City Council to New Orleans: You can't handle the budget

What if Jackie Clarkson, granted us “the most publicly accessible budget in the history of America, in my opinion,” and nobody showed up to comment? Well we'd all be in for quite the scolding, is what.

Clarkson and the council also suggested that the public does not really care about seeing yet more transparency in the budgeting process.

Councilwomen Stacy Head and Kristin Gisleson Palmer joined Clarkson in challenging Timolynn Sams, executive director of the Neighborhoods Partnership Network, who appeared before the council to make the request on behalf of the coalition this afternoon. They encouraged Sams to get community members to make their voices heard in the budget process.

“Use your network,” Head said. “Nobody from the community is weighing in.”

Earlier in this article, Head tells us her read on community interest in the budget process is measured in emails sent to her which seems like an odd metric since everyone knows better than to correspond electronically with Ms. Head by now.