For those of us who plan our television lives around the hit dramedy known as our Metro Council meetings, I gotta tell you last week’s final hurrah with the greatest cast of characters ever assembled was a big, fat dud.
And I’m sorry, but as someone who long ago gave up on good government and is addicted to this bi-monthly exercise of civic futility purely for entertainment purposes, I deserved better.
Seriously, how can a meeting be such a clunker when the principal plot was how [one ballot item or two] and when [October or November or never] to send a controversial billion-dollar bond proposal to the voters? How can a meeting that also had the possibility of millions in higher taxes [via the rolling forward of property tax millages], a proposal to eliminate $6 million in business taxes and the intrigue of someone other than a white male possibly being appointed to the Library Board be more torturous to watch than License to Wed?
As farewell episodes go, this was worse than the Seinfeld sendoff.
Oh sure, there will be a dozen or so more meetings before term limits and the fall elections overhaul almost the entire council cast, but this was the meeting with the fabulous agenda.
It was supposed to be a Super Bowl moment for the greatest show on television. It was supposed to be four-plus emotion-packed hours of high drama, heated exchanges, powerful orations and an outcome in doubt until the bitter end.
What we got wasn’t the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.
What we did get was LSU and Ohio State in the BCS Championship Game.
It was a total beat-down situation that was over long before Joe Greco gaveled the meeting to order. Mayors Kip Holden and Walter Monsour clearly had the votes in advance to get their way on the bond issue, and that, plus an audience packed with an all-star lineup of supporters, sucked the life out of the opposition. Admittedly, council members Wayne Carter, Pat Culbertson and Lorri Burgess—along with mayoral candidate Ron Johnson—mailed in some token resistance, but the outcome was never in doubt.
After that, the packed house fled the scene and the council, wanting to get out of there as well, pretty much deferred every other significant matter for another day.
In short, we haven’t seen performances so mailed in since Frank, Dean and Sammy drank and laughed their way through the original Ocean’s Eleven.
As it turns out, the finale wasn’t a farewell, but a preview of the upcoming race for mayor. [We also got sneak peeks of potential state senate bids by Culbertson and David Boneno.]
There was Holden, the incumbent, telling us now is the time to pay for our planning sins of the past and to bite the billion-dollar bullet that will make Baton Rouge a great city. We’re on our way thanks to the billions in new taxes and fees already imposed or increased by his administration, and prosperity is but one more bond issue away.
There was Carter, the outspoken challenger, countering that the working man is going broke from Holden’s tax-and-spend policies and that things really aren’t getting any better in the parish. The solution, he says, is to whack taxes and cut government down to size with a management style normally seen in corporate America.
There was Johnson, the long shot, pledging to defend the poor while voluntarily offering that he lives in a $600,000 house. [I don’t know either, but that’s what he said.]
And there was Dan Kyle, an ally of Carter and a candidate as well, who stood in the back of the room and said nothing.
The Metro Council may have jumped the shark, but it looks like we’re going to have something just as entertaining to watch over the next three months.
Comments
Posted by pmccarron on July 29, 2008 at 2:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
That meeting was packed with nothing but supporters of the Tax Proposal. Only like 4 or 6 people, including myself showed up to speak against it, although I am still sort of on the fence over this issue. I was very surprised at the lack of opponents that showed up (Not even current Metro COuncil candidates running 4 office showed up to speak their mind). Furthermore, not everything that happens in the Metro Council - makes it on TV. Anyone who yells out of turn or heckles a rep from the audience - it rarely gets caught by the live mike or camera. And what really disappointed me was the "Special July 16 Wednesday Meeting" the week before that never aired. All I caught was the WBRZ Clip that showed Monsour and Boneno going at it - That was the Superbowl of all Metro Meetings - and they did not even put it on Metro 21 the prior weekend. So I went into this meeting sort of ignorant at was discussed at the previous Wednesday Meeting.
Posted by pmccarron on July 29, 2008 at 3:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Just to emphasize - I was disappointed that no candidates running for mayor or metro-council (except Wayne Carter who currently serves as District 1 Council Rep running for mayor) spoke their mind in the public forum or at the meeting. Some of them attended - but they did not speak their minds in the public forum. Would like to know how these candidates for public office think before we elect them. And the meeting was very one sided in favor of the tax proposal. Everybody who spoke was either a city official, hotel rep. or BRAC or BRAF Employee. Very few opponents showed up at the meeting.
Posted by pmccarron on July 29, 2008 at 4:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
And I forgot to mention Ron Johnson spoke too - he was also against the tax proposal because of the sales tax impact on the "minority" community and the property tax impact on his $600K House.
