Don’t Be Fooled, All this Chatter is Really About the Charter

All this glib talk about improving the delivery of “city services” is about dismantling Black leadership and marginalizing Black voters

We listened recently as the City Services Coalition unveiled its so-called roadmap for enhancing city services.

Interesting . . . but it left us wondering. Under whose authority has this group come together?

We, here at The New Orleans Tribune, are all for grassroots, ground up community activism. It’s just that we don’t recall any open invitations to the community at large to come out and take part in meetings or to join this group. As a matter of fact, this screams of a case of the privileged few dictating what’s best for the rest of us.

Somebody has to say it, so we will. We have looked at those who are leading this effort, among them is prominent developer Pres Kabacoff. To us, the City Services Coalition looks a lot like the same old behind the scenes maneuvering, which results in efforts to change New Orleans to the detriment of already marginalized residents.

Others may have forgotten. We haven’t. It was Kabacoff, extolling rhetoric like “the deconcentration of poverty” and “transforming the poor with exposure to the middle class”, that helped pave the way for the wholesale decimation of traditional public housing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina without a real plan for accommodating those displaced. Where were people who can’t afford $2000 a month (or even a $1000 with the poverty wages paid in this city) for a two-bedroom apartment supposed to go? Now, here we are in the middle of a severe affordable housing crisis out of which we can’t seem to find our way. So, forgive us if we aren’t jumping on the City Services Coalition bandwagon. But something ain’t right.

Armed with a copy of the City Services Coalition’s full report, we felt the fair course of action would be to read it before making any public statement. And after having done so, we must admit its premise seems straightforward enough – New Orleans residents deserve to have basic city services delivered consistently, effectively and efficiently. Who could argue with that?

Something, Something,
Something, Something Just Ain’t Right

Here’s the thing, though: Something still isn’t setting well with us. Why has all this talk about basic city services suddenly emerged as the biggest news since man walked on the moon, invented the wheel or discovered how to control the use of fire?

Basic city services, huh? That’s the topic that should take centerstage as we consider who will lead the city? Not affordable housing? Not living wages? Not poverty? And while we are 100 percent behind the notion that New Orleanians deserve the best, y’all want us to believe that it will take a major change in governance (one that would require an amendment to the city’s home rule charter) to bring the delivery of basic services up to par? Come now.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, that’s the boll weevil in this whole thing. All of this CHATTER is actually about the CHARTER. It’s not about permits. To us, it is clear. It’s about a plan . . . a nefarious plot to wrest power from the electorate! It’s coming of will Project 2025ish to us.

Why else would there be such a ridiculous and rushed push to get New Orleanians to coalesce and agree on what ought to be the most agreeable topic in the world? Of course, people are concerned about crime and public safety; streets and infrastructure; drainage and water management; trash pick-up and clean public spaces. 

But we didn’t need a new coalition, a 216-page report or another useless survey to reveal any of that. Basic city services cannot be what all of this wheel-spinning is really about. So, what is it about?

The City Services Coalition recommends a charter change that would strengthen the role of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), making him or her responsible for the operation of all city departments and agencies and increasing the CAO’s power by making it unnecessary for him or her to get mayoral approval to fire department heads. Took a lil’ shoveling to get through the bull crap, but we are beginning to see things much more clearly.

Well, it is what the City Services Coalition does after laying out the “Five Basic City Services,” that raises eyebrows for us. After listing those five items (Streets & Infrastructure, Drainage & Water, Permitting, Public Safety & Justice and Trash & Clean Spaces), the report then poses this question: “If we can’t do the basics right, how can we do anything else?”

Wait, so we’re not even getting the basics rights? Not even a little bit?  You mean to tell us that nothing is going well in New Orleans?

Here we were thinking that crime is down.

Hold on, that’s because it is! While crime and public safety are ever present issues, New Orleans has made progress.  According to a recently released report by the New Orleans Police Department, overall crime dipped in 2024 by 26 percent when compared to statistics from the previous year. More specifically, there was a 35 percent decrease in homicides, a 44 percent decrease in non-fatal shootings, a 38-percent decrease in armed robbery and a 49 percent decrease in carjackings. As such, we find it somewhat duplicitous to suggest that the city of New Orleans is not delivering in the area of crime and public safety, when crime is trending down.

In the area of streets and infrastructure, we are seeing more road projects underway across the city than we have seen in a very long while. Have there been some hiccups along the way? Sure. Though we suspect that if elected leaders paid more attention to the needs of constituents and spent less time on divisive, diversionary, petty political infighting, we just might get a few more potholes filled.

