Budget Negotations and Council Effectiveness Overall

I have fallen so far behind in my writing that today I'm going to bring up a T-P article that appeared in last Saturday's paper. I thought it was so important that I packed it up and brought it with me when I moved.

N.O. budget methods slammed in report

The report, sent Thursday to Mayor Ray Nagin and City Council members, said the way Nagin's team, like previous administrations, creates and presents the budget "has been anything but inclusive and has provided no opportunity for outside input" until after the document is revealed. At that point, there's usually only a month left before the council's Dec. 1 deadline to vote on it.

Odom said the recommendations in the report could be implemented before the 2010 budget, the last one Nagin will present, is prepared and debated.

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The report notes that since 2007 the administration "purports to have adopted" a process known as "budgeting for outcomes," which "is intended to promote transparency, accountability and inclusion in the budget process."

However, it says, even though that process calls for involving a broad spectrum of "stakeholders, including citizens, community leaders and council members, in establishing the city's budget priorities," the city's actual procedures "offer no effective opportunities for discussion" until after the mayor unveils his proposals.

The lack of outside participation, especially by council members, in preparing the mayor's 2009 budget "became evident in the struggle that ensued after the mayor submitted" his proposals on Oct. 28, the report says.

As a result, the report says, "all the extensive planning work that had gone into prioritizing programs through the 'budgeting for outcomes' ranking system went out the door when the final spending decisions were made."

This year, the report says, the administration should make "a meaningful effort to involve citizens" in setting priorities, and above all it should involve the council at each step of the process.

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It also says the council should start assessing the performance of key departments and the revenue outlook for 2010 months before it receives the final budget recommendations.

I am very thankful for this report. If you followed last year's budget "negotiations" even a little bit you saw what I witnessed actually sitting in Council chambers. That process made an absolute mockery of municipal government. Poor Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, Chair of the budget committee, looked like she was going to hang herself by the end of that process. The way it worked was that the Mayor proposed a budget and then Council had about ten or twenty working days to analyze that spending via the testimony of different department heads before they were more-or-less expected to provide a rubber stamp.

It is the Mayor's job to prepare and propose a budget. That's all fine and dandy and shouldn't change just because this Mayor isn't particularly good at it. The problem with the process was Council's inability to effectively vet the various proposals. Though one issue is that the Council only has about a month to look it over, it would appear to me that simply moving forward the Mayor's submission deadline to give Council more time doesn't do enough to address the meat of the matter.

Council needs to be able to get deeper into the progress of city departments over the course of the year. If Council is performing quarterly audits of every city department in which they're really getting into the nitty gritty of what we're getting for our money, I haven't noticed. If Council effectively exercised their oversight powers on a regular established schedule, the 3rd Quarter September evaluation would perfectly segue into the budget process and would make the testimony of department heads during those negotiations less hurried and sensational. As it is, the budget hearings appear to be the only forum Council members have to investigate public and private allegations of waste or incompetence from various departments. This is what made this past year's budget negotiations so contentious and counterproductive.

If Council was regularly evaluating department performance, the ineffective budget process we have now wouldn't be nearly as bad because it would be much clearer which programs are working and which are not going into negotiations. Mayors would be less likely to ramrod bad spending into the budget because Council oversight would have already exposed the waste in the preceding months. Reasonably good Mayors, even average Mayors would naturally adopt IG Odom's suggestions of inclusion and discussion in the budget but this Council needed to be more effective in terms of providing public oversight year-round to safeguard against this particular horrible Mayor. That's not to call out this particular Council or the members that comprise it. I imagine that Council has never really established effective oversight systems. I actually think this Council is capable of starting to institute those kinds of reforms. The budget process is a great place to start and I'd like to salute Cynthia Hedge-Morrell for calling on the IG office to supply this initial advice.

I think we citizens are going to need to get real about how much we compensate our Councilors as well. It's a full time job that requires incredible dedication and expertise. But they make peanuts, certainly not enough to support a family unless they're already totally loaded. I think their salaries should double. Immediately. The quality of your choices each election day will be much better. I'm tellin' ya.

More

Nagin spokesman James Ross' response to the IG's report was insulting, off-base, and tone-deaf. I don't think I have a shred of sympathy left for this administration or anyone still associated with it after all this time. They're scorching the earth and salting it for good measure.

James Ross, a Nagin spokesman, said Friday that the administration "has not had an opportunity to read" the 10-page report "and therefore is unable to respond to it with great specificity."

But he said it was "unfortunate that the office of the inspector general has failed to take an opportunity to herald the vision, best practices and commitment of the (administration) to look beyond the challenges of this recovery and implement an open, transparent budget process that this city government has never had before."

Ross said the administration in fact "utilized the information from community meetings hosted by the mayor to serve as guiding points" in creating the 2009 budget. "Hundreds of New Orleans citizens from every walk of life were part of these meetings," he said.

