Fractured Fairy Tales: Pay for performance program

It started out one afternoon when Ray Nagin was relaxing in his office with his copy of  Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine which he had been using as a how-to manual for governing post-Katrina New Orleans. Nagin would later offer this review of the book in an interview with Ethan Brown.

“I understand exactly the premise that they’re presenting,” Nagin says, holding the book aloft, “that’s for sure. Look, man, after this disaster there is big money! The shock-and-awe piece of what they’re talking about is absolutely correct.”

Nagin was reaching for his highlighter when Jonathan Vilma and Gregg Williams burst into the room and slammed an envelope down on his desk. Audio provided by filmmaker Sean Pampilon (who was following Williams around constantly at the time) reveals the following exchange.

"You want it?" Williams asks. "[Expletive] no," a voice answers, as others in the room applaud. "OK, it's $200 – you got it for a 'whack,' " Williams says. The rest of his words are drowned out by loud cheers.

We believe the "others in the room" at the time may have been Kip Holden and Bob Ellis although the only thing we're certain of at this point is that "Public Official A" is definitely Nagin.

Curiously Williams appears to have misspoken on the tape.  As it turns out, the money was actually distributed in $10,000 increments by somebody named Fradella.  Furthermore the money was not awarded for "whack" hits but instead for "cart-offs" of Fradella's granite.

During Nagin's tenure at City Hall, Fradella also donated "numerous truckloads" of granite -- the document does not say what its value was -- to the Nagin family's countertop business, Stone Age LLC.

Immediately upon leaving office, Nagin began working for Fradella as a paid consultant, according to the document, which is signed by Fradella. Fradella paid him $10,000 a month, an arrangement that lasted until March 2011, roughly 10 months after Nagin exited City Hall, it says.

None of these inaccuracies should surprise us, though, since anyone who watched the final minutes of the Saints-49ers Divisional Round playoff this year is aware that Gregg Williams never has any idea what he's doing or saying.

We're told that there may have once been some supporting evidence for the Nagin-Fradella pay for performance program at the bottom of an email to Nagin ,allegedly sent by Mike Ornstein but the email was subsequently erased by Greg Meffert.  Meanwhile Jonathan Vilma is suing Roger Goodell for having been implicated in this business at all.

Also due to some unfortunate internet commentary leveled by members of the totally not legitimate media, NFLPA spokesman, Fred Heebe, has already asked that the US Attorney in New Orleans recuse himself.

So everything seems pretty murky at this point. But Pamphilon, for his part, wants to remind us to please think of the children which he'll be available to do via any outlet that will give him air time.