As for the trash talk, we were under the impression that the problem was fixed a few years ago when the sanitation contract once held by Metro Disposal was given to IV Waste, who was awarded a more lucrative contract for less service. In fact, according to the City Services Coalition, somehow dropping trash collection from twice a week to once a week has not at all compromised the quality of service.  Go figure. According to the report, calls complaining about missed or delayed service have dropped by more than 50 percent. Maybe that is because the trash pick-up service has also decreased by 50 percent. Funny how that works. One really can’t complain about something not happening if it isn’t supposed to happen. Seriously, if we are talking about basic services and no one seems to be troubled by dropping trash collection from twice a week to once a week for more money, then what the hell are we talking about?

At any rate, the report also goes on to discuss a community education campaign surrounding an anti-littering campaign – of all things. This is what should consume us on the precipice of the 2025 municipal elections? Not youth services or economic development? Not the homelessness situation? Give us a break!

The City Services Swindle

We see what’s happening. Obviously, these folk want to convince us that the entire city is in a free fall, and basic city services are at the heart of it. And if we don’t do what the City Services Coalition is recommending in its report, New Orleans is doomed. That’s the con, y’all. Every epic con has to have a nickname, so we will call this one the “The City Services Swindle.”

Scratching our heads, we turned to the pages of this report in search of answers. Lo and behold, we found them under the heading “Governance Structure.” Therein, the Coalition recommends a charter change that would strengthen the role of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) making him or her responsible for the operation of all city departments and agencies and increasing the CAO’s power by making it unnecessary for him or her to get mayoral approval to fire department heads. And get this, according to this Coalition report, the majority (78 percent) of the whopping 600 people surveyed think that the CAO, which has historically been appointed by the mayor as his or her top aid, should be hired by the City Council.

Took a lil’ shoveling to get through the bull crap, but we are beginning to see things much more clearly. This prospective charter change – a move that would put too much control in the hands of someone not elected by voters – is key to New Orleans making the sort of progress that the City Services Coalition suggests is sorely needed. At least that’s what they want us to buy into. Well, guess what? We are not falling for it. Neither should you.

There is no way 600 people that Ron Faucheux called on the telephone should be dictating what happens in a city of 362,000.

This is all one big snow job to convince New Orleanians that all of the basic things that citizens should expect from government are, right now, being provided so poorly that the issue has reached a critical stage that requires unprecedented (. . . and unnecessary,) action. Drastic times calling for drastic measures and all that malarkey. It is one big set up. The machine is at work:

• Headlines in the daily newspaper declaring that, “N.O. Voters (are) Daunted by Enduring Issues” and that voters are unsatisfied with city’s leadership

• City Services Coalition pollster, Ron Faucheux penning op-eds with a list of — check this — 32  questions that mayoral candidates ought to be answering, including whether they support expanding the powers of an unelected CAO.

The “city services” talk has already taken center stage this election season. Again, don’t misunderstand our position. Are essential services important? You bet! Changing the charter won’t address those issues, though. In fact, anyone who actually believes that talk of a charter change to put an unelected individual at the helm of city government is about is about better smoother roads or quicker permitting needs his or her head examined.

Well, unlike Mr. Faucheux, we don’t have a litany of questions for mayoral and council candidates just yet. We do have a statement, however: If your plan is to run for mayor or the city council just to turn around and push and promote a plan to give an unelected individual unprecedented power in the day-to-day management of city hall to satisfy people with deep pockets, don’t run for elected office in New Orleans. Seriously, you can run home, you can run a marathon, you can run your mouth. But don’t dare run for public office. And if you do, just know that we will do everything journalistically possible to send you packing.

For the last and final time, we don’t need charter changes and coalitions to get better streets. We need elected officials who listen to and work for their constituents instead of pandering to big money, picking fights with each other and placing their own political aspirations ahead of the needs of those who elected them.

Don’t misunderstand us. We certainly believe that there is always room for growth and improvement in all areas of city government. But what y’all not gon’ is play in our faces.

All of the hullabaloo, the sleek reports, the press conferences, the op-eds, the headlines, hot air and hyperbole about now being the time to “take stock of city government” comes down to one ulterior motive – wresting control away from the voters of New Orleans by taking power away from someone elected by and beholden to the people and giving more power to someone who is not. It’s about finishing the job the Katrina and gentrification started – dismantling Black leadership and marginalizing Black voters.

How can we put it? That ship does not sail with us. That dog does not hunt. We ain’t catching what y’all throwing. To put it plainly, there is no scenario in which undermining democracy makes New Orleans better. And if the people elected by the voters of New Orleans can’t get it together long enough to fill potholes and fix roads, then we need to elect better people, not change the charter. If we can’t do that, then we deserve the services we get until we can figure out how to elect true public servants.

But here’s what we are not going do: We are not going to change the Home Rule charter to make the CAO job the most powerful in the city and the watch it become the subject of backroom deals and shadow government control.

New Orleans has its problems much like any major metropolitan city. Trust us when we say that usurping power from the people of this city by empowering an unelected person who would ultimately answer to only who knows is not the way to address a single challenge we face.