Ray Nagin

Ray Nagin
60th Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana
Incumbent
Assumed office May 6, 2002
Preceded by	Marc Morial
Personal details
Born	200px (1956-06-11) June 11, 1956 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.
Died	200px
Resting place	200px
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Seletha Smith Nagin
Parent	200px
Alma mater	Tuskegee University Tulane University
Profession	Cox Communications Executive

Clarence Ray Nagin, Jr. (Template:Pron-en; born June 11, 1956) is the mayor of New Orleans. He was first elected on March 2, 2002, to succeed his fellow Democrat, Marc Morial. Nagin gained international attention in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the New Orleans area.

Early life and career

Nagin was born on June 11, 1956, in New Orleans's Charity Hospital, to a low-income family. His childhood was typical of the urban poor within the city, and his father held three jobs; a janitor at New Orleans City Hall by night, a fabric cutter at the Haspel Brothers clothing factory by day, and a mechanic at Borden's Dairy, to gain sufficient money to support his family, as well as Nagin's education. His mother was employed at a lunch counter in a Kmart store. The family lived on Allen Street in the 7th Ward, followed by a stay at Treme, and then a move to Cutoff section of Algiers when Nagin was a young teenager. Nagin studied at O. Perry Walker High School in New Orleans, and was proficient at basketball and baseball. He enrolled into Tuskegee University on a baseball scholarship, and graduated in accountancy in 1978. He was the second college graduate from his family.

He then went to work for General Motors's purchasing department, afterwards moving to Los Angeles, and then to Dallas in 1981 to take a job with Associates Corp. In 1982, Nagin married Seletha Smith, whom he had met in Algiers. Together, they would have 3 children; Jeremy, Jarin, and Tianna. In 1985, Nagin returned to New Orleans, becoming the controller of Cox New Orleans, the city's only cable television franchise, run by the cable organization Cox. The franchise had been affected by customer complaints, low profits, and very little growth, and was one of the poorest performing components of Cox. Nagin implemented an upgrade of the system to 750 MHz, spent $500 million on developing its fiber-optic cable, and introduced new services, including digital cable television and telephony. In 1989, he was appointed to command Cox New Orleans as vice-president and general manager, and between 1985 and 2002 800 jobs were introduced into the business. By the end of his tenure, 85% of customers reported being happy with the service, compared to less than half in 1989. Cox New Orleans became one of Cox's best performing units.

In 1993, Nagin enrolled into the executive MBA program at Tulane University, a course designed for managers. Mark Miester argues that in his role as vice-president and general manager, Nagin gained an introduction to politics, having to lead a business whilst balancing customer and regulator concerns. Nagin also had to lobby politicians and weigh in their viewpoints regarding Cox New Orleans, as it was regulated by the local government which was also behind renewing the business's contract. In 1995, Nagin gained a Young Leadership Council Diversity and Role Model Award, and later sat on the boards of the United Way and Covenant House, as well as becoming the president of 100 Black Men, a national organization of African-American businessmen. His public profile was higher than the average business executive because he hosted a twice-weekly television call-in show for customers. His image in the public eye was further enhanced in 1998 when he became one of a dozen investors behind minor-league hockey team, the New Orleans Brass, becoming the investors' spokesman, and securing a hockey franchise for New Orleans. The initial popularity of the team allowed the group to secure New Orleans Arena as a venue. That year, the local alternative newspaper Gambit Weekly named Nagin as its New Orleanian of the Year.

2002 mayoral election

Main article: New Orleans mayoral election, 2002

Nagin entered the race for mayor after other candidates better known on the local political scene had announced their candidacy. Nagin's candidacy was at first considered a long shot, and he was not backed by any of the city's established political organizations. Many voters, nonetheless, favored Nagin's expressions of disgust with traditional Louisiana politics, including promises to fight political corruption and run the city in a more businesslike manner. Shortly before the primary mayoral election, Gambit Weekly endorsed Nagin as a reformer, giving him crucial momentum that would carry through the primary and subsequent runoff.