Posted by texastyger on July 30, 2008 at 8:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Ron Johnson was recruited to run because certain individuals don't think that Mayor Holden is kissing up enough to the black community. Why should he? He was elected to represent the city/parish as a whole, and Johnson needs to take a look at the most recent census figures for the city. Baton Rouge itself is majority black now, so the whole it hurts the "minority" community arguement doesn't wash. Kip Holden has been the best mayor Baton Rouge has had in ages. He has his faults but I believe that he honestly wants what's best for everybody, not just a select group. He's right in that if Baton Rouge wants to realize its true potential as the next great American city, then the citizens are going to have to pony up a bit and live through the growing pains. The potential is there for something wonderful if more people would start thinking just a tiny bit outside the box.
Posted by pmccarron on July 30, 2008 at 2:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Agree, texastyger, the color of your skin no longer makes you a minority in the year 2008. The remarks by Lori Burgess were extremely insulting to all people, regardless of race. Burgess did not even let BRAC or BRAF spokeswoman respond to her rhetorical questioning, as if to blame them for the poverty in Baton Rouge. And although I disagree with Mayor Kip Holden and C.A.Walter Monsour on this tax proposal - their administration is overall doing an excellent job to build and unite a better Baton Rouge.
Posted by texastyger on July 31, 2008 at 1:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I like Mayor Holden's thinking on this, although I'm not sure the "all or nothing" approach was the best way to go about it. I guess we will have to wait and see what the voters decide. I agree that Baton Rouge is much better off now than when Mayor Holden first took office. As far as Lori Burgess is concerned, her being term-limited is the best thing that's happened to the Metro Council in a long time. That group needs a total overhaul and it looks like we're finally going to get it. The new group can't possibly be any worse than the current cast of clowns.
Posted by pmccarron on August 1, 2008 at 9:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Well, I disagree about the clown remark, and I can understand the frustration of Lori Burgess, but her remarks went overboard. Furthermore, she offered only criticism and borderline racist remarks and no solutions. I may not always agree with every remark or decision the Metro Council makes - but overall - I think most of them are doing a good job. They may make mistakes and say some stupid things - but who isn't guilty of that(we are all human)? My favorite is Mike Walker - I can see him becoming mayor some day.
Posted by Diva on August 1, 2008 at 1:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I didn't attend the meeting, so can't comment on that. I'm quite perplexed, though, when I see comments like "Kip Holden has been the best mayor Baton Rouge has had in ages." Better than do-nothings is, well, not exactly a high compliment. I haven't seen Kip Holden get behind anything progressive. He just sucks up to the conservative white NIMBYs in this town. He got all fired up about a loop and a bond issue only when election year came around. He's had four years to promote smart growth, alternative transit and other progressive projects. Instead, he lets Monsour run his office while he glad hands, cuts ribbons and gives slaps on the back to people who want to hold this town back. I'm not optimistic about BR ever being anything other than a third tier capital city. Even Lafayette is more progressive than Baton Rouge. Somebody pointed out to me that it's probably because there are fewer fundamentalist Christians over there - mainly fun-loving Catholics. I just wish we had a really good, progressive candidate running for mayor. Our choices seem to be dumb, dumber and dumbest.
Posted by taxpayer on August 1, 2008 at 2:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I have to point out the fact that the bond issue has 2 projects that will benefit city only agencies (the $26 million for the city fire stations and the new city police headquarters) but the whole parish is going to pay for them if the bond issue passes. I live in the parish and have my own fire dept (St.George) and my own police protection (EBR sheriff office) that I support by property taxes. Now the Mayor wants the parish residents to pay for city only projects. He did not put any projects in the bond issue for any of the parish fire districts. Don't get me wrong these projects are needed but I am against the way they are funded. Councilman Carter and Culbertson touched on these issues during the Metro Council meeting but the media has not covered any of it. Carter even asked the Parish Attorney if it was legal for the parish residents to pay for the city only projects and the Parish Attorney said she didn't know. I can't see myself paying to support 2 fire dept's and two police agencies.
Posted by fourx5 on August 3, 2008 at 2:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Diva, I couldn't agree more with your comments - especially your musings about the cultural differences between Baton Rouge and Lafayette. Which city showed more leadership in turning a defunct downtown into a magnet for spending? Lafayette...and they did it in the 1990s. Which city has had a performing arts space for the past forty years? Lafayette. Which city, despite the raving lunatic Republican eliminationists on its radio dial, manages to turn out better-than-average (again damning with faint praise) students than the EBRSD? Lafayette.
Let's just move the capitol west.
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)