Posted on 09/07/2005 3:18:30 PM PDT by angkor
It's one thing to bounce off ideas...theories, thoughts..etc..etc..to try and explain actions. But the reality is...the mayor let 200 to 400 buses just sit.
Forget all the reasons that you've thrown out there.
This was an E M E R G E N C Y ....and emergencies require fast action. The mayor was supposely in charge..was he not?
FWIW-
I agree with you....just seemed that you were defending the mayor a bit too vigorously.
FWIW-
The city had enough money to lure the Hornets from Charlotte. But not enough to have a million dollars or so on hand to pay to use the buses in an emergency?
The only thing there is no shortage of in New Orleans right now is excuses. Galveston is a poor city. Yet they have a plan to use municipal and school buses to get people in the projects to safety.
But, then again, Galveston had its ass kicked once by a hurricane. NOLA always thought the big one would miss it. Turns out, the big one was able to KO NOLA with a backhand slap.
Ludicrous? That gives me a chuckle.
You have clearly not read the School Board minutes of June 9 2005, so let me give you the bottom line:
As of June 2005 - and after at least one year of discussion - the Orleans Parish School Board had still not consented to provide school buses, drivers, fuel, or support to the City Of New Orleans for inclusion in the Hurricane Preparedness plan. As of June 2005, the use of school buses was not included in any New Orleans evacuation plan.
These matters were discussed in detail at the June 9 2005 School Board meeting. They were not resolved, but (once again) reserved for "further study".
In July 2005, the Orleans Parish School Board was effectively removed from any decision-making authority.
That's it. Those are the facts.
Read the minutes and become enlightened.
Have you done so?
Why are you trying to pin the malfeasance on one person, when I'm trying to pin it on many irresponsible and negligent individuals.
If the School Board had risen above its torpor, bureacracy, laziness, and corruption back in June, and if there had been a plan and preparations for the use of school buses, there would have been no need for commandeering buses, or looking for drivers (when the PD was bugging out), or locating fuel, or any of the other half-dozen steps required to get the buses out of the parking lots.
The School Board should have assented to the use of the buses and had a plan to deploy them in emergencies, at a moment's notice.
The did not. They resisted the whole idea, as is clearly evidenced in the June 9th minutes.
Go read post #42
Besides, wouldn't the school board get reimbursed for any cost to them?
Do some research.
The Orleans Parish School Board was effectively neutered and disbanded in July 2005 due to corruption, mismanagement, and a $45 million unfunded deficit. They were replaced by a turnaround firm in July, and it was not clear that the schools would even open on time in mid-August.
The New Orleans school district was an unmitigated disaster. And to be accurate and factually correct, Nagin did not run the Orleans Parish School Board.
So to answer your question, no, the school board did not have 1 million dollars.
That Nagin did not press the turnaround firm between July and August to remedy the Board's malfeasance is of course due to his own incompetence.
The school board was literally in bankruptcy. Largely due to a lot of corruption (e.g., staff payroll padding).
Not the school board.
The city and the state.
I don't expect the school board to be responsible for evacuation planning. But I do expect an agreement between the board, the city and the state to where the city and state can use the buses to evacuate people without cars. Those buses sure as heck ain't doing anyone much good now, so such a plan would also benefit the school district by getting their buses out of harm's way.
But the city and state needed to come up with the money for planning and paying for the drivers and the gas and the liabilty.
Got it.
Hope you realize I am not defending Nagin at all.
So it was another corrupt layer in this saga.
You should. They did, even though they were completely negligent about refining it.
The School Board did in fact have an evac/preparedness plan, written and last updated in 1989.
It did not include providing buses to the City. It was not synched with the City. Which is the whole problem.
When I said I don't expect them to have a disaster plan, I am talking about having responsibility for moving people out of the city. Their role should be to have the buses fueled and the drivers notified. But overall planning needed to come from the city and the state.
But I can't imagine its going to be up to the school board to pay for the use of the school buses in this emergency.
This was how the topic was introduced in the June 9 2005 meeting: the need to protect school assets (e.g., buses). Then the discussion segued into the ongoing negotiations with the City on the use of buses in evacs (one Board member noted that it would be equally important to save the students and get them out of harm's way, no kidding).
But the city and state needed to come up with the money for planning and paying for the drivers and the gas and the liabilty.
As of June 2005 the City had already agreed to hold the Board legally harmless for use of the buses. They'd offered to put PD on the buses during evacs.
During the July 2005 layoffs, all part-time school bus drivers were terminated. Who knows what else happened.
It is pretty clear that the School Board operated on its own. The City was actively trying to get those buses into the City evac plan.
The entire point is that the Board was dragging its feet, was corrupt, and was at least equally (if not wholly) malfeasant on this question.
Yes, this was the resistance from the Board as was clearly stated in the June 9 minutes.
Exactly that issue. Money for drivers, money for fuel.
But they'd been negotiating it for at least a year. The City had already given them assurances of legal indemnification, police on the buses, etc. I can't imagine they would have balked at fuel costs.
Anyway it all points to a torpid bureacracy (both the Board and the City) taking it's sweet old time to resolve old, longstanding issues ... at the beginning of hurricane season.
mmm...
Let me guess. You work for some unit of gov't or in the legal profession?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.