James Carter's campaign. He has had so many chances to fight for the citizens of this city this summer alone but has mostly sat on the sidelines. When James Carter had a chance to steal the spotlight and demand answers from the Mayor or from Ed Blakely during the NOAH scandal, Councilman Carter took a pass. When he had a chance to make a public stand against the Mayor's tiered reentry policy for Gustav, Councilman Carter took a pass. When the opportunity arose to get answers from the Mayor over his executive order suspending NCDC, Councilman Carter took a pass.

And now Councilman Carter continues to refuse to challenge the obviously broken demolition process. How many more mistaken demolition lawsuits does the city need to be hit with before Councilman Carter stops giving safety and permits the benefit of the doubt?

I have been trying to support him this whole time. I wanted an excuse to endorse him. Anything at all. Just one fiery rant to the paper on which to base it. Just one. My belief was that he was the least objectionable candidate of those with any chance to prevent a disastrous Moreno-Jefferson result on Saturday. But he never did anything to help the medicine go down. He did nothing.

So I cannot and will not endorse him.

Sorry, Councilman Carter. I was open-minded for as long as I could be. You blew it.

So where does that leave me for Saturday?

I think I'll be voting write-in for myself.

Someone please change my mind.