Everybody gets a charter

It's very difficult for me to imagine anything good coming out of a structure and process set up like this. 

Mayor LaToya Cantrell signed an executive order Wednesday that called for a comprehensive study of the city charter, kicking off a process that could eventually revise the bedrock document that dictates how New Orleans city government functions.

The 15-member Home Rule Charter Advisory Review Committee will be made up of eight representatives or appointees of local universities, three City Council appointees and four mayoral appointees, including a retired judge.

I have no idea why the university presidents have so much appointing authority in New Orleans. In their daily lives, university presidents are fundraisers. Their main job is to flatter donors, do corrupt real estate deals, and contrive ways to fire people.  I don't see why they have this unelected responsibility to determine the future of the city.  Beyond that, just giving the council and mayor some seats to appoint doesn't feel nearly inclusive enough.  Their should be bonafide workers' voices on a committee like this. Not just "experts" who claim to speak for them.

Also remember, this charter review is one of the many things that happen now solely as an expression of mayoral spite.

Cantrell first called for the creation of the new panel in May of 2022. The proposal followed her veto of a proposal by the City Council to change the charter to subject mayoral appointees to council confirmation.

That veto squashed by the City Council and the proposal went in front of voters. The new council oversight was approved by voters in last November's election.

After she "called for the creation" of the panel, City Council got right to work creating one. They were still working on that when Cantrell dropped this on them today. 

City Council President JP Morrell was unaware of the mayor's executive order until she signed it today, according to his spokesperson, Monet Brignac-Sullivan.

The council has also been in the process of creating a Charter Review Committee, Brignac-Sullivan wrote in an email.

"The process has taken longer than expected as we are responding to community input regarding the structure of the committee," she said. "We look forward to reviewing the executive order, and have no further comment at this time of the merits of the mayor's committee."

It isn't clear what will come of the council's process.

Why not just keep it going?  I have no idea what they're actually up to but it at least sounds like the council is taking the gravity of a charter review process seriously enough to gesture toward a more democratic guiding principle. Besides, who even knows if one charter is enough.  Might be good to have at least one spare laying around just in case.  Maybe one can be the Night Charter.