However, according to Eli, the amount the city is seeking to recover here is a small fraction of the amount of money not accounted for by NOAH and NOAH contractors... although he admits, "the records kept on the city's end were so atrocious, I just don't see any real way to evaluate who did what and who got paid for what." But, regardless of the actual amount of money in dispute, it remains a reasonable assumption that the city is not likely to be investigating itself in good faith.
Eli suggests that the timing of this announcement is calculated to draw attention away from yesterday's embarrassing judgment in which the Mayor and the City Attorney were found in “flagrant violation of the law they have sworn to uphold” when they stonewalled WWLTV's public records requests and even went so far as to "lose" a year's worth of emails relevant to those requests. Which brings us back to Eli's cute little joke. The kid writes,
We've just witnessed the Mayor voluntarily putting NOAH back into the news to deflect attention from his various other controversies.
He's in such bad shape that he's looking to NOAH for a lifeboat.
Now, personally, I think it would have been funnier if he had called it a "life-ark" but maybe not. (Also, I'm a little shaky on the concept of using a boat to "deflect" something. Not that that wouldn't work provided that one raised the "lifeboat"... which I am assuming is a dingy or canoe or something... over one's head. But surely a boat is more commonly used as a means of escape than defense.) Plus I don't think it's a correct read to say that Nagin is "putting NOAH back into the news" since it's likely that the disputed records... which we may actually see before this is all over with... could be NOAH-related (although I'd bet the crime camera issue may also be a heavy topic there). But the "lifeboat" strategy (despite the complexity of the metaphor) is probably dead-on. In fact, over the past week, the Mayor has managed to deploy a veritable flotilla of "lifeboats" with which he has... um... deflected criticism on several fronts. Observe.
Boat 1: Early last week, we were treated to the seemingly embarrassing news for the administration that Sanitation Director Veronica White had inappropriately released three years worth of email communications to and from City Council members.
I say "seemingly embarrassing" because, at the time, one was tempted to think 1) White seems to have ignored her responsibility to forward public records requests to the City Attorney's office and 2) WTF, Why are the Council's emails come by so easily while the Mayor's remain out of reach? But if that's all you got from the episode, then you had missed the boat... so to speak. As it turned out, the release of the Council emails ended up working in the Mayor's favor. It allowed him to convincingly reprise his politically comfortable role as the victim of overzealous, racially motivated critcs.
Although this was later revised to include all council members, the initial accounts of the email release stated that only emails belonging to the white councilpersons had been made available. Framing the story in this way immediately opened the records controversy to scrutiny under the racial lens. Highlighting the Council's 4-3 white majority, as well as its frequent moments of friction with Veronica White (As the T-P is fond of printing repeatedly and I think not without humor, "White is black") effectively cast the Council as the "White" participant in a suddenly highly subjective discussion over what should be simple facts. Once the council sued to prevent their emails from being released, we were fast on our way to a "transparency-for-some-but-not-for-me" type of argument in which they had compromised their own credibility.
By the end of the week, Jarvis DeBerry described defenders of either the Council or the Mayor as inattentive to "principle".
Can't decide if you're a person of principle or just another run-of-the-mill partisan hack? Here's an easy test: Did you take one position when WWL-TV sought Mayor Ray Nagin's e-mails and the opposite position when lawyer Tracie Washington was handed over e-mails from the white members of the New Orleans City Council?
Did you insist that Nagin's the target of a witch hunt but argue that those council members deserve every bit of scrutiny they get? Did you say that Nagin should have turned over his e-mails but that the council members are good folks and ought to be left alone? No matter which position you took regarding Nagin, if it doesn't jibe with the position you have toward the council, you're not to be listened to.
Now I think that's a bit simplistic. Technically speaking, those aren't exactly the two positions available for a person to take on the situation. One could say, for example, that the disappearance of the mayor's emails is suspicious AND that the circumstances by which the council's emails were produced are just as suspicious and still argue that all of these public documents should be available for public scrutiny. But, by this point, the boat has sailed. Days before the Mayor was set to receive a stern judgment regarding the disappearance of his emails, the counter-argument that a double-standard was being applied was already afloat.
Boat 2: In a lesser noticed flare-up last week, City Buisness published a rather weak hit piece in the finest Dragonslaying tradition which accused the Mayor's office of "expenditures other government officials generally consider unusual and inappropriate." I won't dwell on it too much except to point you to the Mayor's response here. What's more interesting to me is that a competing (and equally silly) report on the City Council's travel expenses was released the very same week reintroducing the comparison narrative.
Boat 3: On the same day that the Council email thing blew up, the Inspector General's office released a long-awaited report on alleged waste associated with the City's notoriously ineffective and ill-conceived crime camera program. You can read the whole report here if you like... or at least read the executive summary here. But to truly explore the depths of this chicanery, you should be reading Dambala. Suffice to say, there's a lot going on there and this report certainly merits wider discussion. But it didn't ripple very far upon impact thanks to the timing of the its release.
Plus, the Mayor made sure to further disturb the waters during this remarkable appearance on WVUE.
