Tomorrow Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu will be announcing the co-chairs of 14 task forces he’s setting up for his Transition New Orleans team. The teams:

1. Blight
2. City Contracting
3. City Finances
4. Criminal Justice
5. Cultural Economy
6. Customer Service
7. Health Care
8. Housing
9. Flood Protection & Coastal Restoration
10. Neighborhood Development
11. Recreation
12. Social Innovation
13. Sustainable Energy & Environmental
14. Youth & Families

A not-so-surprising list of civic concerns, perhaps, with the exception of Social Innovation (will the city be Facebooking and Twittering and Foursquaring?) and Customer Service, which may have some relation to all those “City Hall needs to realize that the citizens are its customers!” references we heard on the mayoral campaign trail.

If you want to see who’s been tasked to be on the task forces, the announcement will be made Wed., Mar. 17 at 10:30 a.m. at the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau (2020 St. Charles Ave.).

There’s nothing like the first sight of that little orange envelope stuck in your windshield wipers. Everyone can expect to see more of those when the city implements its new parking meter policy. But when does it start? Who knows, really.

The city’s Web site says they will “begin issuing warning citations on Monday, March 18.” First, Monday, March 18 isn’t an actual date. Do they mean today, Monday, or the 18th, which is Thursday? And what exactly is a warning citation? Do we have to pay $20 if we get one? However, we should expect full enforcement of the policy on March 27, according to the site.

Here’s the new policy. Start figuring out your new parking spots now:

Hours
Current: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
New: Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Rates
Current (Regular Two-Hour Meters): $1.25/hour
New (Regular Two-Hour Meters): $1.50/hour
Current (Long-Term Meters: Up to 10 Hours): $0.75/hour
New (Long-Term Meters: Up to 10 Hours): $1/hour

Stewart Juneau, owner of the Baton Rouge-based development company LeTriomphe Property Group, was selected last November by Mayor Ray Nagin’s administration to redevelop the Morris F.X. Jeff Sr. Municipal Auditorium in Armstrong Park. At the time, the proposed professional services agreement drew controversy, due to Juneau’s relationship with Nagin (he had hosted the mayor’s much-mocked “Excellence in Recovery Award” gala back in August 2008), as well as for the fact that LeTriomphe was the sole bidder on the project. In December, New Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux slammed the deal, urging the New Orleans City Council not to approve it. In January, city attorney Penya Moses-Fields slammed right back, saying the IG’s recommendation was premature and that there was “no existing contract.”

This morning, Juneau announced that LeTriomphe was requesting a “temporary suspension of negotiations” on the Municipal Auditorium deal:

LeTriomphe Property Group, LLC (LTPG) announced today that it has requested a temporary suspension of negotiations on a professional services agreement for the redevelopment of the Morris X. F. [sic] Jeff, Sr. Municipal Auditorium.

LTPG remains confident that providing a landmark home for the cultural arts and creative industry in New Orleans in the damaged and unused auditorium is one of the most important projects that will be undertaken in the city in the near future.

The letter gave no reason for requesting a suspension of negotiations, but concluded on an optimistic note:

We look forward to working closely with all segments of our great community on making the mission of providing a landmark home for the cultural arts in New Orleans a reality.

The city’s permitting system is working and available to the public. In a story first broken by The Lens, the technology vendor, Accela Inc., that supplies the system for the city’s Office of Safety and Permits shut it down on Monday because the city failed to pay the company. The system allows contractors and residents to file for permits online and check on their status, and provides an automated format for office staff.

Accela spokesperson Paul Davis said for months the company had repeatedly warned the Nagin administration it would be forced to turn off the system because of back payments. Administration officials finally got the message late Thursday evening.

“We have just received full payment from the city for all outstanding funds for hosting and maintenance fees,” Davis said. He added that Accela has hundreds of contracts with municipalities, and this was the first time it had shut off services because the customer didn’t pay.