Then in the first round of the crowded mayoral election in February 2002, Nagin received first place with 29 percent of the vote, against opponents such as Police Chief Richard Pennington, State Senator Paulette Irons, City Councilman Troy Carter and others. In the runoff with Pennington in March 2002, Nagin won with 59 percent of the vote. His campaign was largely self-financed. Nagin received 85% of the white vote and 40% of the black vote.

Nagin's first term

Shortly after taking office, Nagin launched an anti-corruption campaign within city government, including crackdowns on the city's Taxicab Bureau and Utilities Department. Media scenes of corrupt officials being led out of City Hall in handcuffs were received with surprised enthusiasm by much of the public. When an investigation into corruption among city vehicle inspection (locally known as "brake tag" inspection) certification workers suggested that corruption was systemic, Nagin fired the entire department workforce. He declared a month-long hiatus on inspections and a moratorium on ticketing for expired tags while an entirely new force of employees were hired and trained for the city's brake tag inspection stations. Nagin's actions were viewed with surprise, given the state's history of preferential political treatment for people with social or family connections. Indeed, when Nagin was asked what should be done about his cousin, who was implicated in the taxi cab bureau scandals, Nagin said "if he's guilty, arrest him." Nagin's cousin was later arrested.

Nagin often clashed with the New Orleans City Council, and as a result failed to get council support for proposed legislation he favored. He was criticized for often publicly announcing new programs or proposed policies without having them vetted by other city leaders.

As Hurricane Ivan threatened the Gulf of Mexico in September 2004, Nagin urged New Orleanians to be ready for the storm, preferably to evacuate with some "Benjamins" ($100 bills) handy, and urged any who planned to stay to not only stock up on food and water but also to make sure they had "an axe in the attic," a reference to the many people trapped in their attics by rising floodwaters when Hurricane Betsy hit the city in 1965. Nagin issued a call for a voluntary evacuation of the city at 6 p.m. on September 13. Some 600,000 New Orleanians left. Thousands were stuck in highway traffic for 12 or even 24 hours. The hurricane missed the city.

Nagin controversially endorsed conservative Republican Bobby Jindal over conservative Blue Dog Democratic Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Blanco in the 2003 runoff for governor. He only reluctantly endorsed the Democratic candidate, U.S. Senator John Kerry, in the 2004 presidential race.

Hurricane Katrina

Then President George W. Bush and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin September 2, 2005.

On August 26, 2005, the National Hurricane Center predicted for the first time that Hurricane Katrina would become a Category 4 storm, and thus exceed the design limits of the New Orleans levees. That same day, Governor Blanco declared a state of emergency.

On August 26 Mayor Nagin advised New Orleanians to keep a close eye on the storm and prepare for evacuation. He made various statements encouraging people to leave without officially calling for an evacuation throughout Saturday the 27th before issuing a call for voluntary evacuation that evening. He stressed the potential danger posed by Katrina by saying "This is not a test. This is the real deal." He was hesitant to order a mandatory evacuation because of concerns about the city's liability for closing hotels and other businesses. Nagin continued to announce that the city attorney was reviewing the information regarding this issue and once he had reviewed the city attorney's opinion he would make a decision whether to give the order to evacuate the city.

On Sunday morning August 28, Katrina became a Category 5 hurricane, and, with fewer than 24 hours left before the storm's landfall, Nagin declared a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, the first in the city's history, and the first for a U.S. city of this size since the American Civil War. From dawn Sunday morning onward New Orleans radio and television repeatedly broadcast Nagin's pleas for everybody to leave town as quickly and safely as possible. He declared the Superdome as a shelter of last resort for those who couldn't leave. Nagin and Blanco urged the citizens who sought shelter at the Superdome to bring enough food and water for at least 3 days. The two leaders also urged the people to treat their stay in the dome as a camping trip. State governor-controlled National Guard troops were stationed inside the Superdome to screen evacuees for weapons and feed the citizens gathered there yet the situation within the Superdome became very difficult for evacuees.

