Fired New Orleans city workers get final paychecks - Nagin, Blanco stunned (non Miers thread)

Yahoo News ^ | 10/14/05

[pepsionice]

I think this is the second big step of a major change process taking place over New Orleans. The fact that alot of folks found welcome situations when they left the town, and discovered that Memphis, Dallas, Houston, and numerous other towns were better and had less crime...they started thinking of not going back. I doubt that 60 percent of the population of the town will return to stay. I also think the Saints will start to plan another season away from New Orleans by May of next year. Based on comments about the Super Dome...it would appear that lengthly repairs may be required. Not say that this is a bad thing...but New Orleans probably grew in directions that were negative and it needed a housecleaning to make it back to the seaport that it once was.

[RobbyS]

NOLA has been losing population--and businesses--for decades.

[buickmackane]

MEGA-RANT ALERT

---

I think many people missed the point of this thread. It's about ordinary people -- civil service workers -- losing their jobs, isn't it? I think the Nagin/Blanco bashing appears on enough other threads that there's plenty of room for everyone on FR to differ.

I don't live in New Orleans; I'm about 230 miles northwest near Alexandria, Louisiana. I didn't vote for Mayor Nagin or any of the Black politicians in the New Orleans government. Still, I'm also badly impacted by this situation just because I'm a resident of this state. What is happening down in New Orleans right now affects the state government as a whole, like a spreading cancer.

When I came here two years ago, I discovered that job opportunities were limited and mostly in fields I had no previous experience in, and that a shocking number of people were working for only $5.15 per hour. Worse yet was the all-pervasive "plantation" mentality that this was as good as it's ever gonna get, and no one should ever dare raise their head or open their mouth to challenge the status quo.

So, after a great deal of swimming against the tide trying to find employment compatible with my experience (let's not even talk about salary history), I realized that the best thing for me to do was take the Louisiana civil service exam and point myself toward a new career that allegedly offered a good, secure future.

I took all the tests, but somehow it never dawned on me until I got my scores just how much of a fish-out-of-water I am in this place. Everything came back with percentile scores in the high 90's, which means that thousands of people scored lower than I did in areas of basic literacy, customer service and management skills.

On top of everything else, the job requirements are incredibly dumbed-down. A supervisory-level word processing specialist, for example, only has to type 40 wpm to get the job. My own score was 91 wpm, but I remember looking around the testing room at the screens of the other applicants and noticed most of them were well below 40 wpm.

Does it sound like I'm bragging? I certainly hope not, because here's the punchline. Despite my education, experience and exam scores, time after time I did *not* get hired...and I never knew why. I went on about 20 civil service interviews, sometimes interviewing 5 different times at one facility, before I got hired for a position notorious for being at the bottom of the barrel. Everyone knew it was an extremely unpleasant high-turnover job with miserable conditions, but I was encouraged at every turn to take the offer "just to get your foot in the door and move onto something else in six months."

I bravely forged ahead and gave it my very best effort. My co-workers instantly disliked me because I had nothing in common with them. They were all young Black single mothers about half my age who were fond of blasting explicit rap music at deafening volumes until customers started writing letters of complaint about it. None of them could spell or type to save their lives, so I guess they felt threatened by me. I had no hard feelings against them, though. I realized that they were too illiterate to cut it anywhere else, and they were doing the very best they could to support their children. I also realized that these workers were in it for the long haul, that they paid their money into the LASERS retirement system (you stop paying into Social Security when you work for the State of Louisiana; they have their own plan, which at the moment is a pretty scary thought) and expected to be set for life.

To make an already long story shorter, I'll tell you that I was wrongfully terminated from this job two weeks before Katrina hit. I filed for unemployment and didn't hear anything for well over a month. I assumed that I had been disqualified, but didn't push it because I didn't want to stand in line behind the hundreds of hurricane victims lined up trying to file new claims. If anything, I was extremely grateful that I'd been let go before Katrina, because if that job had been hell before, I shuddered to think what it would have been like dealing with a surge of thousands of evacuees to process. It turned out, however, that they had thoroughly investigated the circumstances behind my claim and found that the state agency I had worked for had indeed wrongfully terminated me and that I was entitled to benefits. They were paid to me in a retroactive lump sum and have continued weekly since then.

