Just tell us who the donor is

Instead of having to listen to all this crap, why not just so what you're supposed to do and make city receipts and expenditures transparent? It's hardly worth this.

Officials for the Landrieu administration disclosed their intention to seek bids on the project at a City Council committee meeting Tuesday, (Feb. 2) but did not expound on why they were dropping a plan to select a contractor from a pool of pre-approved companies available for work on small projects.Monument supporters had for weeks decried the move's opacity, but the administration brushed aside such complaints.

The administration's about-face -- and the revelation that ALL Crane may never have been officially hired for the project -- drew pointed questions from City Councilwoman Stacy Head, who engaged Cedric Grant, the city's deputy mayor for infrastructure, in a terse exchange.

Head: "These are not city funds."
Grant: "No."
Head: "There are no plans to use city funds."
Grant: "No."
Head: "If you knew of a plan to use city funds, you would tell us the truth?"
Grant: "Yes, I would."

This is dumb. The monuments should be down by now.

Besides, it's John Cummings. Everyone knows this.