Eli transcribes key bits here and provides analysis. I'd like to piggy back off of Eli's work here and quote a bit from his transcription as I think it is an exemplary sample of Nagin at his best.
The best part (if one can even choose) is toward the end when he discusses the crime camera investigation.
Kim Holden: Let's switch gears a little bit -
Ray Nagin: (interrupting): Really?
Holden: Another controversy involving the crime cameras -
Nagin: (agitated interruption): Controversy?
Holden: - That came up this week. The IG report blasting your office for basically failing to hold the contractors accountable for the work they did, way too much money being spent on this, and the fact that maintenance costs are going to be astronomical from this point on. At some point do you say let's just abandon this whole project?
Nagin: I wouldn't do that. I mean, you know, one of the things I want to remind the public is that this is something that we pioneered. This was a research and development kind of project that the city of New Orleans really hadn't done. And when you do research and development and you pioneer things, you know, you're going to have some issues. I want to tell you I was just in Washington and Mayor Daley came up to me and he said, "look, I like these crime cameras that you guys are doing in New Orleans. They're cheaper than hiring more police officers and we're going to do them in a big way in Chicago."
Now, have we had issues? Absolutely. It's been well documented. We started to look at it back in August and make some changes. The gentleman who was in running the department is no longer in charge of that, no longer in charge of contracting, and we're cleaning this up. We have had some issues and we are going to do better.
There's a lot more in the passage and that interview so be sure to watch the whole thing. [Spoilers] Nagin goes on to take a hilarious swipe at the IG, "The IG? I mean, I'm happy to see that the IG has produced another report. It's the second one in eighteen months, so that's a good thing". And I'm always pleased to see anyone go after a twat like Raphael Goyeneche, "Well, Raphael is not really a crime expert so, I mean, you have to take what he says with a grain of salt." [/Spoilers]
But please do watch the video and then tell me if you agree with Eli's characterization of Nagin's second interruption as "agitated". I'd believe "mocking" or perhaps "smug" even, but I don't think Nagin is agitated there. I think he's quite comfortable. He knows his interviewers aren't in his league and he's all too happy to mock and intimidate them. I know we all have a lot of fun shaking our heads at his erratic behavior, but believe me when I say this. Years from now, when Ray Nagin is long gone, he's going to be remembered as one of the all-time masters.
Regardless of what you think about the mayor's willingness to address facts or even make sense, in this interview he DID manage to needle and intimidate his questioners in a way that left the casual impression that (1) he knew what he was talking about and they didn't and (2) that he is the victim of ulterior motives on the part of his critics. The man is a genius at this. Plus it works because... statements (1) and (2) are true to some degree. It's kind of beautiful to watch, actually.
And it's not the first time. Nagin does this all the time. Here is a classic Nagin moment I noted during one of the several massively entertaining Mayoral debates in 2006.
The classic moment of the campaign came later when Rev. Tom Watson challenged Nagin to explain his "double talk" meaning his tendency to contradict his own statements depending upon the make up (race) of his audience. Watson admonished Nagin not to "apologize for being a black man." Watson also challenged Nagin's assertion that the state is "holding up" reconstruction funds and let fly at Nagin with all of the fire and brimstone he could muster here declaring, "Ray Nagin is the problem! Ray you are lying! You are a liar!" At one point in this exchange Watson actually used the words "I rebuke you." Nagin's response to all of this was even better. During the reverend's tirade Nagin affected to bless Watson making the sign of the cross and shouting, "Pastor! God bless you!"
Nagin is a master at capitalizing on the shrill ridiculousness of his indignant accusers regardless of whose side the facts are on. He meets overwrought righteous pomposity with cool sarcasm. Stylistically, at least, he's always got a point and you almost find yourself rooting for him. Almost.
Oh by the way, that Mayor Daley story? Total bullshit... but who can keep up?
There's a way to combat Nagin's antics, but it takes patience, perspective, and a decent sense of humor... qualities in chronic short supply amongst the Dragonslaying crowd who, unfortunately, seem to be on the right side of most of this. (Here's a quick hint. I love Schroeder but typing, "SUBPOENA THE HARD DRIVES!!!" in all caps like that? Not helping. I wondered for a minute if he was spoofing a NOLA.com comment. Go read his post anyway. He's absolutely right.)
Meanwhile Nagin's boat deflection strategy seems to be paying off for him in the public relations department. Case in point: Amidst all of this, it was revealed this week that the City has been sitting on millions of dollars in HUD funding despite its massive deficit of affordable housing. WWL dispatched its ace reporter Lee Zurik whose report basically nailed Ed Blakely to the wall for offering the amazing explanation that "The contractors were not able to spend (the HUD money)." Ordinarily, a story like this is big news. Ordinarily, it's the sort of thing that makes all the talk shows. Some blogger gives it a nickname. And then we all spend the next three months ripping on it. But this made almost no waves at all. It showed up on WCBF but otherwise got drowned out by all the other nonsense. Can we say it got caught in the wake of one of the Mayor's lifeboats?
No comments:
Post a Comment