Now, can you imagine a worse time to be unemployed, than when thousands of evacuees suddenly come streaming into your town -- many deciding to settle there permanently -- and they start pounding the pavement right alongside of you to compete for the same handful of job openings?

But I've been trudging along in my diligent job search, keeping records of contacts, only to be rewarded with form letters saying basically the same thing: Governor Blanco has declared a hiring freeze in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, so we can no longer fill the position for which you have interviewed.

Now here's the icing on the cake. I've probably collected about half the benefits in my unemployment account so far -- I've earned so little money living in Louisiana that there wasn't much to begin with -- when suddenly I get a letter from the Appeals Tribunal. It seems that the state agency I worked for is taking *me* in front of an Administrative Law Judge to appeal the decision in my favor.

Talk about adding insult to injury. First they terminated me when they weren't supposed to, and now they want to take away my unemployment benefits? And, hello, why wait over two months? I've got so many cliches running through my head over this -- the horse has left the barn, you can't unring a bell, etc. etc. I am only assuming that the agency instituted this appeal because the state has no money and that they are fighting tooth and nail for every nickel.

Now I'm just one employee being impacted by the collapse of the state government, so let's bring this full circle to the point of the thread. Multiply this by the 3,000 people just terminated in New Orleans, and think of the real tragedy here. All these people who really aren't qualified to do much of anything else have suddenly lost their livelihoods on top of their homes and personal possessions. These workers trusted the state and even paid into their mandatory retirement plan for years, and now all the state wants to do is yank the rug out from under them and kick them when they're already down.

It's a domino effect that has far-reaching consequences; we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg -- trust me!!

[Sally'sConcerns]

cajungirl,

Don't lose heart. There are many of us who understand NO was not just the French Quarter or the corruption in government. We understand there were also many people like you and I who lived in NO. Like other's I've read this whole thread and I'm appalled at the hateful blanket statements made by so many of the FReepers who've posted on this thread.

My hope and belief is there are good, honest people diligently working on plans to rebuild parts of NO. One of the first issues will be to engineer some type of flood control, whether it be building the city up above sea level, maybe a system similar to Holland or a better system of levees and dams than what was in existence before.

It's my opinion NO will be a smaller city than it was before Katrina. There's a need for the port because the other ports can't handle the overflow, they're already falling behind. The parts of the historical district which can be saved will be a part of the new NO. Some of the companies who had offices there will rebuild because of the closeness to the port.

There will be a need for staff for the businesses who rebuild. There will be a need for retail to provide goods and services to the people who work for the businesses and at the port. As NO slowly grows, more jobs will be created, more homes will be needed, more retail, more police and so NO will grow.

The pre-Katrina city is gone and it can't be recreated. I don't believe we really deep down want it to be exactly as it was. There's an opportunity to make NO better than it was.

Rather than people grumbling and griping and saying they aren't going to spend their money on rebuilding, they should be taking an active role in making sure NO is rebuilt the right way. We need to be loud and insistent that our tax money be spent to build NO back in the best way possible for our country.

America can do it. As Americans we need to communicate with La. government by telling them to quit demanding money for pet projects and instead to focus on getting the money spent to make NO safer from flooding and to get rid of the corruption. The price tag will be too steep if we allow shoddy planning and corruption.

We need to communicate and then communicate some more to our federal officials that we want NO rebuilt in the best way possible. If we can get NO rebuilt in the right way it won't be long before private business begins to invest in NO.

Please don't lose your optimism. Instead of feeling defeated, use that energy in a positive way.

[SeaBiscuit]

This Country is so overburdened, dumbed down and generally screwed up with inept people in both the public and private sectors because of PCBS which is in a large part due to BCBS.

[Poodlebrain]

It's not just a flood insurance issue. Do you think any insurer will write a policy on any structure that was under water and mold infested? The liability is unpredictable, and insurance companies do not like unpredictability. What is the financial exposure for the insurance company if future occupants become sick from mold spores in a building they cover?