“I hope this is the end of it,” said New Orleans Coroner Dr. Frank Minyard today when he declared Jannie Burgess’s death unclassified and its cause undetermined. Burgess died at Memorial Medical Center in the days following Hurricane Katrina when the hospital was flooded and without power. Before dying, Burgess was injected with morphine seven times, but the coroner said the 79-year-old patient was extremely ill — suffering from kidney and liver failure.

“We don’t feel that has contributed to her death,” Minyard said regarding the injections. “We feel it may have some minor contribution.” Minyard added that death from a morphine overdose usually occurs immediately, but Burgess died three hours later.

This death and others lead to an investigation and eventual second-degree murder charges against Memorial Medical Center’s Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses. Then Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti accused Pou and the nurses of killing as many as nine patients, but in July 2007, a grand jury decided not to pursue the charges.

The controversy surrounding the Memorial deaths resurfaced late last year after an article by ProPublica reporter and medical doctor Sheri Fink. In Fink’s story, Dr. Ewing Cook, a senior physician at the hospital, admitted to hastening Burgess’s death: “I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her faster, get the nurses off the floor.”

As part of his investigation, Minyard said he tried to interview Cook, but his attorney, Ralph Capitelli, advised against it.

Americans loathe Congress, but they still like President Barack Obama according to a recent Associated Press poll.  A mere 22 percent support Congress while public approval for Obama’s job performance checks in at 53 percent even though Karl Rove casts the president as “undisciplined.”

The poll also reveals that party affiliation doesn’t inspire confidence — 50 percent of those surveyed would give a pink slip to their congressperson. As the midterm elections approach, public perception obviously matters and pols, but not polls (there’ll be plenty more), will struggle to prove their worth.

And it raises the question, what do you think of your own representative? Will you vote for them, choose someone else, or does it matter what you think, change is going to come?

*photo by Cheryl Gerber

In the end, the runoff for the District A council seat came down to three women behind a podium: District A councilwoman-elect Susan Guidry, state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson and retiring District A councilwoman Shelley Midura. Guidry’s opponent, former District A councilman Jay Batt, had the money and the mojo behind him (both his war chest and his list of endorsements dwarfed Guidry’s), but both Peterson and Midura had thrown their support to Guidry early and enthusiastically, and both of them were more visibly ebullient than the candidate herself. (Midura, famous for wearing her emotions on her sleeve, was alternately beaming and choked up.)

GUIDRY, PETERSON AND MIDURA.

Guidry supporters had gathered at the Olive Branch Cafe in Mid-City to watch the results come in, but the winner’s address was anything but an olive branch; while she thanked her supporters and the voters, she also took the unusual step of swiping at Batt in her victory speech. “My opponent tried so hard to polarize us,” she said, her anger still palpable from a bruiser of a runoff campaign, later adding in acid tones, “Little people. Little power.” For his part, Batt sent out a concession press release to the media while she was speaking, but by the time Guidry finished (according to her campaign officials), he still hadn’t called to congratulate her.

The numbers were dramatic. In the Feb. 6 primary, Batt had 39.32% of the vote to Guidry’s 44.22%; the remainder was split among candidates Virginia Blanque and Fred Robertson. Blanque endorsed Batt, a fellow Republican, but the final total in the runoff was Batt at 37.66% and Guidry at 62.34%; Batt had actually lost support in the final month of the campaign, while Guidry gained 18 points — and this despite Batt’s endorsements from across the political spectrum, from Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson to DA Leon Cannizzaro; from The Times-Picayune to The Louisiana Weekly; from Democratic state Sen. J.P. Morrell to Republican congressman Steve Scalise.

In the end, perhaps it wasn’t the fact that Guidry triumphed in the runoff; it was that she had done so so decisively, and with so little backing from the local political establishment … and that was, perhaps, why Midura and Peterson, the only two politicos behind her on the podium, had their eyes gleaming so brightly. As the whole city learned on Feb. 7 at the Sun Life stadium in Florida, victory is never so sweet as it is when the pros count you out of the game.

