Posted on 09/07/2005 3:18:30 PM PDT by angkor
I'm prepared to give New Orleans Mayor Nagin the benefit of the doubt on the school bus unavailability.
In the June 9 2005 Orleans Parish School Board meeting minutes - posted elsewhere on FR in another thread - it's clear that the Board was not providing Nagin with any support whatsoever on making the buses available in an evac (let alone drivers).
And since this very discussion had been ongoing for at least a year (again evidenced in the minutes), I presume they hadn't signed-off on it by Aug 27th either.
In addition, the Orleans Parish Schools had been under management by a New York management restructuring firm (Alvarez & Marsal) since July, due to extensive corruption and payroll padding, and to the Board being $45 million in the hole.
So as of July, the City would have been negotiating use of school buses for evac with the management company Alvarez & Marsal, not the Board, which appears to have been stripped of many authorities.
Due to the terrible financial woes, I would guess that Alvarez & Marsal might have said something like, "Sorry, no money, no bus drivers, no gas. No can do. Can't help you." Again, just a guess.
So I am going to assume that Nagin was caught between a rock and a hard place on this particular issue, and had no viable means to deploy the buses.
The culprit may have been the Board, not Nagin.
New Orleans school system opens in turmoil
Thursday, August 18, 2005; Posted: 11:56 a.m. EDT (15:56 GMT)
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Students return to class Thursday in a school system in such turmoil that no one is sure how many employees it has, the new budget is millions of dollars out of balance, and the buildings are old and deteriorating.
http://www.nops.k12.la.us/index.html
"Since July 2005, Alvarez & Marsal has been working to improve the finances and operations of the New Orleans Public Schools."
http://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/en/
"Alvarez & Marsal's global services include:
Turnaround Management Consulting
Crisis and Interim Management
Performance Improvement"
Doesn't matter. The mayor had an emergency on his hands. Take over the buses and assign police and firefighters as drivers.
Look at Houston. They threw together at a moment's notice what the Super Dome should have had. It's running smoothingly.
As mayor Ray Nagin is the ultimate authority in the city.
I don't know if it's true or not. But I know the Mayor never mentioned it when he was slinging blame.
"Look at Houston. They threw together at a moment's notice what the Super Dome should have had. It's running smoothingly."
Houston wasn't wiped out and dealing with a civil insurrection.
The report just on Brit's show clearly placed the blame for the problems on LA Fema, the state FEMA agency.
They would not allow the supplies and people the Red Cross had asssembled and ready to go in. They would not allow help to enter.
Further, they would not allow Fema to come in and take over from LA FEMA.
Under extraordinary circumstances....extraordinary men and women rise to the occasion. The mayor of NO...didn't. He COULD have easily walked/driven in there..and just FREAKING took the buses!!! He chose NOT to. End of story.
Among all the other duties he had to assign to his dwindling and unavailable "first responders"?
I'm not defending the guy, I'm just proposing that there's a lot more to the picture than "Nagin's a fool", which he very well may be.
But first and foremost he *clearly* had no cooperation from the Orleans School Board.
Nope, not over the buses.
I do as well. But his "first responders" were abandoning ship or deployed elsewhere, and the School Board had been dithering for at least a year on the question.
Did you read the whole post? The School Board was also in virtual bankruptcy as of July 2005 and had been stripped of many authorities which were given to a private-sector management firm.
No, I don't think it is.
I think the more you look under the rock of New Orleans "government", the more corruption and mismanagement you see.
In this case I think a large portion of responsibility goes to the school board.
Probably true, and it's probably true he was short handed. I'd think he could have called the facility managers and asked them to get the gates open and and the busses ready, and asked for civilian volunteers to get them moving, but I don't think bureaucrats typically think that way.
Regarding the entire premise of this thread, by definition, once the state of emergency was declared, city and state officials, meaning Nagin and Blanco and their designees, had the authority to commandeer any property, public or private, to use in aiding in the response to the emergency. They could confiscate your house or car or the entire contents of every Walmart in a 100 mile area and use it as they saw fit, so they had the authority, under law and custom, to do what was necessary with the buses.
Nagin had the authority and failed to exercise it. PERIOD. It's not even close to being arguable. He may not have realized it, but that only proves his incompetence to hold the job. he may have been God's gift to New Orleans in terms of working out the day to day issues, like garbage pick up and cleaning up corrupt bureaucracies, but he was completely unprepared to exercise executive authority in a crisis.
Regarding the point about lacking "first responders" to man the buses, he had the option of conscripting just about anyone to the task, including the 8,000 national guardsmen that the governor refused to deploy. Or he could have offered the bus driver jobs to the cops who were wanting to bug out because it was just too tough to do their jobs.
And before anyone gets on their high horse about the "brave first responders" being above criticism, I spent several years as an EMT in New York. Been there, done that. There are good guys (the ones that stayed on the job) and bad guys (the ones that bugged out). The ones that bugged out ought to be imprisoned for many many years for manslaughter under the "depraved indifference" principle.
No excuses. He still had city buses and the train system. You have vans from New Orleans Parks District. He could used the public works trucks and vans. He could call the Governor in advance to have National Guard buses or "cattle trucks" to transport everyone out.
If that was too degrading, he could of chater buses to get people out. He could use church buses. Don't they have shuttle buses for the casino patrons? No excuses.
Wouldn't they closed down the schools if a state of emergency exist? State of emergency started August 26 by the Governor.
It was p!ssed poor planning on his part.
This is what I've been thinking .... could Nagin be the only clean man in NO? He ran on the promise to clean up corruption. We know about the corrupt schools and the corrupt police and we know that Blanco didn't send the Guard in soon enough or with enough force. Nagin's hands may have been tied by the exteme corruption and neglegence of his own superiors and inferiors. Of course, I could be wrong.
I don't want these ppl rebuilding this city. Not *these* people. And I dont want some stinking commission investigation ... I want a trial!! And I would be glad to *not* charge Nagin with anything provided he testifies against Let-Me-Apply-My-Lipstick-Blanco. Have you seen that clip of her with with Bush ... and she pulls out her lipstick or balm! Today's word is 'Photo-op'.
Regardless, the truth will prevail thanks to the Freepers! KEEP IT UP GUYS!!!
First of all, I seriously doubt that Alvarez & Marsal would have been that stupid and pig-headed.
And who hired them? Nagin? Blanco? Inquiring minds want to know.
Yes, there's that.
I found a 1998 RTA accounting, they had 333 operating buses at that time.
Of course buses are no good when there are no drivers, and/or the drivers' union says "No working during hurricanes."
Honestly, I think Nagin was up against more than he could handle.
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