From a practical standpoint all of the structures that flooded will have to be gutted or torn down and rebuilt. This includes many municipal buildings such as schools, fire stations and police stations. It will be some time before New Orleans is capable of supporting a population base close to the one it had before Katrina hit. Accordingly, this is an opportunity to do civil works projects that could lessen the likelihood of flood damage from future storms while at the same time improve the efficiency of the port and transportation networks serving the port. Using the minimal amount of public money required to make the port of New Orleans more efficient will be the single best method of attracting the private capital necessary to truly rebuild New Orleans. Private capital will go to New Orleans when the expected return on investment justifies the risks. And rather than have government insure against the risks, I'd rather it take steps to make the rewards more attractive.

[LibLieSlayer]

Yep, I know. That is why I want to start in my own state. I am confident that if Lott retires, we will get someone better to run in his place. At least we have Thad Cochran!

LLS

[RoseyT]

"It's a domino effect that has far-reaching consequences; we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg"

No doubt about that. Living in East Texas, I get a little nervous when I start thinking about where we might end up in that line of falling dominoes.

[dearolddad]

Your personal attacks and insults do not serve you well. I suggest you lay off.

Democratic vermin did not destroy NO. Nature did.

I disagree; Only an idiot or a low grade moron would build an entire city below sea level in a hurricane prone area.

[mom4kittys]

Cajungirl--people don't understand about New Orleans. Even with the political corruption, NOPD etc... there is just something about it that is HOME. It will never be the same--ever.
I saw my neighborhood (lakeview) yesterday. It is impossible to describe and very devastating. I was already a little frantic over my job hunting in Baton Rouge and now I am very worried. Everyhing near here is saturated with other people looking for jobs and housing. I am running out of money! I realized that it is a MONUMENTAL task in New Orleans and not much to go back to now. I don't want to abandon my city, but I need a job! I am a sales rep and have diverse experience. There are lots of retail jobs, but that won't cover the rent and utilities! I am on my own now and all my friends are scattered all over the country.Don't mind relocating, but would like to stay in a warm climate--I don't deal with cold well! Anybody have any ideas?

[cajungirl]

well if you are looking for the"idiot" or "low grade moron" that built NO, you may have to go a way back in history. NO is an old city, very old.

So why does it make sense to call any Louisianian living an idiot or low grade moron? How does that elevate the dialogue around here? How does that contribute anything? How does that do anything than make one burp, open another beer and beat his chest before kicking the dog?

[cajungirl]

Nobody knows what it is like but you and those who are going through it.

People are going to Houston in droves, to Austin. Craigs list has a list of people all over the country who are helping with housing, jobs, etc.

But home is home and my heart goes out to you. Where are you living now? Did you get an apartment or house? I know people sleeping on couches. I have never seen anything like this in all my days.

I have the sense the churches are doing the heavy lifting and are committed to helping. But google on Hurricane victim help and check out craig's list.

[McGavin999]

Why the "not my tax dollars" attitude? NO, its music, its cuisine, its history is all of ours. Just like the parks, just like NYC, just like the rivers, the mountains.

I really don't believe it has to do with the city. I think it has to do with the horrible face that Nagin, Landreu and Blanco put on the city. Demanding 250 billion dollars to rebuild it just took everyone back.

The city will be rebuilt and people all over the country have opened their hearts and wallets so there should be no doubt of the commitment of your neighbors. I think the comments you hear are a direct result of selfish demands made by the terrible three.

[mom4kittys]

I am in Baton Rouge for now--sleeping on a sofa. I am job hunting on-line in several areas and states. I found a house here that I could rent, but need to know I have employment here before I take it. Hope I can find something before it slips away--retail jobs available, but won't be enough to pay bills. I am really getting anxious and depressed.

[cajungirl]

I freepmailed you! Twice!

I wish my guest house was open, you would be here in a flash.

[pepsionice]

Buick...if I were you, I'd put myself in a moving mode...and leave that state. There are lots of jobs within Huntsville, Nashville, or Dallas. The long-term situation in NO is not going improve over the next two years, and its better to find a good reason to move on...and I think you have that reason.

[mom4kittys]

You are so sweet, something has got to give soon. I will just have to wait it out I guess. I have started hating weekends because it hampers my job search!

[R. Scott]

Local stores were offering to pay from nine to 12 dollars hourly for the usually minimum-wage jobs such as cashiers and stock clerks. One burger chain reportedly offered "signing bonuses" of 6,000 dollars for counter workers.

