Following is an Opinion piece I wrote over the weekend and submitted to The Times-Picayune. It is a result of my attending the St. Bernard Parish Council Meeting last Tuesday (June 19). On the agenda that night was an ordinance to begin closing down the government-run FEMA Trailer Parks. The ordinance passed that night by a vote of 4-2 (one council member was not in attendance), but would end up being vetoed later in the week by Parish President, Henry Rodriguez, Jr.
The Federal Government was first, losing me from afar as I watched the catastrophe unfold from my living room at home in Arizona. Next were the officials at the state level, people who at first glance appeared competent and compassionate. Only they, too, inevitably revealed their flaws. The clumsy and inept handling of the circumstances before, during and after Hurricane Katrina by Federal and State officials was the last straw in what had seemed to be an inevitable end to any faith I had in government. Yet, I had still held out hope for those in local government, the grass-roots officials, wanting to believe that out of anyone, they would surely still ‘get it’. But after just one visit to a St. Bernard Parish Council Meeting, that belief is all but lost as well.
On the agenda for the June 19 Council Meeting was Summary #2000, an ordinance to authorize a demobilization plan for government-run FEMA Trailer Parks in the Parish. I was at the meeting because I wanted to hear council’s side of this issue, everything from their reasoning behind it to their plan on communicating it further to residents right on down to how they were going to execute it.
A week earlier, I had visited the Lynn Dean Trailer Park site with other volunteers, and came to learn from several residents that they’d have to be out of their trailers by July 1, giving them less than a month from the time they received notification to find new living accommodations. I also learned that while FEMA would help subsidize the costs of their future residence, the residents would have to front the money for a deposit and first month’s rent. Most do not have that kind of money available. According to the residents, neither the Parish nor FEMA were offering any assistance related to moving, even if the resident elected to buy their trailer. These were all reasons to be very concerned, but before I passed final judgment, I felt it was really important to understand the other side of the argument.
As a volunteer who has been working in the Parish since February, I have become very compassionate to the plight of residents. They need help and support, and that’s not changing anytime soon. At the same time, it’s important that everyone, from residents to the volunteers to elected officials, implants a sense and strategy of pro-active rehabilitation. I am not looking for any level of government, local included, to subsidize residents with free handouts or to ignore the realities of what still lies ahead. People here absolutely need to be on a mission to better their lives, and shouldn’t be content to live in government trailers for the next two and three years and beyond. But the circumstances dictate that many of the residents need help getting on track, a lot of help. It is any representative’s duty, particularly that of a Parish council, to be organized, prepared, respectful and coherent when addressing issues with the public, especially one that is this critical. Having witnessed Tuesday’s Council Meeting, I can adamantly say that the St. Bernard Parish Council, with one exception, was none of the above. Following are some of the reasons why:
- The council eventually voted to push back the first closure date of any trailer park, including the Lynn Dean site, by one month to August 15. This only came, however, after much debate and heavy pushback by several council members, which is mind-boggling because the Parish had given residents such little notice in the first place. Additionally, when one resident got up to address the council in the public forum phase and brought the actual notice with her, at least two council members made it clear that they had not even seen the notice before.
- The council never communicated the step of consolidating the trailer parks to the residents prior to the meeting. In fact, the idea of moving residents from a park that was closing to vacant trailers in another park did not even arise until a volunteer from out of state suggested it in the meeting. Even then, Councilman Craig Taffaro and several other members played dumb with this concept, claiming to not understand what those who advocated it were talking about or what its value was. Yet in the end, after misleading and causing great anxiety amongst residents who thought they’d be on the streets in a few weeks, the council “claimed” that consolidating the parks was its intent all along. No notice or communication ever said as much until that volunteer suggested it.
- When given the opportunity to explain and define a plan of action around how this ‘consolidation and closure’ of trailer parks would take place, the council did not give residents in attendance one shred of information that would help prepare them for a move. Key points such as when they would find out if they were going to another trailer park, which one it would be, how they would move, if they would receive help moving and how long they’d be allowed to stay there were never even broached. Instead, residents and those in attendance were treated to Council Members Taffaro, Judy Hoffmeister and Mark Madary pontificating on about government assistance, FEMA’s good intentions and how all of this would help spur on the rental market.
- The entire council, save Lynn Dean and Kenny Henderson, exhibited several examples of embarrassingly inappropriate behavior. Besides the normal verbal jousting, which could almost be excused when considering the criticality of some of the issues on the table, council members Taffaro, Mark Madary, Judy Hoffmeister and Joey DiFatta routinely took turns either dismissing commentary from the public, making insensitive and inappropriate jokes, getting up and walking away while residents spoke, and/or mocking or making fun of the council’s senior member, Lynn Dean (who, by the way, was the only member of the panel that I could see had any semblance of common sense and good judgment. It is not hard to see why Dean has been a successful businessman and contributor to his community). Taffaro apparently has his sights set on a run for Parish President. This is the behavior of a man who might sit in the Parish’s highest seat?
These are supposed to be the local elected leaders who live and work amongst their constituents. But Tuesday’s meeting truly disappointed me both for its level of unprofessionalism and in the council’s inability to communicate anything of substance to the residents. Later in the week, Parish President Henry Rodriguez vetoed the ordinance altogether, temporarily shelving it and in the process alleviating a lot of unnecessary angst for the residents. But there are issues here that still need to be addressed, as the trailer parks can’t, or at least shouldn’t, stay open forever. There are also issues when you have a Parish Council that is so incompetent that it cannot properly plan and communicate an initiative as impactful as this one was.
Note: Below is the link to the news story that ran in The Times-Picayune on Thursday, summarizing the Council Meeting. Its context, or lack thereof, is what spurred me to first write a Letter to the Editor of The TP, followed by the full-blown Opinion piece, at the urging of one of their editors, since I had so much to say. Neither has run to date, but all I can do is try. I've also circulated both to the local newspaper, The St. Bernard News.
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