Katrina shifted eastward approximately 15 miles (24 km) from its expected landfall point, which was to be a direct hit on the city of New Orleans, only a couple of hours prior to making landfall, reducing the anticipated wind damage to the city. Several levees and flood walls were breached a few hours after landfall, and within 24 hours up to 80% of the city was flooded. An estimated 90,000 were still in the city when the hurricane made landfall on August 29, causing severe damage to most of New Orleans. See: Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. Some have criticized Nagin's lack of leadership and believe it resulted in increased hardship for many of New Orleans' poorer citizens.

Criticism of relief efforts

On September 1, 2005, Nagin held a high-profile interview on the relief situation with Garland Robinette, on radio station WWL in which he bluntly criticized the delays in aid to the city. He expressed anger with what he saw as the slow federal and state response, imploring citizens to request that President Bush and Louisiana Governor Blanco send the required resources. "I don't want to see anybody do anymore goddamn press conferences," he said. "Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don't do another press conference until the resources are in this city". He compared the reaction to Hurricane Katrina with the swift national reaction to 9/11 and the war in Iraq. He concluded the interview by telling Bush and the federal government, "Now get off your asses and let's do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country."

As part of what was apparently a larger effort to assign responsibility for the inadequate response, Michael Chertoff, secretary of Homeland Security, explained on September 4 that "the way that emergency operations act under the law is, the responsibility and the power, the authority, to order an evacuation rests with state and local officials. The federal government comes in and supports those officials."

On September 4, President Bush responded to Nagin's criticism by focusing on the failings of state and local authorities, stating that the disaster's magnitude "created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities. The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable."

Other local politicians criticized the way the federal government handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Parish Presidents Junior Rodriguez from St. Bernard, Benny Rousselle from Plaquemines and Aaron Broussard from Jefferson are among the most notable ones.

Confiscation of firearms

In 2005, groups including the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) successfully sued Nagin and others in order to stop gun seizures in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The organizations have (as of March 2006) also filed documents seeking to hold Nagin and others in contempt of court for violating the consent order. The case is National Rifle Association of America, Inc., et al. v. C. Ray Nagin et al.

In October 2008, the suit was settled and a permanent injunction issued prohibiting Nagin or any New Orleans employee from confiscating any lawfully possessed firearm and ordering the return of all such confiscated guns.

Evacuation controversy

Some newspaper editorial writers have criticized Nagin for not handling evacuation procedures properly and, in particular, for allowing hundreds of New Orleans' buses — which might have been used for evacuating poor or elderly people — to sit idle in parking lots that were part of the first sections of the city flooded. In the September 1 interview, he said driving school buses had been proposed, and that he wanted every Greyhound bus line moving to New Orleans. On a September 11 appearance on Meet the Press, Nagin said the buses sat unused because there was no one to drive them.

Post-Katrina continued controversy

At a town hall meeting in October 2005, Nagin said: "I can see in your eyes, you want to know, 'How do I take advantage of this incredible opportunity? How do I make sure New Orleans is not overrun with Mexican workers,'" referring to the influx of Mexican laborers coming to New Orleans to help rebuild the city. Hispanic groups, including the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, criticized Nagin's statement as prejudiced, although those attending the town hall meeting reportedly applauded — many in the area believed the jobs should instead go to local workers displaced by the hurricane.

Elections for Mayor and City Council members had been scheduled for February 2006, but these were postponed due to the devastation after Katrina and the many New Orleanians still living out of the city.

In an interview with Public Radio International's Tavis Smiley originally broadcast on January 13, 2006, Nagin said that he has never been a Republican and is a "life-long Democrat." Also in that interview, Nagin used the phrase "chocolate city" in reference to New Orleans' future demographics, a term that would become troublesome for him just a few days later. The idea for a "Chocolate City" reportedly originated with the popular 1970s-era musical band Parliament.

A book by historian Douglas Brinkley titled The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast assails Nagin for his response to Hurricane Katrina. The book relies on people closely involved in the disaster relief effort to provide insight into Nagin's behavior the days and weeks following the catastrophic event. For example, Kathleen Blanco is quoted describing Nagin as "a total void" and "falling apart". For his part, Nagin has questioned the timing of the book's release, coming less than 2 weeks prior to the Mayor's runoff election, and has called the book "a political hit." [2]

Martin Luther King Day / "Chocolate City" speech

Main article: Chocolate City speech

At a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration in New Orleans on January 16, 2006, the mayor gave a speech that created new controversy, with comments that many observers felt increased racial divides and neighborhood antagonisms within the city. Nagin's statements of knowing the will of God was objected to by some.