No public announcement of such meetings was made at the time.

Wouldn't a much more effective response be something along the lines of:

"The Mayor's reforms to the budget process were groundbreaking but clearly more work needs to be done. The Mayor has read every page of the report and would like to thank the IG for his suggestions. He will take them under advisement as he makes tweaks for this next and last budget."

But no, Ross couldn't help but dump more gasoline onto already fallow fields.

Fishing

I'm certainly not saying that you shouldn't pay the taxes you owe on time, but is this really news?

James Perry, Leader?

I wanted to say something last week about Council's failure to override Mayor Nagin's veto last week but got caught up in Mardi Gras.

First off, there's been a lot of unfair criticism of Cynthia Hedge-Morrell's decision to abstain from voting. I think she made the right decision. She angered a lot of people by articulating people's mistrust for the good government crowd but I thought it would have been extremely useful as a starting point for negotiating a consensus response from Council to Nagin's executive order.

Part of the reaction derives from people's misunderstanding of what that vote meant. Hedge-Morrell did not kill a transparency law. The proposed ordinance, passed unanimously by Council and vetoed by Nagin would have brought professional services contract advisory committees under the purview of public meetings laws. Nagin circumvented the ordinance entirely by simply abolishing the advisory committees. So when the vetoed ordinance came back to Council for a potential override vote, it was totally worthless.

In my opinion, there was no reason to hold the vote. Hedge-Morrell suggested at City Hall that Council instead focus on discussing the language of a potential charter change - the only means Council has at its disposal to substantively alter the impact of Nagin's executive order. But instead, Fielkow and Clarkson pressed ahead with the vote, posing an unfair political challenge to Councilwoman Hedge-Morrell, who was the only African American willing to sit in on the meeting.

While I don't understand why Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis had to be in Washington D.C. with the US Conference of Mayors instead of at Council for this debate, at least she has an excused absence.

The person to be disillusioned and angry with is Councilman James Carter. He was at Council chambers when the contentious debate began, only to slink out when things got too hot. It was unforgivable gutlessness. He could have provided a level-head and helped foster a respectful conversation. Instead, Councilman Carter headed for the hills. I believe the best excuse his office mustered to the media was a "previously scheduled appointment" or some nonsense like that.

The disdain he seems to have for his own responsibility is increasingly noticeable and unfortunate. He's a coward.

As soon as Carter abandoned ship, the vote should have been postponed.

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Meanwhile, in a stunning juxtaposition....

What is all this?

Am I really seeing a New Orleans political figure synthesizing viewpoints to take a stand in the midst of a fiery controversy? Huh?

Go read what James Perry says in Race and Trust in NOLA:

To build trust we need to have information from disinterested sources. We need information that provides clear unbiased data that we can rely on.

In New Orleans there is strong racial mistrust and general mistrust of our elected officials. We can use honesty and transparency to overcome that distrust and create a new basis for working together. Information and data, are key components in building this new trust. When objective data is unavailable, regardless of what the truth is, people revert to historic racial dividing lines. In today’s information age, there is a new opportunity. We can share all data and information and build relationships in much the way that friends do.

In working towards a post-racial New Orleans, sharing data is key. If we all have the common goal of a better City then there is no harm in making information available to everyone. Decisions about contracts should be open, inclusive, and transparent. Transparency and openness provide a base allowing trust to endure even through disagreement and bad reasoning. We need transparency in New Orleans government now. The progress of New Orleans’ racial dialogue depends on it.

This is an interesting way to construct the argument in favor of transparency since a lot of folks have been saying that the whole reason we can't have common sense public meetings and records laws is because of racial mistrust.

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Certainly the issues last week were extremely frustrating but I'm at least glad that when things finally broke down last Thursday, there was some frank talk (in Council and online) about the racial tension that too often manifests in blood pressure doubling passive aggressiveness.

James Carter's cowardly display was not what we needed. Arnie Fielkow's poorly contrived attempt to symbolically rebuke Mayor Ray Nagin was not what needed.

What we need is leadership that isn't afraid to substantively and publicly tackle the political and racial controversies that hamstring our recovery.

Cerasoli and City Council

First, refer to Michelle Krupa's article for the T-P.

Mr. Cerasoli actually gave money back to the general fund, unable to spend all of his 2008 budget.

Part of the reason for that is the bureaucratic holdups that continue to gum up his ability to fully engage his office. For instance, the city has not yet delivered secure computers. Computers. He's also had trouble navigating the civil service rules in order to hire his desired staff.

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But there's something really fun about watching Cerasoli and Council interact with each other that you'd need to see in person to really understand.

Council learned the news that the IG would be returning money to the city. Then Cerasoli outlined a couple of new initiatives, including a tipline and some new hires. It's not so unlike most other presentations, except for the confidece and competence.

Then Council gets to ask questions.