As we reported yesterday, Rep. Tim Johnson (R-Ill.) was the only member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote against congratulating the New Orleans Saints on their Super Bowl victory. Well, it turns out Johnson has an opponent vying for his 15th Congressional District seat in Illinois: Dr. David Gill, an E/R physician, a Democrat, and — most important — a good sport. In many ways. In many, many ways, as it turns out.

We put in a call to Dr. Gill yesterday to seek comment, and he got back to us today … not because he was blowing us off, but because he had been working in the emergency room, heroically saving lives, instead of voting against the Saints on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Here is Dr. Gill’s official statement on the Black and Gold Super Bowl victory:

I watched the game. I’m a football nut, and the New Orleans Saints receive my heartiest congratulations. And kudos to Drew Brees! I used to watch him at Purdue.

Dr. Gill took the time for a brief interview about the differences between him and his opponent:

GAMBIT: When you are not busy heroically saving people’s lives, what other impressive feats do you perform that Rep. Tim Johnson does not?

GILL: Hmm. I still play a mean game of tennis. I don’t know he’s capable of that. I can play sports trivia like a champ. And I still read out loud every night to my youngest if I’m not working in the emergency room.

GAMBIT: That is so nice! Dr. Gill, several of our readers have suggested your opponent is — and I quote — a “douche.” Do you have any comment on that?

GILL: [laughing] Uh… I … I can understand why they’d come up with that thought. I try to be more diplomatic about it. There are many people here in central illlnois who would agree with that.

GAMBIT: Thank you, sir. One last question: Is someone who doesn’t congratulate the winners of the Super Bowl a filthy Communist, or simply un-American in his beliefs?

GILL: [laughing] I’ll go with un-American.

Thank you, Dr. David Gill! To learn more about Dr. Gill and his platform, visit his Web site.

DR. DAVID GILL: HEROIC AMERICAN … AND SAINTS FAN.

Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu wants the public to participate in selecting the next chief of the New Orleans Police Department. The NOPD Task force hosts a community meeting next Thursday, March 11 at 6:30 p.m., at the Louisiana Superdome’s South West Club Claiborne Room. Xavier University president Norman Francis and Nolan Rollins, president of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans, chair the task force, which is made up of various community leaders.

“I understand that often times the best ideas come from people in neighborhoods across the city, who deal with the issue of crime everyday. That’s why I’m encouraging citizens to let their voices be heard, as we work to find the next police chief,” says Landrieu via a press release announcing the meeting.

Citizens can also let their opinions known by filling out an online survey. Hard copies of the survey are available at Urban League of Greater New Orleans (2322 Canal Street).

So what are you looking for in the next police chief? What should be the task force’s priorities?

Timing is everything in politics, and the timing of the race to fill state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson’s former seat in House District 93 has been set for May 1 — which falls on the second weekend of Jazz Fest. The runoff, if needed, will be May 29, which falls on Memorial Day weekend. Qualifying will be March 30-April 1, which is just days before Easter Sunday.

The election and qualifying dates were set by House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, who the state constitution authorizes to call special elections to fill House vacancies. Tucker says he called the election for May 1 partly because that date is the next scheduled special election date (i.e., it’s already paid for by the state) and partly because he wants to make sure the district is represented during the upcoming legislative session, which begins March 29. The May 1 date also was recommended by Secretary of State Jay Dardenne, the state’s chief elections officer.

The timing of the special election was largely out of Tucker’s control. Peterson did not officially resign until last Monday, March 1, when she took her oath of office as a senator. Tucker could not legally call the election until she officially tendered her resignation.

Tucker may soon be calling another special election in the House for May 1 — depending on the outcome of the City Council runoff in District E. If state Rep. Austin Badon wins that seat — and if he resigns or announces his resignation prospectively soon enough — Tucker says he will schedule the election to fill his unexpired term in House District 100 for May 1 as well. “It’s important for those two districts to be represented in this session,” Tucker says. “Even if each race goes to a runoff, many of the biggest decisions come in the final weeks.” The session must end by June 21.

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