Posted on 08/14/2008 5:12:45 PM PDT by decimon
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Ask the man assigned to combat corruption and bureaucracy in New Orleans how the fight is going and he will tell you about his telephone problems.
"I started last September and they only switched my phone lines on two weeks ago," said Robert Cerasoli, New Orleans' first-ever Inspector General in a recent interview. "Everything has been a battle since, everything has been a fight."
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"This is Louisiana," Cerasoli said with a shrug.
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(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
They opened up an investigation of the corrupt mayor of Mandeville. He took money from contractors and he stole money from a Children’s Christmas Fund.
He also drives drunk and gets Law Enforcement Officers fired for pulling him over.
He is a Real Piece of Work.
A criminal Thug like many politicians in Louisiana.
Go, Bobby, clean this mess up in LA, and then go national!
Sounds like Jindal is taking a shot at La. corruption. If it doesn't shoot back then maybe he'll accomplish something.
It will be a big feather in his cap if he's at all successful. Or he'll be hated for it. One of those.
You do not understand how entrenched the corruption is in Louisiana. The corruption has gone on since long before Huey Long and almost every public official is on the take. No matter there race or party.
Bobby has an enormous task ahead of him and perhaps he may make some progress.
I hope so.
The greater the victory when he succeeds....
The way Louisiana works now and always is the tribal system. It is not what you accomplish, but rather “whom you know” and your place in the pecking order. This assures that the cream will never rise to the top, but rather will move to Houston or Dallas.
It goes deeper than every public official. It is ‘everyman’ who knows a politician and can proudly count on him for ‘help’. It’s so entrenched that the guy on the street doesn’t really want clean politics if it means he loses his ‘help’ and influence and contracts.
You want to see the ‘other guy’ who is handing out perks and contracts get caught-not YOUR guy. It’s widespread and part of business DNA in Louisiana. To root out the mentality would mean thousands of businesses going under, probably a financial collapse and total restart.
Who wants to lose the benefits of political patronage?
It’s too interdependent to clean without that.
I’ve always thought we should try the ‘jury switching’ idea from ‘The Untouchables’. Take all the elected officials from , say, Kansas and bring them to LA. No one would want the LA officials, I suppose, but people with NO connections might actually do the job without a way to personally profit.
To the tribal mentality add the ‘Titanic Mentality’, especially in the New Orleans area.
Everyone KNOWS one more big storm erases everything. The ‘get it while you can’ mentality rules all. There is little to no long-term thinking or accountability. It’s everyone for themselves. N.O. is more like a pirate hangout than ever-price-gouging rip-off artists everywhere, and everyone knows not to trust anyone.
Everyone’s main goal is to make $$ before it’s all underwater again.
I understand how deep it goes. Around 20 years ago I got a speeding ticket in New Orleans and had no less than five people tell me they could get if fixed. None of there people were well connected but knew someone. My "ticket fixer" was my cousin's girlfriend's sister that had an entry level position in a division of the public works department. Everyone is connected.
However, that corruption is not just limited to Orleans Parish but is also alive in Jefferson and St. Tammany. If need be just through casual acquaintances, I could get tickets fixed, or approved on building inspection in any of those three parishes.
The system is completely broken in the entire state, not just New Orleans.
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