Amendments

There are 14 of them on your ballot this year.  You will need help sorting that out before you go to vote so here is the PAR guide.  Read carefully as some of the stuff that sounds appealing in one sentence becomes less so once you know the details.

Some of them, though, start off bad and just get worse from there.

Many cities and parishes already hire contractors for this work, but a recent court decision has called this legal arrangement into question. The amendment would make clear that such business deals are allowed. It would permit a contractor’s fee up of up to 10 percent, though that figure could change.

The amendment would be a boon for Archon Information Systems, which already has contracts with nearly half of the state’s parishes and two dozen cities, including New Orleans. An arm of  the state Municipal Association also would benefit financially.

The relationship between Archon and the Louisiana Municipal Association is close. Archon has a deal that provides income to a for-profit subsidiary of the Louisiana Municipal Association, and the subsidiary essentially works as a marketing agent for the company. That arrangement is dependent on Archon’s continued ability to provide its services. And Archon is the biggest contributor to the association’s PAC.

By eliminating any uncertainty as to whether such privatizing of tax collections is authorized by state law, Amendment No. 3 will cement millions of dollars worth of contracts Archon already has with local governments throughout the state and let the company continue to expand.

One state legislator told The Lens he thinks Archon may be the main reason the proposal is going to state voters.

But why stop there?

At a time when the city is faced with perennial budget crises, there sure are a lot of quasi-governmental boards running around with either bonding authority or, worse, a share of that hotel/motel tax we're always lamenting that the city itself sees so little of. 

What do they do? If you ask them they'll tell you, "Economic Development" which sounds kind of noble at first. But really it just means they do PR and networking for big wigs.  They're basically just glorified marketing start-ups.  Not surprising, then, how easily they become redundant.

The curious thing about BioDistrict, however, is what it hasn’t done.

For all of the beauty of its big vision, it hasn’t secured a reliable source of annual funding. It hasn’t successfully lured a biomedical business to New Orleans with its offer to help secure financing using its bonding authority and tax-free status. And it hasn’t yet garnered much visible political backing — including that of the mayor.

“I didn’t create that entity,” Mayor Mitch Landrieu told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune during an editorial board meeting earlier this month when asked about the BioDistrict. “I don’t know what they’re doing. It doesn’t sound like they have any money. I don’t know what their vision is. I do know what the entity is that we created. … At this time, all of our effort related to this is housed at the New Orleans Business Alliance.”

Probably the Mayor is especially snippy because BioDistict considered working with Civil District Court judges to help them build a new courthouse in Duncan Plaza which would have undermined the Mayor's plans to move the court and City Hall over to Charity Hospital.  But whatever the reason, folding just one of these boards is a decent start.  Now if we can power down DDD, GNO Inc, NOTMC, NOCVB, and the Mayor's beloved New Orleans Buisiness Alliance too while we're at it we might be getting somewhere.

Update: The BioDistrict officially disavowed any interest in financing the proposed courthouse today. And they've decided to seek a partnership with NOBA.

Does this mean we have to wait a while before Volume II of "Katrina's Secrets" comes out?

Merry Christmas four or five years too late, everyone.

A federal grand jury is investigating whether city vendors gave former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin gratuities ranging from plane tickets to materials and equipment for his family's granite-countertop business and also helped the firm land an exclusive installation deal with a retailing giant while Nagin was in office, according to several sources close to the probe. The federal probe is zeroing in on Nagin along three parallel tracks: luxury travel and home maintenance provided by city technology vendors; a granite countertop installation contract that Nagin's family company got from The Home Depot; and the possibility that at least two businesses with City Hall dealings arranged for the delivery of free equipment or materials to the Nagin family's now-defunct firm.

For a long time I wasn't among those who thought Nagin was ever really going to be in the federal crosshairs. But that was before the Aaron Bennett stuff came out and it started to look like they had someone willing to talk a lot. Anyway read through the issues being pursued now and you'll find it touches nearly everything everyone Nagin ever accused of "hurting this recovery" by asking questions ever complained about.

But what I keep coming back to is this. Back while all these crimes were being committed was about the time we were reading the T-P squee all over the Pampy Barre trial and digging after whatever bones they thought Marc Morial might have left buried somewhere. But all that damage had already been done. And now Nagin's damage is done too. If Nagin does get indicted, I'm sure we'll all get a big kick out of it. Perhaps, if we're lucky, he'll elect to defend himself via his popular Twitter feed.

But while all that ghoulish business it going on, I do hope someone pays a little attention to the damage currently being done. Either way it's hard to see the pattern being interrupted any time soon.

Update: Dambala is right. Somebody owes him a drink.... at the very least. But more importantly, and in keeping with my point here, I'm interested in seeing the new snake countdown.

Don't even know where to begin with this IG report

But then, neither did Maldonado.

Every sentence of today's report from Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux on the City of New Orleans employee life insurance system is a potential news lede.

I might point out that the part where benefit claims were not filed for six of 21 City employees who died during a 2 year stretch is pretty staggering.

I've read about companies like Wal-Mart who take out secret life insurance policies on their employees and collect the benefits themselves. We know that from time to time the city discusses ways to turn its public resources, like its water system, into profit centers but, for now anyway, we'll assume they aren't planning to take this route where it regards their employees.

No, this looks like it's probably more stupid than it is sinister. Although, in this town, it is pretty difficult to know the difference since these factors so often combine to form... you know... tradition.

In the wake of the report, Hartford has also agreed to stop paying commissions to two agents, who each raked in more than $125,000 through the life insurance policies over the past eight years. Though the report does not name them, Quatrevaux identified them as Lionel Smith and L-Force Management Group, whose principal is Noah Lewis.

The two men, both of them contributors to Mayor Ray Nagin's political campaigns, were named by Nagin to insurance "committees," comprised of agents, that advised City Hall on insurance matters and shared in commissions. Both men were on an 11-member health insurance committee that city officials said in June 2005, after an unfavorable ruling from the state's Ethics Board, that they planned to disband.

The committees were a traditional source of patronage, and the members were reliable contributors to political campaigns. Observers said the system was antiquated and offered little of value to the city, and the ethics opinion of June 2005 said the committees violated state law.