Big bucks for bullshit

Remember when we hired this guy it was because he was "one of only six people in the world" who were this amazing at whatever this job was.

Since stepping down as New Orleans' recovery director in 2008, Ed Blakely has often seemed to play loose with the facts about his experiences in Louisiana. Recently, he told a radio station in Australia, where he now lives, that as of a few months ago, only 30 percent of the city's population had returned since Hurricane Katrina. In fact, the 2010 census put the figure closer to 75 percent.

"Mold is a disease" like being a big fake lying asshole is a disease, I guess.

"Mold is a disease," Blakely said. "Because mold spreads, it can get human contact, either by breathing or on your skin, so there's been a lot of medical attention and some people have died, unfortunately."

According to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, three Orleans Parish residents perished in 2005 as the result of exposure to fungi. Those deaths, however, occurred in January, March and May, months before Katrina churned ashore. A review of subsequent deaths in Orleans Parish through 2009 shows none attributable to fungi, records show.

We hired Ed Blakely and gave him a very important "leadership" job with a very high salary. Today's administration, similarly top-heavy with "deputy mayors" and six digit salaried big wigs, is doing everything it can to lay off or slash the benefits of rank and file employees or crippling services through imposition of a hiring freeze.

Council Member Stacy Head is concerned: “The administration should carefully consider the impact of a blanket hiring freeze,” she said Thursday. “Some departments, in my opinion, remain over-staffed, while others are under-staffed. Moreover, blanket freezes can negatively impact our city’s revenue-generating ability.” As examples, Head mentioned tax auditors and city employees who grant permits for development.

That also includes the Planning Department, according to a staffer who requested anonymity, not being authorized to speak for the department. One staffer has departed and can’t be replaced because of the freeze. Meanwhile, it will be at least January before the current backlog of planning proposals is processed, the employee said.

Closer to the top of the Jenga tower, some hiring is still going on, however. Deputy Mayor for Operations Michelle Thomas began her first full week on the job after the Fourth of July weekend. The post, which pays Thomas $160,000 a year, had been vacant since September when her predecessor resigned amid scandal.

Ed Blakely once brushed off a request from a reporter by snarling, "I don't talk to little people." Apparently the prejudice against little people is an endemic quality of high priced city administrators. One might even call it a "disease"