Nagin repeated the "Chocolate City" metaphor and proclaimed that New Orleans will be "chocolate again." This was seized upon and parodied by some commentators, cartoons, and merchandising. Various designs of T-shirts with satirical depictions of Nagin as Willy Wonka were sold in the city and on the Internet.

Other parts of the speech were reportedly more disturbing to some New Orleanians than the "chocolate" reference. Nagin had also said, "I don't care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are." Some people took "Uptown" as a coded reference to wealthy whites, such as those who live in the old mansions on Saint Charles Avenue or around Audubon Park. Uptown New Orleans is, however, one of the most ethnically and economically diverse sections of the Metro area - though it is true that few affluent African Americans call that neighborhood home. Furthermore, many of Nagin's original supporters live Uptown.

As Uptown contained the largest section of unflooded high ground on the city's East Bank, at the time of the speech Uptown had the city's largest concentration of locals back in their homes, businesses back open, and displaced New Orleanians from other more severely damaged parts of town living there. Locals protested the Mayor's comment about not caring about an important section of his city.

Nagin also stated that New Orleans "will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be." As most New Orleanians knew the city had been majority African American for decades before Katrina, certain people found the implication of Nagin claiming to know God's will more troubling than the suggested return of pre-Katrina demographics.

In the same speech, Nagin further stirred controversy by claiming that "God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country....Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves." Nagin then went on to relate an imagined conversation with the deceased Rev. Martin Luther King regarding both the response to Katrina and the modern problems of black America which he believes offended God.

The speech generated an intense reaction, most of it negative. A Times-Picayune commentator suggested that Nagin had just ruined his own chances at re-election.

Nagin later apologized for his remarks, and offered a different explanation of his "chocolate city" metaphor, saying "How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk and it becomes a delicious drink. That's the chocolate I'm talking about." Nagin said that his remarks were meant to be a call for African Americans to once again return to New Orleans despite the supposed belief that many of the people Uptown did not want them back.

The Mayor apologized for the suggestion that people Uptown (a mixed neighborhood) were racist, noting the importance of that section of town in the city's recovery. He particularly stated regret for the statements about God. "I don't know what happened there," he said. "I don't know how that got jumbled up. That whole God thing, I don't know how that got mixed up in there." Nagin concluded "I need to be more aware and sensitive of what I'm saying [...] Anyone I've offended, I hope you forgive me."

2006 mayoral election

Main article: New Orleans mayoral election, 2006

The elections for mayor and city council scheduled for early 2006 were postponed by the State due to the disruption in the aftermath of Katrina, and were rescheduled for 22 April 2006. Campaigning began to heat up in February 2006. In the April 2006 New Orleans mayoral election, Nagin faced a record 23 challengers, most prominently sitting Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu and Audubon Institute head Ron Forman, along with other candidates. In the early days of the campaign, Nagin spoke in Houston at an NAACP gathering of members of the New Orleans diaspora who were forced to flee in the wake of Katrina. He further inflamed tempers when he said, "There was all this talk about this being an opportunity to change New Orleans forever and maybe everybody shouldn’t come back, and maybe this is an opportunity to kind of change New Orleans and go back to what it used to be. I have 23 candidates running for mayor and very few of them look like us." Some have perceived these comments to be a divisive follow-up to his "Chocolate City" remarks, while others point out that the fact the majority of candidates in a field of 23 were white was unprecedented in recent New Orleans politics, and a possible sign of the demographic shift in a city that was over two-thirds black before Katrina. Many of Nagin's supporters say that it is his "sharp" tongue that allows him to be such a great politician. J.C. Ferguson, Commissioner of Electricity for many of Mississippi's hardest hit areas and political supporter of Nagin commented, "Ray Nagin says things that most political figures think, but dare to say. His record as mayor, and immense leadership shown during Hurricane Katrina will prove him successful in this election."

