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THE AMERICAN WAY: C RAY STYLE
I feel like Bayou St. John David this morning. Why? Because I'm writing (punditing?) about Debrisville finances and pay issues. But I also agree with David who said last week: "I sometimes think that New Orleans bloggers (myself certainly included) don't emphasize key points often enough because they don't want to repeat what somebody else has already said. If you give credit, it's not poaching." Of course, poaching sounds furtive and illicitly thrilling...
Back to the matter at hand: this morning's Picayune has an outstanding front pager by Gordon Russell about the city pay scale under C Ray. There has been an explosion of salaries at the top end while rank and file employees who were not laid off post-K are struggling to make ends meet. C Ray's top paper shufflers have seen their salaries double those of their predecessors in the Morial administration. The theory, of course, is that this is the way to attract the best people. Given the way that City Hall functions in the real world, as opposed to Planet Nagin, this is laughable. If we're going to overpay people, let's overpay folks who'll fill the potholes, keep the street lights working and end what Jeffrey has dubbed the Magazine Street dystopia. (Laureen Lentz at the Metroblogging thingee has written a series of excellent posts about that mess. LINK.)
Initially, Nagin argued that a higher pay scale would attract candidates from around the country. There have been a few such hires but most of the folks currently mismanaging our city were promoted from within and most are either cronies or long time lackeys of Nagin's. NOLA administrators are also making MUCH MORE than their counterparts in neighboring Jefferson and St. Tammany Parishes. Top NOLA bureaucrats make 34% more than top managers in Jefferson and a whopping 84% more than St. Tammany. But overall NOLA salary levels are lower than those parishes and in other cities such as Atlanta and Memphis.
I don't know about you but I'm proud of the Mayor for Americanizing our fair city by bringing modern Beavis-Duce style Crony Capitalism to Debrisville. Pre-Nagin, we just had Cronyism but C Ray has taken it to another level. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, I'm sure Rob Couhig is very proud of you too. It's good to know that although you changed parties to get elected, you're still a trickle down/laissez faire Republican at heart.
Having worked for NYC under both Giuliani and Bloomberg, I prefer
Bloomberg! Don't want to see Rudy G running for President! Bush has/had his
cronies, Nagin has his, is it any different anywhere? But to be honest, if
I didn't have at least a little bit of heart, I'd wanna grab as much cash
as I could, rape and pillage, so that I may retire and have/make a killer
pension, it's the American Way, isn't it? I mean, so what if Enron wiped
out people's pensions, are we not judged by how much money we make/have,
and the power we wield? Sometimes it's hard to believe in Karma, but . . .
Methinks our friend has his tongue firmly stuck within his cheek.
Like our KdV flyer says, all we want is competent corruption. As a friend
said: "there's corruption everywhere. But in Houston or Dallas, the bridge
still gets built. Here, they're still arguing about it."
I'll take competent corruption any time. It is insanity to expect to see
Looziana change it's historical position on what is right and what is wrong
in guv'mit.
Ideally there'd be no corruption, but as a cynic, I don't trust humans'
being, as far as I can throw them. I do like the phrase "competent
corruption." I'd love to have a feeling that I could trust those who
allegedly represent me, but to be honest, I don't, but I try to vote for
the lesser of the evils, though sometimes, as we can see with the last
Pres. election, it didn't really matter. But, in the same breath, all I'm
doing is being vocal to friends & family and typing, at least down in NOLA,
you are involved in what's going on, and I'm omptimistic in a sense that
some change may come, you're do for it.
As I've said before, corruption is as American pie. We're pikers here
compared to the graft that's gone down with the Bushies and the Iraq War.
Paralysis is right. Something's gotta give somewhere...but I don't think
paying off city government higher-ups is the way to do it. Pass it on to
the firefighters, for crying out loud. To the police. To the building
inspectors. To the prosecutors. Anybody else would do.
Seems da city has joined company with Big Bidness who give their CEO's
obscene amounts of money.
Lest anybody think it's only a matter of symbolic importance, last I heard,
the city council was trying to find the money to raise the pay of
electrical inspectors by more than the 10% across the board raise. At the
old rate of pay, the city can't hire the inspectors to get back to the 10
that it had pre-K. Unless something's changed, the city's allowing
self-certification of wiring jobs and spending up to $700,000 a month to
contract out the work.
I may well have to resume my former practice of referring to Oliver and his
lackeys as the College Of Clowns. If the big floppy shoe fits, wear it...
I heard Nagin on TV justifying the salaries based on the number of Phd's in
his administration. If you didn't pay Brenda Hatfield that $170,000 who
knows what she could make elsewhere with that education Phd. Well, she
also has an MLS.
What about the guy who developed the COMSTAT crime-mapping system and left
because you can't pay off student debt, have a family, and get paid $20,000
a year? What are the consequences? Anyone recall the last time you saw an
updated crime map on the NOPD Web site?
And that has what to do with across-the-board raises?
Where is the leadership being provided by these overpaid bureaucrats? A
shameful performance by the City Council on this pay issue. The first year
reviews are not yet in, but this is not one of the Council's finer moments.
Sorry, my last comment was made hastily while I was getting ready for work.
Schroeder's comment could have been meant a couple of ways. One thing
that wasn't considerd when the council voted for the pay raises was the
feelings of the laid off workers. Everybody, or almost everybody,
understood the layoffs, but rehiring decisions were entirely subjective.
There was a lot of anger, I was far from alone.
This doesn't flow with the rest of the comments very well, but...
Guy your point is well taken. BUT the jobs with the biggest salaries are
being filled by Nagin's loyal retainers: the same old same old. They also
need to pay, say, architechts, inspectors and planners more. The HDLC and
CPC are having a hard time getting anyone to work for them.
Actually, Guy, the story was sitting on the back burner until Gordon
Russell stumbled across my blog and read some of my angry rants. Well,
it's a thought, more likely the fire fighter pay dispute pushed it to the
front page. Could be that the Picayune realized that city finances were
the safest area to take a hard look at the Nagin administration, but
today's editorial on the subject was so mealy-mouthed.
Huh. I hate Nagin's cronies being on the payroll, but remember what
happened when he tried to think outside the box? Kimberly Williamson
Butler, that's what! I'm just waiting until George Bush and Nagin are over.