“Be hard on the problem, soft on the people”
Mitch Landrieu set a tone for discourse at last night’s neighborhood meeting on budget priorities at a packed Martin Luther King Charter School auditorium in the Lower Ninth Ward.
To underscore the importance of the meeting, Landrieu introduced the heads of all city departments, and invited people to bring their concerns directly to those managers after the meeting.
As he’s done before, the mayor asked the audience to participate in a candid discussion about their concerns, but to “be hard on the problem, and soft on the people.”
Landrieu laid out the painful decisions that have been made to repair a $67 million deficit left by the previous administration, and to stabilize the city. But he made clear that the purpose of the discussion was to obtain input from the community about their budget priorities so that they were reflected in next year’s priorities.
There were moments when five years of pent up frustration — over unspent recovery dollars, lack of help from the city, and failed promises — got the better side of speakers, but those emotions were quickly subdued as Landrieu listened respectfully, smiled, and asked for a fair opportunity to respond. He told stories and joked with the crowd as he conceded his 13th ward upbringing. It was a refreshing departure from discussions of the last few years, in which facilitators have lost control and failed to achieve meaningful civil discourse.
All joking aside, however, Landrieu made it clear to this audience that he chose the first budget meetings in New Orleans East and the Lower Ninth Ward to send the message that they are important to him, to his administration, and to the city.
Deputy Mayor Judy Reese Morse discussed the fact that the administration has created a strategic framework for how it will govern — including a values statement, vision statement, and mission statement. It was a truly jaw-dropping change from what this city has seen before — that an administration should be designing principles around which it will govern, instead of shooting from the hip.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor Andy Kopplin described the budget as “a moral document” consistent with the administration’s strategic vision. It’s a reflection of community priorities.
The process underway is a more meaningful implementation of the Budgeting for Outcomes process. Where the previous administration talked about obtaining community priorities, the new administration is really doing that. The goals of the process are to obtain input, determine how much money there is to spend, identify programs that will utilize the best evidence-based practices, set benchmarks to measure performance, and report results so that good programs get funded again, and bad ones don’t.
Kopplin proposed a set of priorities to open up the discussion:
1) Public safety
2) Children and families
3) Economic development
4) Sustainable communities
5) Open and effective government
6) Innovation
For more than an hour following the administration’s introduction to the budget discussion, community members spoke about their concerns with an understandable level of frustration. The major categories of concerns were consistent with administration topics for discussion:
1) $83 million in FEMA money (for schools) hadn’t been spent.
2) Public safety, and widely expressed concerns that Lower Ninth Ward had become a haven again for violent criminals who had “set up camp.” Another expressed an excellent outcome to measure: The walkability of her neighborhood.
3) Streets like a motocross track.
4) No action on adjudicated properties, and nothing had been done with blighted properties taken over by non-profit organizations.
5) A rebuilt fire station.
6) Street lights always out.
7) Mosquito control, and pest control for rats and snakes.
8) Plenty of liquor stores, but no “supermarkets” (or “grocery stores” as Mitch teased).
9) No buses except for the drive-by tourist kinds that go down to the Lower Ninth Ward to look at Brad Pitt houses. $35 per-passenger tour admission doesn’t help residents.
10) Improved access to health care facilities.
11) Drainage — the area didn’t used to flood during rain events.
12) Overgrown grass.
13) No movement on money invested in the Lot Next Door program. In fact, the city was acting to demolish a property that a prospective owner had invested in to show intent to purchase.
14) Jobs. People from out of state are working in jobs that should be going to Lower Ninth Ward residents.
15) Recreation. Many people brought this up. One person said he’d actually pay a higher millage for improved recreation, and suggested that maybe some of the money that goes to Audubon could go to citywide recreation. Another said that a basketball hoop isn’t acceptable — not all young men play basketball, and not all young women like to sit on a bench to watch.
As the evening wore on, Landrieu asked the audience if they wanted more time to speak, or if they wanted him to answer. They chose to continue raising their concerns. When it finally was Landrieu’s time to respond, he called out to every person who spoke by name, and addressed every issue. He had answers for most of the questions, and when he couldn’t show results — because he’s only been in office for about 90 days — he asked the audience to accept that what he’s done so far shows good will and good intentions.
A very interesting moment in the discussion was when Landrieu talked about the need for code enforcement. He said that there might be no turning back once people say they’re ready for the city to start penalizing owners for not taking care of their properties, and he wanted to make sure that people set the priority for how much pressure should be placed upon owners who were negligent or unable to rebuild. It was perhaps a reflection of the times — now that the city is about to recognize the passing of its fifth year of recovery after Katrina. Landrieu asked for a show of hands to see if support existed for more rigorous code enforcement. There was an overwhelming show of hands and verbal support.
There is perhaps more to say about this event, but what’s perhaps most noteworthy is two shifts in attitude since Mitch Landrieu’s inauguration:
1) A welcome acknowledgement made by the new administration — to be contrasted with the old — that this city’s people always knew that they should be called upon to make sacrifices for the common good of the city.
2) Confidence that true leadership is being exhibited in a way that isn’t ostentatious or condescending, but leadership that values the contribution and experience that every citizen has to make, no matter which neighborhood they grew up in, what their family name, or what the economic status or race.
In short, after so much hardship for the past five years, after so many meetings, after so much exasperation and unfulfilled promises, there is for now great hope that the Landrieu administration is going to be hard on problems, and soft on people — that the administration is charting a path for success — success in areas that matter to the people, and that can be measured by the people.
