Landrieu sat unobtrusively in the back row amid more than two dozen members of his education task force, taking notes like a diligent student.
When everyone at the community meeting had had a turn, Landrieu came forward and offered his impressions.
He joshed with the audience in his folksy, "I'm just a New Orleans boy" way, but he also showed he had been paying close attention, acknowledging the viewpoints of nearly every speaker.
Imagine if Nagin were in attendance at this event and took questions at the end. Would it have been described this way? Probably not now. But eight years ago, maybe. I thought it might be fun to look through the Newsbank database for T-P treatments of Nagin at a similar point in his Mayor-electorate. The profile below was clearly meant to leave the reader with a positive impression. I've decided to just republish the whole article here since the years have allowed the unintentional humor to ripen so nicely.
Nagin wants city on cutting edge - Mayor-elect sees a high-tech future
Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA) - Sunday, March 10, 2002
Author: Frank Donze and Gordon Russell Staff writers
With time running out on both the evening’s debate and the mayoral campaign itself, Ray Nagin was wracking his brain, trying to score a knockout punch before an audience of doctors at Touro Infirmary. Suddenly, it hit him: Use the Blackberry.
As his rival wound up his closing remarks, Nagin surreptitiously scanned the notebook-sized computer that stores addresses, his schedule and e-mail messages, and there it was: a message from a friend that he had dimly remembered might contain data about the city’s alarming incidence of diabetes. "I went in and pulled up the e-mail, read it when somebody else was speaking, got my statistics, closed and won the debate," Nagin said later, grinning like a Cheshire cat and patting the Blackberry. "So this device is pretty cool."
Listen to the small circle of friends and advisers that Nagin has drafted to help him assemble his administration, and you might think the age of techno-government is about to dawn in New Orleans. Their chatter echoes with buzzwords such as "synergistically" and "plug-in." They inhabit a world where cell phones and beepers may soon be passé and where "real time" decision-making is considered real important.
A self-described "technologist" who has run the city’s dominant cable television company for the past decade, Nagin , 45, has no doubt that his passion will shape his administration, set to take power in less than two months. "The technology piece will be a big focus for me as far as making sure that city government is on the technology curve," Nagin said this week as he introduced the seven-member "board of directors" that will supervise his transition. "My understanding from him is that he wants this to be a big technology administration more than anything else," said David White, Nagin ’s close friend and business partner, who, along with lawyer David Marcello, is heading the transition. "That’s the blueprint: to use the latest technology to make government as efficient and effective as possible. The key is getting people excited about it."
Already buzzing
High-tech for Nagin is not merely a visionary ideal. He sees it as a hands-on solution to the challenge of trying to do more with less. Perhaps it also will prove to be a way to attract a higher caliber of employee back to City Hall, one adviser said. And woe unto the transition team member who fails to gear up with his own cell phone and Blackberry. "Ray said to the committee, ‘We have to walk the walk and talk the talk with the technology,’ " said Brenda Hatfield, a Cox executive who is part of the transition team. "He’s demonstrating through himself how he plans to use technology. He’s putting his Web site where his mouth is, so to speak."
"It’s elementary," White said. "If a CEO can access critical information on a real-time basis, he or she will be better equipped to make better decisions." The same holds true for mayors, Nagin believes. By Monday, he hopes to have launched a Web site, nagintransition.com, with the ability to log in resumés from anyone interested in working with him. Once in office, he has pledged to streamline the cumbersome permitting process for new businesses to the point where applicants can fill out necessary paperwork while sitting at a computer "in their pajamas."
Bill Hines, a corporate lawyer and transition team member, said Nagin even is talking about installing kiosks at home-improvement stores such as Lowe’s and The Home Depot where residents can get routine building and renovation permits on the spot, an idea already in place in other cities."He’s talking not just about overhauling this process and getting us up to speed, but maybe skipping a generation, leaping a number of cities and almost being cutting-edge," Hines said. "He wants us to be like an Austin, Texas."
Lots of work to do
Given the city’s rampant poverty, that may take some doing. Hines said Nagin is well aware of the need to provide training and access if his techno-revolution is to succeed. Other changes under discussion by the transition team include an electronic system to instantly link businesses looking to relocate here with representatives of local suppliers and companies that provide support services.
Nagin also intends to investigate radical innovations for rebuilding and repairing streets as well as the availability of longer-lasting materials that might be used to fill potholes or build roadbeds.
He may have no desire to see his mayoral opponent, Richard Pennington, stay on as police superintendent, but Nagin has expressed admiration for Citi-Stat, a proposal put forward by Pennington. Modeled on Comstat, the computerized log credited with helping to sharply reduce crime in New Orleans, CitiStat would inventory trouble spots on roadways and other infrastructure throughout the city and allow for greater efficiency in tackling them. Nagin has said he may give it a try.
Luring the best
In all this talk about technology, one adviser sees the possibility that the incoming administration will be able to attract a different breed of city employee. "Knowing they will be on the cutting edge instead of back in the Dark Ages has got to be an incentive," said Flo Schornstein, a longtime community activist who ran the city’s Parks and Parkways Department under three mayors before retiring in 1997.
Of course, attracting top talent and finding the means to hire it may be two different challenges. Acknowledging that the city’s threadbare budget will make it difficult to pay competitive salaries, the Nagin camp is exploring ways to get around the problem. Nagin has said he would like to eliminate some of the more than 250 mayoral appointees now on the payroll to free up money to pay others more. Also, his advisers say he will examine whether the business community would "loan" executives to City Hall as his administration gets on its feet.
Recognizing Nagin ’s close ties to corporate New Orleans, Schornstein expects the call for help to be well received. "Ray will be trusted by the business community to make good business decisions," she said. "I don’t think the cynicism toward City Hall will be as strong as it used to be."
Hines echoed Schornstein’s optimism. He noted that Nagin is approaching the task ahead as if he were buying a failing business, promising to have a complete outside audit on City Hall’s finances performed as soon as he takes office. Last week, Nagin asked the New Orleans Business Council to pay for the audit, and Hines said the council is likely to oblige him.
Such support could be critical for the new mayor as he struggles to get more out of less. "I expect him to think outside the box," said Ed Renwick, director of Loyola University’s Institute of Politics. "With the problems he faces, he’ll have to come up with creative solutions. I look for him to shake things up and maybe try a variety of things to see what works."
Preaching patience
The results won’t be seen overnight, warns Nagin , who used his victory speech in part to ask supporters for an extended honeymoon period before it’s even begun. "I’m trying to bring expectations down to some level of reasonableness," Nagin said this week. "Somebody was telling me a story that after the victory party, there was a long line of people waiting for their cars (outside the hotel). And this person said, ‘When Ray Nagin gets in office, he’s going to fix these long lines.’ "
Although he expects some progress right away, Nagin asked that voters give him at least a year and a half before judging his performance. "It’s not that we’re not going to start to have successes immediately," he said. "At the 18-month point, you will notice a dramatic difference in how city government is run."
At present, it isn't clear which memories of the Landrieu transition will seem the funniest to us in the future. But I'm sure by then we'll have enough glowing reports of the next incoming administration's talents to keep us as hopeful as ever.
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