Practically everyone over the age of (fill in the blank) is familiar with Pete Seeger's modern folkstyle song, "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?"
The Shreveport City Council approved a 13% salary increase at its Jan. 11 regular meeting. The vote was five in favor with two opposed, members Grayson Boucher and John Nickelson.
It does not matter whom you talk with, when you talk to them or where you talk to them. For local residents, two topics almost always generate(s) a conversation: crime in our city and accountability of elected officials.
There you go again, Councilman Nickelson, speaking the truth out loud, and it is a necessary truth. The administration has come out for 13% across-the-board raises for all city employees, which sounds good, but it is not feasible. No, everybody doesn't deserve a 13% raise, but, yes, everybody does deserve some consideration for a pay raise. The problem is that, as Councilman Nickelson has so aptly described, the city would be on the hook for another $20 million added to the yearly budget. That is a big number, and it is an unsustainable number, considering the current income streams that come into the city coffers.
The Jan. 11 meeting of the Shreveport City Council will have at least two very interesting votes, one of which is very controversial, and the other may be as well.
From day one, the Tommy Chandler administration has struggled to find its footing. Tommy’s choice for CAO and campaign running-buddy was a non-starter even before the first day. However, nothing illustrates that struggle more than the whole “police chief soap opera.”
Who is responsible?
In addition to our egos, each of us possesses a personality. One of the toughest challenges I feel that a leader has to address is the delicate balancing act of soothing egos and smoothing personalities.
I love attending the Caddo GOP Luncheon each month. It is held at Superior Grill on Line Avenue in Shreveport, and, yes, sometimes I need a frozen margarita or two to get me through the speeches. But not on Jan. 4. The place was packed with local power brokers in this third or fourth largest city in Louisiana. I was in the last chair in the back waiting to order food when main speaker Rep. Danny McCormick was introduced by local businessman and radio talkshow host Louis Avallone.
Well, he ain’t in Kansas anymore. And he ain’t in the boondocks at Southern University Shreveport. Or for that matter the far away kingdom of Grambling State University. Alan D. Jackson put himself in the political arena by ac
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