My friend at City Hall advised me to tune in to Cox Cable Channel 6 today at 1PM. I see on the Best of New Orleans Blog that the City Council is holding a public hearing at that time (Fri. Nov. 2, at 1:00 pm) at the City Council Chambers to discuss curbside recycling. I wonder what’s brewing? I don’t have cable TV, so I can’t tune in.
Update: Here’s Stacy Head on WWL [mp3, 5MB]. She called the station while ducking out from the above-mentioned meeting and talks about Garbagegate. Her comments about how the Council passed that ordinance in April jibe with what my friend at City Hall told me last week.
Update: Be sure to check the comments for Civitch’s blow-by-blow recap of the meeting. (Thanks, Civitch.)
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Watching now. It is absurdly fascinating, mainly because of short circuits in Veronica White’s brain that prevent her from understanding the distinction between “limited” and “unlimited,” and Stacy Head’s increasingly frustrated efforts to explain that to her.
I turned it on a few minutes ago, and someone was going through a power point presentation. Couldn’t bring myself to keep watching.
For those who don’t have a cable-equipped TV at their office, here’s my summary of the meeting:
Veronica White: Here is my PowerPoint presentation, which I will (mis)read to you verbatim in order to torture you and preempt any real questions about what my department does.
Stacy Head: I don’t quite understand why we’re being told that the contract doesn’t say what it clearly says.
Shelley Midura: Ditto.
Arnie Fielkow: Very gracious, non-offensive ditto.
VW: Well since I am on TRIAL here (she really did say that, and then slammed a book shut)
Cynthia Willard-Lewis: Let’s be civil! (smiling and blinking)
VW, and both reps of Richard’s and Metro: We are asking you and the citizenry to believe that “unlimited” has a different meaning than the one widely accepted by the English-speaking world. And by the way, our interpretation saves us a whole bunch of money and means that the city has to pay a whole bunch more.
SH, SM, AF: we are collectively calling your bullshit!
VW: I am not going to answer any questions.
CWL: We will address this matter at another time due to time constraints.
Moving right along to the recycling portion of the agenda……
Phoenix Recycling guy: we are doing this on an individual basis but really want to do it citywide. Recycling has numerous civic, fiscal and environmental benefits and should be part of our post-Katrina efforts.
Citizens: Rah rah recycling! And why has the Sanitation director completely ruled it out?
VW: (says nothing, because she has left the meeting)
The End
Civitch, I applaud your pithy & succinct characterization of the meeting.
The T-P weighs in, sorta:
http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/11/2008_no_budget_omits_curbside.html
[…] know I’m not the first one to say how pathetic it is that New Orleans can’t get its basic recycling program […]