New Orleans is known for its laissez-faire attitude, meaning “let the people do as they choose.”
That’s an appropriate attitude for Bourbon Street or a Sunday afternoon eating crawfish or crabs with family and neighbors, but laissez-faire is NOT an attitude we want in local government or business. I speak of this quite often on my talk show: The laissez-faire attitude that has its place in the culture of our city has historically migrated into government and business attitudes.
It should be obvious from my show that I LOVE New Orleans. I was born here - grew up here - started and spent most of my career here - but I am constantly disgusted by the degree of laissez-faire - or apathy - that has become part of New Orleans.
There are certainly countless exceptions. There are businesses and entities that promote New Orleans as a convention and sports event destination that do an incredible job with a quest for greatness - but the apathy that is an active - and integral part - of our city’s daily operations is sad. It need not be this way.
Like other cities - New Orleans has a choice of how it approaches politics and projects and too often this apathy - disguised as the cultural laissez-faire attitude - plays a part in life in New Orleans.
Over the weekend - there was significant flooding in Mid-City, Uptown, and Hollygrove. These areas did receive 3.5 inches of rain in just 1 hour - which is more than any city pumps can adequately handle - and at times the rain was falling at a rate of 6.5 to 7.5 inches per hour. But it has been determined that “human error” was a “contributing factor” in the flooding.
Randy Hayman - Executive Director of the Sewage and Water Board - said that “human error” played a part in the flooding that occurred. Hayman said there were delays with the pumps in the flooded districts going online even though there were no problems with the pumps. There were also power issues. Hayman admitted that flood waters rose 6 feet in 20 minutes because of human error. The error led to a problem with the vacuum system, and that caused pumps to be offline for 45 minutes at one pumping station.
Of course - the director of the Sewage and Water Board is now saying there will be an internal investigation. They will be looking into whether additional training is needed and if there needs to be changes in protocols.
This is a pathetic and embarrassing admission by Randy Hayman. It seems to me that in the city of New Orleans - a salary of $427,000 per year - should pay for a director who is proactive and not waiting for something bad to happen before he looks into training and protocol.
Obviously - training needs to change. And so does the protocol of the Sewage and Water Board. And at $427,000 a year - that is $60,000 a year more than his predecessor - Ghassan Korban. With that kind of money relative to the average salary in New Orleans - the citizens should expect - and demand - better leadership.
And if the city is paying the director of the Sewage and Water Board $427,000 a year - WHY in the hell do we have “human error” and so many problems? That salary should be adequate to hire someone who is highly qualified AND highly motivated to be on top of his game.
My neighborhood was not even in the flooded areas - but I feel for the citizens of this city who receive less than they deserve when it comes to city government and entities under the city’s control.
And you don’t have to be born here to catch on to the apathy of the laissez faire mentality of this city. It’s contagious. Randy Hayman was born in St. Louis and worked in Philadelphia. I wonder if he has caught the attitude that “Hey, this is New Orleans. We just do the best, and we can then we have a drink?”
The Sewage and Water Board Board deserves criticism for offering a huge salary to someone that did not seem to be proactive when it came to his employees and now calmly says that they will look into training and protocol. Proactive directors figure out who and what is incompetent before something bad happens. It’s another embarrassing moment demonstrating that the citizens of New Orleans are the victims of apathy that seems to run wild through city government.
