Posted on 09/06/2005 6:19:29 PM PDT by angkor
Flooded buses bookmark
How much do you want to bet that her name is Phyllis Landrieu (Senator Landrieu's queenlike aunt)?
It looks like Mrs. Cade dropped the ball. Who is Mrs. Cade? Do we know anything else about her other than that she is a School Board Member?
I've read it several times.
Phyliss Landrieu showed up late (that's in the full minutes) and then assumed complete control of the meeting. That latter part is obvious even in the excerpted text above.
Yes, it was Landrieu who effectively stonewalled the City's request to include NOPS school buses in the City evac plan.
In June of 2005, and probably at every turn in previous years.
So in July, Alvarez and Marsal came in to manage the business end of school system and the OP Board Members essentially abandoned their posts with many tasks left undone. Was this a very expensive temper tantrum?
Found some information that peaked my interest and thought I'd register and share.
Tony Amato used to be the New Orleans Superintendent. He resigned mid-April 2005. His last day was June 30th. This would mean he was still Superintendent during the time when this board meeting in question occurred. Anyways, lots of problems are going on in the school system - especially money - huge lack of money. Probably why they got that mangement company to take over. They barely made payroll sometimes.
Amato was apparantly liked publically but not so much by the board who tried to get him out months ago unsuccessfully. Eventually they were able to get him out - mostly due to financial issues it appears. But maybe there was a 'straw that broke the camels back'? If so, I think it was Hurricane Ivan. An internal investigation revealed that Amato had utilized school resources to board up his house before Hurricane Ivan and then asked people to lie about it.
So, what effect - if any - did these events have on the school board when they were discussing the plan to utilize school resources for evacutiing residents? Hmm....
Here are a few articles - I'm sure there are more.
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2005-04-19/politics.html
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-3/111337354323370.xml
Keep digging! We may need to right a screen play with all the stuff we're pulling up!
If you read the full text of the minutes (not the hurricane planning excerpt I posted above), you'll see one of the first questions is whether they could get the Superintendent to attend the meetings.
Since you say he resigned in April and left June 30, it's logical to conclude that he'd stopped attending meetings at some point, but was still being paid.
But even in the excerpt of the minutes it's clear that Phyllis Landrieu was running the show.
I'm inferring that, but not sure.
Local N.O. reporters would I'm sure have covered the precise aftermath of the takeover.
In the articles I've read, it's eminently clear that A&M was completely running the schools.
Then the first thing they should have done was to dig through the minutes of June's board meetings to tie up any loose ends.
Proof that the implementation aspect of the evacuation of the carless was NOT in place, at least as of June, and that Senator Landrieu was well aware of this shortcoming. "If Mr. Bill was aware,..."
bump
what's the story about Nagin sending buses after the hurricane to the Hyatt Hotel first to rescue the white tourists? I heard of it but can't find any articles about it.
I saw it reported on Fox News. It might be up on their website.
.....If a hurricane should come to the City in order to save the school buses, those assets, the City had asked if we would loan the school buses to be utilized for those persons in New Orleans. A lot of the citizens of New Orleans do not have transportation and have no way of evacuating from the City if a hurricane should come this way. He had been talking with Dr. Kevin Stephens from the Health Department because the Red Cross said that they would not commit to opening any shelters in the City of New Orleans if a hurricane comes this way. It would be all for naught. They wanted to utilize school buses in order to transport those persons out of the City....
GREAT FIND angkor!
1. Any way these minutes can be routed to Major Garrett at Fox News? This certainly ties into the Red Cross/Access Denied to Superdome story he's looking into. Doesn't Tony Snow have a FR account?
2. Is the Landrieu mentioned in the minutes here any relation to the Lt. Gov and the Senator Landrieu? If so, wow.
3. Amazing Find. Bravo Zulu.
Boy. She was in a tough spot. Drivers, radios, gasoline - this is getting WAAAY too complicated.
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