Many activist groups bussed in African-American voters, who were still living outside of New Orleans six months after the storm, to participate in the election. Political analysts believed that this may have been responsible for Nagin's eventual win and was met with heavy protest by citizens who had actually returned to the city in attempts to rebuild. In the election of 22 April, Nagin was the front runner with 38% of the vote. Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu came in second with 29%. Nagin and Landrieu faced each other in a run off election on May 20, 2006. Final results showed that Nagin defeated Landrieu 52 (about 59 thousand votes) to 48 (about 55 thousand) percent. Nagin also won with a dramatic shift in the racial breakdown of his voter base; in this election he received the support of about 80% of black voters and 20% of white voters, a reversal of his support base in the 2002 election.

Nagin's second term

2006

Nagin's second term began on June 1, 2006. Nagin has made few public appearances in New Orleans since the May election. He campaigned on a promise to develop a "100 day plan" to rebuild New Orleans, but as of the end of the 100 days no concrete plan had been released. After the end of the 100 days, some commentators criticized Nagin for what they perceived as a lack of explanation of the details of this plan and a lack of activity in putting this plan forward. Nagin administration spokesperson Rob Couhig backed away from the promise, stating that it was not meant as a "time period," but as a short-range campaign to improve quality-of-life issues. In 2006, Nagin was also criticized for devoting time to an extensive national speaking tour while being rarely seen in New Orleans. Nagin's administration countered this criticism by stating that the speaking tour is necessary in order to correct an inaccurate perception of the situation in New Orleans.

Ground Zero controversy

In an interview with Byron Pitts on CBS's 60 Minutes (aired August 27, 2006), Nagin responded to criticisms regarding his leadership during the aftermath of Katrina and the fact that much of New Orleans is still in ruins almost a year afterward. Nagin made a reference to New York City's World Trade Center site, saying,

"That’s all right. You guys in New York can’t get a hole in the ground fixed and it’s five years later. So let’s be fair." [3]

Earlier on the day of the 60 Minutes broadcast, Nagin appeared on NBC's Meet The Press and offered clarification on his comments.[4]

"I meant no disrespect for anyone. I have seen death, I’ve seen the destruction, and I was just using it as a comparison to show how difficult it is for people to rebuild after a major disaster."

When asked by Tim Russert if he wished that he'd chosen other words, Nagin replied,

"I wish I would have basically said that it was an undeveloped site, which it is."

The next day, Governor Kathleen Blanco "distanced herself from...Nagin's disparaging comment" by issuing a statement thanking the people of New York for assistance after Katrina:

"Please know that our great State recognizes New York's special position as one of the World's greatest cities and we admire its people. We love visiting New York and we know you love coming to New Orleans, so please plan to come again soon and we will welcome you with our unique brand of hospitality."

In December 2006, Nagin appointed Ed Blakely to oversee New Orleans’ post-Katrina recovery plan. Blakely was initially met with widespread praise for exhibiting a decisiveness and candour many saw as lacking in Nagin. Blakely later attracted controversy of his own for comments he made about the political, economic, and racial climate of New Orleans and for the allegedly piggybacked nature of sources in his considerable salary. In May 2009 Blakely announced his intention to resign and to return to Australia at the end of June of that year.

2007

Since January 2007, public perception of a drastic increase in the city’s violent crime rate has led to many criticisms of Nagin’s leadership. These criticisms reached a crescendo following the high-profile murders of filmmaker Helen Hill and musician and teacher Dinerral Shavers a week apart in January 2007. Several thousand protesters marched on City Hall on January 11, 2007, demanding action concerning crime and criticizing Nagin. Nagin attended the march, and was publicly denounced by several speakers at a podium a few feet away from the mayor. A year after his election, Nagin continued to be criticized for a perceived lack of vision and decisiveness, and an inability to communicate his plans and policies. On March 15, 2007, Nagin spoke on the state of New Orleans to a group of black journalists at the National Newspaper Publishers Association convention in Washington, DC. In his speech, which focused on the problems of New Orleans since Katrina, he implied the existence of a conspiracy by an unspecified ‘they,’ who “are studying this model of natural disasters, dispersing the community and changing the electoral process in that community.” This speech, along with earlier public comments on issues of race, has caused many commentators to accuse Nagin of pandering and of exacerbating racial divisions in the city. Meanwhile, some black commentators, including SOUL founder Don Hubbard, have argued that Nagin has forsaken his African-American roots in favor of ties to the white business community; citing his refusal to help former residents of public housing to return to the city, and his favoring of ‘market solutions’ over government programs to improve the conditions in New Orleans. Others see Nagin as part of the same New Orleans business elite which ignores the city’s poor. Recently, Nagin reignited complaints about his leadership when he said news of two killings, while sad, "keeps the New Orleans brand out there."