It started off normally. Councilman Carter, recently found alive and returned to his parents, asked some good questions about the independent police monitor. Then Cynthia Hedge-Morrell and Arnie Fielkow went back and forth about establishing a protocol for calling on Mr. Cerasoli to lend official comment, since now the office receives requests from Councilors haphazardly.

But it becomes clear that all of the Councilors want to ask questions about this process or that process. They want to know what he thinks about the budget process.

Because it is absolutely ridiculous to present Council a budget outlined with hundreds of pages of supporting data and expect them to be able to properly evaluate it, modify it, and pass it on a time frame of three or four weeks.

Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, for instance, wore this exasperated look on her face that told it all. She's the chair of the budget committee, and it looked like she just wanted Cerasoli to come up and give her a big hug and a hot chocolate.

Councilwoman Stacy Head lifted up her budget binder, at least two inches thick, and just nodded.

Inspector General Cerasoli couldn't do much more at these moments than flash a bemused and knowing smile. He agreed that the budget process was extremely outdated. The schedule is such that the Council has its back against the wall to pretty much just pass whatever the Mayor puts in front of them. There just isn't enough time to fully vet every department or modify the Mayor's proposals before something just needs to be passed.

Plus, Cerasoli explained, Council really doesn't have all the tools it needs to do a good job anyway: (paraphrasing)

"There isn't, to my knowledge, a list for you that includes every contract the city is entered in."

Yikes!

UPDATE: You can see some of what I'm talking about in clips from this WWL report.

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P.S.

Cerasoli should have a report or two ready for the public soon, too.

And he says hello to 'the bloggers'. Another coffee talk might be forthcoming.

Fielkow: "I Don't Think That's Democracy"

Arnie Fielkow isn't particularly enthused about the latest detente negotiated between Councilwoman Clarkson, Councilwoman Hedge-Morrell, and Mayor Nagin.

Responding to a question about Councilwoman Hedge-Morrell's plan to cut off microphones in the event of future heated exchanges, Councilman Fielkow concludes:

"I don't think that's Democracy."

He doesn't believe it's addressed the underlying issue that lead to the recent spat over decorum - whether or not the Nagin administration is providing the information that Council requests.

“Ultimately, that is the most important question. Does the council have the information needed to formulate an opinion on the particular sanitation contract? I don’t know the answer to that,” Fielkow said.

Here's another WWL report.

Apparently, then-Councilman Jay Batt tried to get Veronica White removed in 2004 with an ordinance.

The only other 'yea' vote in that effort belonged to none other than Jackie Clarkson.

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I did not know that.

I wonder if Jackie has signed this petition, which calls for Veronica White's dismissal from her post as Director of Sanitation.

Sign it and spread it, friends.

All Better Now?

Earlier tonight, Ray Nagin, Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, and Jackie Clarkson emerged laughing from an expensive French Quarter restaurant where agreed to do absolutely nothing substantive to address the status of Sanitation Director Veronica White.

They have a new "system" in place that will prevent future disturbances from occurring, one in which committee chairpersons will be faster to cut off the microphones of whichever speakers might be disagreeing too loudly.

Flat-out unacceptable.

Dismiss Veronica White NOW!


UPDATE:

WWL now has the raw video.

Jackie Clarkson and Cynthia Hedge-Morrell were actually surprisingly insistent that they did press upon the Mayor that Department Directors are going to have to actually answer questions now.

It will be interesting to see whether or not Council asks about sanitation contracts with Richards, Metro, and SDT. I wonder whether or not Council asks about recycling.

And I especially want to know about demolitions...



Of course there are the answers to look forward to as well.

No More Useless Truces - Dismiss Veronica White NOW

WWL is reporting that Mayor Nagin is meeting with Councilwomen Clarkson and Hedge-Morrell this evening to discuss last week's blowup involving Sanitation Director Veronica White.

The Mayor will likely offer some sort of detente arguing that the city can't afford to be distracted with allegation after allegation because it undermines this great recovery we're having.

Council and the Mayor have sparred on a number of occasions over the last 12 months or so. It always ends with some sort of worthless mutual understanding in which the Mayor concedes little or nothing.

That's not good enough anymore. The legislative branch is an equal partner in this and I'd like them to stand up and demand a serious concession from the Mayor's office.

Can Veronica White really continue in her current position and maintain ANY semblance of credibility with Council after this? She certainly has none with the public.

Later tonight or tomorrow morning, we should know something about what the Mayor discussed with the two Councilwomen.

In the mean time...

If you care about accountability in the executive branch, it is absolutely critical that you apply pressure now. Call and write your Council representative.

Sign this petition calling for the dismissal of Sanitation Director Veronica White

Help spread the word. Send a link to the petition to your friends, neighbors, and colleagues.

There is strength in numbers. When constituents get angry, Council notices. A lot of these cats want to run for higher office. They need us. So let's use that power.