If true, I might think of heading down there.

[cajungirl]

I think my age has me looking back for some inspiration.

My mother's father died in the 1918 flu pandemic. He left three children, a wife and no money. They survived and their situation was like so many I see. All three daughters went to college, an uncle gave them the money and all three paid it back their first year of work. That same uncle had a son, my mother's cousin, who died in a sub sinking after he was a survivor of the Squalus rescue. That boy was on my mind lately after seeing a tv program on the Squalus. Lately my Grandmother, penniless, uneducated, three children and no place to live has been on my mind. She cared for me while my Mother was in grad school.

I guess we all just survive, go on and live in someone else's memory years after we are gone. This seems to be what we do with brief periods of plenty, good times, love and home. The important thing is the memory of the survival and the help others gave. And passing that legacy on to the next generation who will surely have similar things happen.

One day, you will tell very young people about all of this. I have my grandmother's silver serving spoon, the only thing she kept in the hard times. It is my most cherished family heirloom. Sometimes I look at it and feel so proud and so grateful she carried on. I am saving it for the day a grandchild or great grandchild needs it for inspiration.

[jeffers]

cajungirl wrote:


"The dems did not bring Katrina ashore.

I dont know who screwed up on the canals and with the breaches. That is yet to be determined.

But you can see this as political. The deaths may have been but I lived in NO and I know how cavalier
people are about storms, they don't leave. you cannot blame the dems for not forcing them to leave.

I know socialism fails. I know NO was corrupt, this whole state has a strata of corruption. But corruption
did not cause the storm."


I do know why the levees failed, Cajungirl, each one of them in turn. In the not too distant future, I intend to post the reasons here. Corruption did not cause Katrina, but it did cause the levees to fail. When you see the evidence compiled, I think that you will agree.

Which brings us to the problem at hand. There is a cork in the reconstruction bottle. Myabe 5% of the people in America adhere to the "not one penny to rebuild a city below sea level", but those few will not determine the course of the future.

A much larger contingent (myself included) believes that money spent on rebuilding New Orleans will not be used to rebuild the city. Instead, we believe that it will be used to fund "ghost cops", that it will be earmarked for "levee projects" that do not improve the stability of the levees or the safety of those inside them. We believe that it will be used to build private airports, and fountains, and casinos, and we simply refuse to see our money spent that way.

I can and have donated to Mississippi relief efforts, and will continue to do so. I haven't yet sent any to Louisiana, because I believe that doing so will accomplish exactly the opposite effect of my objective. I believe that my money will be used to benefit those currently in power, and that none of it will ever benefit those truly damaged by the storm. I believe that sending money to Louisiana now, will directly hurt the people I want to help.

I have already seen evidence of this, since the levee breaches were fixed. I have seen Mary Landrieu ask for $40 billion dollars for the CoE, when the CoE says they can build Cat-5 levees for $16 billion. I notice she also, in the same bill, demanded that this money be awarded without the usual checks and oversight of Corps expenditures. I have a one word answer for Ms. Landrieu.

No.

I have seen where Mayor Nagin wants to build casinos, while the levees lie in ruins. New Orleans is not "at higher storm risk now". New Orleans stands wide open, the levees are devastated, in many places they no longer exist. The same problems that led to the 17th and London Canal breaches probably exist over a much wider area. I have evidence that supports this premise, evidence that is not available or visible to the casual observer. It's not being pulled out of thin air.

If I lost my house to a twister, a distinct possibility, and asked you personally to help me rebuild it, and told you openly that I was going to build a home theater first, before repairing the roof, before repairing the foundation, how much would you give me?

I see Governor Blanco still putting politics, blame avoidance and old grudges way above important jobs that need to be done first. I see her putting her hatred of Nagin above the need for rebuilding efforts in the post storm news from New Orleans. I see her artificially limiting the scope of post storm governmental investigations and top level meetings.

I see other meetings among the rich and powerful discussing how New Orleans can maximize the money that the rest of the country pays to fix the city, while at the same time discussing how they can restructure the city so as to keep the poor out. I see them maneuvering towards taking the poor people's property for next to nothing, for now, "because those areas are unsafe", and I know that that same property will be turned around and sold for millions for shiny new businesses and high end residents later on.

