Mayor Ray Nagin needs a reality check. He says he can’t attend the City Council meeting today to discuss the New Orleans Affordable Housing (NOAH) debacle because his schedule won’t permit it. That’s unacceptable.

     What could be more important than answering the council’s and the public’s questions about such an important situation for the city — one that involves possible fraud and a federal investigation?

     Shouldn’t his first responsibility be to the City Council and the citizens of New Orleans? I mean, he is the mayor and he has about a five-hour time frame in which to make an appearance (the council usually meets from about 10 a.m. to at least 3 p.m.). It seems he was able to adjust his schedule to hold a news conference where he chided WWL’s Lee Zurik for hurting the city by reporting the problems in the NOAH program. He can’t move things around to answer questions about a program that could bring great shame on this city? 

     Throughout his tenure, Nagin has shown a great propensity to make himself and his staff inaccessible to both the media and the City Council. It’s time for that nonsense to stop.

     No one likes to be called to the principal’s office (Oh, wait, he is the principal), but we’ve all had to answer for mistakes at one time or another. By now he should have gathered enough information from his staff to have an idea of what is going on with NOAH. So what if he has to answer some hard and embarrassing questions. It’s his responsibility as the mayor.

     He is employed by the citizens of New Orleans. It’s time he realized that.