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The principal of Jesuit High School in New Orleans penned a powerful message (here) that tells it like it is about New Orleans. It’s not the crime, corruption, racism, terrible roads and poor public services that has been slowly eroding our city. It the apathy and unwillingness to address those issues that caused the decline of the “Queen City of the South.” The lesson from this message can be extended to all of LA.

During the next round of elections in New Orleans and elsewhere in our state, we voters have the power to change things for the better. If you are satisfied with the status quo vote for the incumbent or the veteran politician. They are who gave you what you desire.

Albert Einstein said: “Significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

AMEN, Father McGinn, AMEN!

C.B.

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According to Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Mandeville, the public “doesn’t understand.” See excerpt below.

Perhaps that those who were directly affected by the failed levees feel that compromise with their safety is simply no longer acceptable. Perhaps there is good reason that they don’t like or trust government. Many just lost their lives and tens of thousands lost their property because of the incompetence and ineptness of government, before, during and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Perhaps it is Senator Schedler who doesn’t understand.

What Senator Schedler definitely doesn’t understand is that such a condescending attitude is not appropriate for a person who was elected to REPRESENT the people of his district. His job is to cast a vote on behalf of his constituents. His job is to listen to his constituents and then vote as they wish. It is not his job to declare them to be ignorant.

Additionally, if Senator Schedler is correct and his constituents don’t like paying taxes, why did he vote for so many taxes when he was drinking Republican Big Daddy’s big government “kool-aid” for 8 years. (See voting record at left.) If his constituents don’t trust government and are ill-informed, the buck stops with him. Senator Schedler needs to look in the mirror and ask why his constituents don’t trust government. If his constituents are indeed ignorant, perhaps he needs to spend more time back home educating his constituents and less time in Bat

on Rouge misrepresenting them.

Perhaps Senator Schedler needs an attitude adjustment so that he can properly fulfill his duty to represent, not dictate to his constituency — ignorant or not, the public.

C.B.

Excerpt from the Baton Rouge Advocate’s Politics Notebook column February 19, 2006:

State Sen. Tom Schedler made his own analysis of the legislative process and public opinion last week during debate over a bill to consolidate levee boards in Greater New Orleans.

“People don’t like government. They don’t like paying taxes and they don’t trust their government,” he said.

Schedler said the public, riled up by radio talk shows and other less-than-informed sources, “doesn’t understand that compromise is a crucial part of lawmaking.”

The frank debates over the levee-boards bill looks like making “sausage,” he said. “At the end of the day, we hope to go to market with something that looks a bit prettier,” Schedler said.

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In a story in Saturday’s Baton Rouge newspaper, Governor Blanco defending her lack of successes during the just-ended anything-but-special-session said:

Blanco said it was difficult managing the session in a short amount of time. “The staff was spread thin,” she said. “But we accomplished an awful lot in spite of all these demands.”

As I recall the situation, Governor Blanco called the anything-but-special-session. In doing so SHE set the parameters in terms of time and agenda. The LA Constitution (Article III, Section 2(B)) only imposes one time limit on such sessions. They cannot exceed 30 days.

If the governor wanted to accomplish certain items that is all she should have put on the agenda (”call”). The leges are authorized by the state constitution to call themselves into session. The governor should have let the leges call the session if they had items they wanted on the agenda. Knowing her staffing limitations, she should have provided the staff with adequate time or she should have limited the agenda to what her staff could manage. For unforeseen issues there is another type of session which the governor is authorized to call. It is known as an “emergency session” per LA Const. Article III, Section 2(C).

Our state constitution refers to such special sessions as “extraordinary session.” According to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition, “extraordinary” means: “exceptional to a very marked extent.” How exceptional was this session?

The just-ended session begs additional questions: If the governor could not manage a session for which she set all the parameters, why did she call it? Or why did she not accomplish the purposes for which she called it? While important, if she was not going to push them, consolidating government agencies in New Orleans could have waited until the Regular Session which begins at the end of March. We’ve only been debating this matter since the Constitutional Convention of 1973. Former Rep. Garey Forster, R-New Orleans, filed bills virtually every session he was in the lege (15 years) to merge one parochial office or another.

A wide-ranging agenda for a session is anything, but “extraordinary.” The state constitution requires one of those ordinary sessions every other year.

In the just-ended anything-but-special-session, the “call” was issued as required by the constitution in advance of the session, but within an hour the “call” had to be amended to add additional items. At that point Little Stevie Wonder could have seen that neither the governor nor her staff were prepared to have an “extraordinary” session.

In the future, the citizens and taxpayers of LA would better served if the governor (any governor) would put more emphasis on the term “extraordinary” before issuing a “call” for an “extraordinary session.” The governor should have a tight agenda consisting only of matters that are of significant in nature, that cannot be addressed in the next “regular session,” for which legislation is prepared and distributed, not only to the leges, but the public, well in advance of issuing the call for the session.

The state constitution allows for the pre-filing of legislation, and public committee hearings in advance of a session can be held for public input on the pre-filed That way by the time the leges actually begin meeting in an EXTRAORDINARY session, they are ready to fully debate the merits of the legislation.

In a state where a third of its citizens are in an extraordinary fight for their lives, nothing less than an extraordinary session should be called.

C.B.

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