In May Councilwoman Stacy Head gave Nagin's economic development efforts, led by Donna Addkison, a grade of "F minus"; and Donald Vallee, the chief of a local landlords association, labeled the administration's housing officials "the most dysfunctional group of people I have seen at City Hall". Speaking to Addkison, while at the meeting, Vallee declared "You have done a horrible job of managing this department." Addkison resigned her post effective August 10, 2007.

In October 2007, Nagin endorsed New Orleans businessman John Georges in his unsuccessful bid for governor. Georges lost in the primaries to Congressman Bobby Jindal, whom Nagin endorsed in his first bid for governor; Georges' only parish-win came in Orleans.

2008

On February 21, 2008, Nagin became agitated and emotional on the air during an early morning interview with reporters Eric Paulsen and Sally Ann Roberts on CBS affiliate WWL-TV and threatened to "coldcock" anyone who comes up to him without warning, citing perceived threats to himself and his family. After WWL publicized a story to be run later that evening analyzing the Mayor's official (2007) schedule which his office provided in response to a public records request, Nagin bitterly complained that this release established "patterns" for him, ostensibly making him a target. Nagin claimed that local talk radio shows and Aryan hate blogs are out to get him and he also stated the desire to meet the WWL News Director "one on one" in the parking lot, claimed that all of the news media in New Orleans are after him, that influential supporters of his previous political opponent Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu are "relentlessly trying to undermine me and destroy me" and that "this has crossed the line- this is personal".

Also in February, the "Times-Picayune" published a captioned photo that suggested Nagin jokingly pointed a powerful weapon at Police Superintendent Warren Riley during a news conference. The mayor's office said the photo "grossly misrepresented the mayor" and the newspaper offered a "clarification" after WDSU-TV New Orleans Channel 6 NBC aired video showing Nagin was lowering the weapon in a fairly ordinary manner.

Hurricane Gustav evacuation controversy

On August 30, 2008, Nagin ordered the evacuation of New Orleans before the arrival of Hurricane Gustav which he referred to as "the mother of all storms" and the "storm of the century." Mayor Nagin received advisory from local officials regarding the citizens feeling complacent about evacuating. He spoke strongly about the storm's potential danger to the city in order to encourage citizens to evacuate. He faced criticism afterwards for his strong choice of words. In the end, Hurricane Gustav made landfall west of New Orleans and was downgraded to Category 2 as it hit land.

Garbage controversy

In the same year WWL-TV New Orleans Channel 4 (CBS) became increasingly critical of garbage collection in New Orleans, alleging a too-friendly relationship between the collectors and the mayor. Councilwoman Stacy Head was particularly insistent on questioning the relationship between fees collected and garbage-removal services rendered, at one point bringing to a council meeting a poster indicating that adjacent Jefferson Parish collected half as much in fees to collect twice as much garbage. Head, a Democrat who had unseated William J. Jefferson protégé Renée Gill Pratt on the City Council in 2006 and developed a reputation on the Council for sharp questions to the administration, found herself facing a recall effort. Adding to her prickly relationship with the mayor's office was Head's support of Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao in his successful 2008 campaign to unseat then-incumbent William J. Jefferson, a Democrat whom Nagin had endorsed for re-election, to represent Louisiana's 2nd congressional district.