I will not fund this effort.

In short, I see a continuation of all the exact problems that led to the city of New Orleans being destroyed in a storm that was much less destructive than the city was supposedly capable of withstanding. I see that the money was sent to ensure that the city could withstand such a storm, I see that the money was obviously misspent, because the city did not withstand a lesser storm, and most importantly, I see a business as usual attitude on the part of most involved.

"Business as usual" killed New Orleans. "Business as usual" will prevent New Orleans from ever being rebuilt, at least in any meaningful way.

If you truly wish to to see the city rise again, you have to deal with the foundational issue first. The city and state aren't your enemy per se, the cork in the bottle is actually the PERCEPTION of them, in the minds of those must fund any reconstruction effort, the mainstream American public.

If it were my city, and I decided it needed to be rebuilt, I would currently be working to get rid of the idiots who both allowed it to happen, and who continued to allow the same practices that allowed it to happen.

But New Orleans isn't my city. Maybe you can come up with some out of the box thinking and find another way to see the city rebuilt. Federalizing the district for say a 5 or 10 year period is one option. The recall process is another. There may be still others.

But until the perception I speak of has been erased, and I mean truly erased, not by some half-assed media spitshine project, we see through those now, but the corruption and graft and political tolerance of and participation in the same, has been largely erased, the funding you need to do the job will not come.

The political foundation of Louisiana is fatally flawed. This has been alledged for decades. This has been demonstrated now in concrete fact by the storm. This has to be addressed and corrected before any further construction can take place. You cannot build on a fatally flawed foundation, because everything rests on the foundation, and no matter how well you build the superstructure, the base is still flawed.

Assuming that you accept this post in the way it was intended, an honest assessment intended to identify the bottleneck that determines your future, and begin efforts to address this problem, you still have a very tough road ahead of you. Today, only 3000 people got laid off. Tomorrow, there will be another funding issue, and another and another and another. They may not stop for three or four decades. That's how long it took Key West to recover from the 1926 hurricane.

Entire neighborhoods of historically precious houses, houses that survived Katrina unflooded and undamaged, may have to be demolished to make room for the kind of levees you really need to do the job properly. That's going to hurt, and you will have to make very hard decisions, not just one but a series of them, years worth of them.

It took 200 years to built the city to begin with, Katrina smashed it flat in about 48 hours, and it's going to either take 200 more years to build it back, or else the acceleration process will come at the price of more intense requirements in effort and pain. There is no alternative, the Second Law of Thermodynamics and Newtons Law's of force and motion are the final arbiters of all energy versus benefit equations.

I don't know that you or any native from Louisiana has the heart or stomach for what will be required, but I do know this. You have a chance to do it right this time. Not many ever get that kind of chance. If you choose to begin with the flawed foundation, and deal with it as reality requires, then every day will bring real improvement.

Choose otherwise, choose any course which does not first address the flawed foundation, and all you will get for your pain and heartache will be illusions. Illusions which the next Category 3 storm will destroy just as fast as Katrina did this time.

I'm not being mean, or greedy, I'm telling you like it is, so that you can realistically choose what you wish to do from here on.

The laws of nature and the laws of mathematics cannot be overwritten by either man or church. Attempts to circumvent them may appear to succeed in the short term, but in reality, all these attempts gain is to introduce potential energy into the system, like stretching a spring. It takes much more effort to stretch a srping and then slowly and carefully unstretch it than it does to leave it alone in the first place. The alternative then is to either not stretch it at all, or else stretch it and then lose control of it.

Katrina snapped the spring that was stretched by decades of corruption, but if it hadn't been Katrina, something else would have come along to release the stored negative energy.

Now the spring stands at rest, in equilibrium, with no potential energy. If you choose a return to the old ways, you will do so largely alone. I won't help, and many others who think like me will not either. We refuse to spend our effort and pain to help create another snapback that will do again to so many people what Katrina just did.

We will not rebuild the machine that killed them.

If, however, you choose to recognize reality from this day forward, and live in accordance with it, then roughly 280 million Americans stand with you. We await your decision.