With regard to “A Question of Leadership,” the article stated, in reference to council members, “They’re also listening to constituents with widely divergent priorities.” Regardless of the so called “inevitable tension” brought forth by the individual council members listening to their constituencies, that is exactly what any elected official is to do: listen to, as well as follow, the direction of the majority of the people who elected him or her. Unless I’m missing something here, that is what our form of representative government is all about.
Yes, this is a test of Joey Durel’s leadership skills and, thus far, he is more than up to the task. He has the support of a comfortable majority of the people of Lafayette Parish.
One unnamed former member of Lafayette government, who still deals with the council, decries term limits, the inexperience of the new members, and, as he put it, “a lack of continuity.” Anyone who is against term limits would seem to have either a questionable agenda or level of self confidence that is not needed in representative government. The newly elected council members will learn as they progress for they do not seem to be bridled by “good ‘ol boy” behaviors. That is why the public shook up the council and elected who they did when they did. Though experience can be a good thing, terms limits reduce significantly the complacency as well as the sense of entitlement and demagoguery that many elected officials without term limits fall into. That is why politicians are afraid to put term limits on a ballot, because the people will always approve them. The people of Lafayette Parish are intelligent, independent, and a very informed public. Their voice at the polls speaks loudly as evidenced by which proposed taxes pass and those that are resoundingly rejected.
Those unnamed sources are better off unnamed.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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Not exactly. Although, to always go against the wishes of the majority is not a recipe for re-election.