2009

Council and e-mail controversy

Shortly after WWL-TV New Orleans Channel 4 (CBS) sued the mayor's office in an attempt to gain 6 months of e-mails as a public record, Nagin found himself associated with yet another controversy over e-mail, this one involving the Sanitation Department and the City Council. As a consequence of the garbage controversy and in the context of the crime-cameras controversy, Nagin was soon embroiled in a testy situation between the City Council and Sanitation Director Veronica White. After city councilwoman Stacy Head's perspicacious questions and allegations by WWL-TV New Orleans Channel 4 (CBS) that White was too cozy with Nagin's office for the mayor to hold her accountable, the Council generally supported Head's inquiries. White retaliated by trying to get thousands of messages, in councilmembers' e-mail accounts, posted on the internet. In the ensuing brouhaha Nagin claimed that White had "followed the policy"; Nagin declined, however, to rule out disciplinary action in either her case or that of the city's newly hired (in replacement of Andrew Jones) Chief Technology Officer Harrison Boyd, who supplied the e-mail messages to her. Nagin instead supported the efforts of City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields, siding with White, to get the Council's e-mails revealed, which move was denied by Civil District Judge Lloyd Medley, whose decision was overturned on appeal. In a separate suit District Judge Madeleine Landrieu instructed Nagin to deliver to City Council attorneys the e-mail traffic sought by WWL-TV, WDSU TV, The Times-Picayune and other news organizations so that the City Council attorneys could remove sensitive information which is not definable as a public record. As the courts considered the appeals, WDSU reported it had obtained "tens of thousands" of the emails in question and published many of them on air and online. Another station—WGNO—announced it had received a handful of those files. Finally, Fox affiliate WVUE said it, too, had obtained some of the documents. The various e-mail controversies and the related lawsuits became quite convoluted, even within the political context of Louisiana; see the article on Stacy Head.

Homeowners association dues controversy

On March 30, 2009, the Associated Press reported that Nagin might lose his home in Frisco, Texas, for failure to pay his homeowners' association dues.

Crime-cameras controversy

In the fall of 2008, Nagin placed Anthony Jones, then the city's Chief Technology Officer, on 4 months of suspension for filing inflated bills for controversial crime cameras and for violating Louisiana ethics laws in accepting paid travel to a Colorado conference "from a contractor that earned millions on the camera project in a no-bid arrangement"; in response to WDSU-TV news anchor Norman Robinson on what happened with Jones, Nagin said:

obviously there's some poor judgment in those actions . . . , most likely possibly an ethics violation. . . . I'm not sure whether there's anything criminal, but I'm sure the feds will look into it.

Allegations continued to mount that linkage existed between the crime-cameras contract and the trip Nagin took to Hawaii at the contractor's expense. On April 19, 2009, the Times-Picayune reported that for the following day the mayor, after his lawyers had engaged in much stalling, had been obliged "to sit for a deposition . . . as part of a civil lawsuit over the city's controversial crime camera program." In the deposition, Nagin downplayed his familiarity with Mark St. Pierre, but in the meantime the Times-Picayune had obtained information that St. Pierre had business interests in the firm which supplied the crime cameras and that St. Pierre had made substantial donations to Nagin's 2006 re-election campaign.

In May 2009 David Hammer of the Times-Picayune—quoting Nagin's May 21 State of the City address that "all 242 crime cameras were repaired"—reported that up to 20 percent of the 252 cameras were not working (he cited Nagin spokesman James Ross as saying that the 20-percent failure rate is "consistent with national outages within this type of system").

On 2009 June 5, the day before he was to appear before a federal grand jury investigating the crime cameras, Jones asserted that he was being "vilified" for refusing to give crime-cameras contracts and jobs to friends of "certain elected officials"; he and his lawyer, Lionel "Lon" Burns, declined to discuss why audit reports had shown that expenses increased and performance of the cameras decreased during Jones' supervision of the crime-cameras project.

On 2009 July 18, the Times-Picayune learned that Jones had been terminated by the Nagin administration.

Hawaii trip controversy

On April 7, 2009, the Times-Picayune alleged a conflict of interest with regard to a trip Nagin took to Hawaii in 2004:

The Hawaiian vacation Mayor Ray Nagin, then-chief technology officer Greg Meffert and their families took in 2004 was paid for by a company owned by Meffert friend and city tech contractor Mark St. Pierre, according to court documents made public Monday in Orleans Parish Civil District Court.

In the same issue, the Times-Picayune reported a New Orleans Survey Research Center poll which gauged Nagin's job-approval rating at 24 percent; the approval rating for the New Orleans City Council in the poll was 48 percent. Similar results occurred in a Tulane University poll in April 2009 discussed by James Carville in his class at the University.

Times-Picayune columnist James Gill took up the story on April 10, asserting "Nagin will find, when his term is up next year, that friends suddenly lose all desire to whisk him off to Hawaii for free." Gill dismissed as "vintage nonsense" Nagin's alibi of not knowing the source of the trip's funding.

Reporting on the deposition over the crime cameras controversy, David Hammer of the Times-Picayune reported on April 23, 2009, that Nagin had taken "plenty of other trips" at the expense of NetMethods, a company owned by city vendor Mark St. Pierre. In a subsequent (June 7) article Hammer described potential technicalities wherein the benefits received by Meffert may be legal depending on whether he received them inside or outside New Orleans and whether the source was NetMethods or merely someone associated with the company.

China quarantine controversy

On June 7, 2009, Mayor Nagin and his wife were quarantined by Chinese authorities upon arrival in China. The Nagins had been sitting near another passenger exhibiting "flu-like symptoms." In "A World of Hurt" Chris Rose—writing that Nagin had been "shanghaid in Shanghai"—knocked the incident through an entire lengthy newspaper column.

Chevron complex controversy

In July the City Council voted down Nagin's proposal to buy for $8 million the Chevron complex to serve as a new city hall. As the Council vote split along racial lines, allegations of racism arose, but more-penetrating analysis by Bruce Eggler and Michelle Krupa of the Times-Picayune indicated factors involved other than racial politics. In an unrelated development during the same week, local media discovered Nagin dining in Washington's Caucus Room restaurant whilst Republican celebrities Alex Castellanos, Elaine Chao, Mitch McConnell, and Fred Thompson were also there; but restaurant spokesperson Abbie Elliott insisted that Nagin was there to meet separately with Jones Walker Law Firm lobbyists who represent the City of New Orleans and did not meet with the Republican luminaries.

Nagin's responses

Nagin has commented on critical press coverage, telling the press at an April 7, 2009 city hall news conference:

I ain't mad at none of y'all . . . I'm OK . . . Y'all just do your job.

Wikipedia links

• Ed Blakely
• Anh "Joseph" Cao
• Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson
• Arnie Fielkow
• Stacy Head
• Bobby Jindal
• Shelley Stephenson Midura
• Veronica White

External links

• Nagin only joking when he suggested Hurricane Ike evacuees should request a discount -- the "Nagin special", Times-Picayune 9/14/06
• BBC NEWS | Americas |Profile: Ray Nagin, BBC News
• Nagin calls for rebuilding 'chocolate' New Orleans, CNN 1/17/2006
• The City of New Orleans
• Campaign contributions made by Ray Nagin
• Louisiana Emergency Operations Plan
• Mayor to feds: 'Get off your asses', CNN transcript and the audio of WWL-AM radio interview.
• Profile on CityMayors.com
• Southeast Louisiana Evacuation Plan Supplement
• New Orleans “overrun” by Mexicans
• Profile of Ray Nagin in Tulane University Magazine
• Nagin Works Both Sides of Aisle for Aid The Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2006
• The Tavis Smiley Show - interview with Ray Nagin, January 13, 2006
• Ray Nagin's Redemption, by William Robinson, Washington Post, May 23, 2006
• Labou Movie - Independent Film In Which Ray Nagin stars as the Mayor of New Orleans.
• [5]
• Nagin's campaign contributions while employed by Cox Communications
• VIDEO Ray Nagin talks about rebuilding after Katrina on ABC Fora
• Stevens, Andrew (2006-05-28). "Despite controversy, Mayor Ray Nagin remains the champion of New Orleans". CityMayors. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• "Profile: Ray Nagin". BBC News. 2006-05-21. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Miester, Mark (Spring 2003). "Ray Nagin". Tulane University Magazine. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• "Ray Nagin Biography". Notable Biographies. Retrieved 2009-04-06. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

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