[StBernard] In St. Bernard battle, recovery looms large

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Mon Nov 12 20:50:05 EST 2007


In St. Bernard battle, recovery looms large
by The Times-Picayune
Saturday November 10, 2007, 10:48 PM
By Paul Rioux St. Bernard bureau
State law limits the number of candidates in runoffs to two, but don't tell
that to St. Bernard Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez, who insists
he faces two opponents in his bid for re-election in Saturday's runoff.

"I'm not just running against Craig Taffaro," Rodriguez said. "I'm also
running against a gal named Katrina."

Rodriguez linked the parish's slow recovery from Hurricane Katrina to his
distant second-place finish in last month's primary to Taffaro, a Parish
Council member who came within 32 votes of winning the race outright.

"I'm the guy who gets blamed for everything that has gone wrong since
Katrina," Rodriguez said. "Can't get a FEMA trailer? Blame me. Are you back
in your house but can't get rid of your FEMA trailer? Blame me."

Taffaro acknowledged that rebuilding St. Bernard after virtually every
structure flooded has been daunting. But he said there's no justification
for the government buildings and fire stations that remain gutted or the
vacuum trucks that still rumble down residential streets to suck raw waste
from the broken sewer system more than two years after the hurricane.

"The parish presidency has been an unenviable position for the last two
years and will continue to be so for the next four years, but that's no
excuse for failing to get the job done," he said.

Political analysts said voters tend to agree with that line of thinking.

"Whenever there's a natural disaster, people typically blame public
officials," said Ed Renwick, director of Loyola University's Institute of
Politics. "It's very unusual for someone like (former New York Mayor) Rudy
Giuliani to come along and build his fame and popularity on a disaster like
9/11."

Rough on incumbents

Renwick said the anti-incumbent sentiment generated by Katrina has left its
mark on several prominent politicians.

Facing plummeting poll numbers over her handling of Katrina's aftermath,
Gov. Kathleen Blanco decided not to seek re-election this year.

Meanwhile, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Jefferson Parish President Aaron
Broussard went from being virtual shoo-ins for re-election before Katrina to
having to fight for narrow victories.

Broussard, who was widely criticized for his decision to evacuate Jefferson
Parish pump stations as the storm approached, barely slipped past two
little-known challengers to win a second term last month.

Nagin edged Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu in a May 2006 election that was as much
about race as the city's sputtering recovery.

Renwick said Rodriguez, a former police juror and council member with 32
years in parish government, faces an even a tougher path to re-election.

He said there are no factors such as race to complicate the St. Bernard
election, which is widely viewed as a pure referendum on the parish's
recovery. And unlike Broussard, Rodriguez faces a strong opponent in
Taffaro, who outpolled him by 21 percentage points in the five-candidate
primary.

"Taffaro is an incumbent, too, but people zero in more on the chief
executives when things aren't going well," Renwick said. "After all, they
are the ones in charge."

Taffaro, 42, has contrasted Rodriguez's post-Katrina leadership with that of
St. Bernard Parish school Superintendent Doris Voitier, who won the
prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award after she bypassed
government bureaucracy to reopen a school just 11 weeks after Katrina.

"It has taken two years for Mr. Rodriguez's administration to start putting
projects out for bid, but the school system has shown it could be done in a
matter of weeks," Taffaro said.

Sparring over record

Taffaro characterized Rodriguez as an absentee leader, saying he missed 80
percent of committee meetings to discuss the parish's recovery and failed to
move forward with FEMA-approved projects worth tens of millions of dollars.

Rodriguez, 72, said he missed the local meetings to attend more than 200
meetings with state and federal recovery officials, including 50 trips to
Baton Rouge and Washington, D.C.

"I wish I could apologize for Katrina, but she was beyond anyone's control,"
he said. "I have been laying the foundation for the long-term recovery, and
things are really starting to happen."

He said the parish's government complex in Chalmette is slated to undergo a
$3.8 million renovation beginning next month. Bids have also been solicited
to repair half of the parish's 10 fire stations, and the vacuum trucks
should disappear next month as repairs to sewer lift stations are completed,
Rodriguez said.

He accused Taffaro and the council of "sabotaging" his administration by
passing a low-ball budget that forced him to wait for federal recovery
funding to trickle down to St. Bernard.

"Led by Craig Taffaro, the council has micromanaged my administration for
quite some time by passing ordinances for things that cost less than $500,"
he said. "Instead, they should have authorized emergency spending to get the
recovery going like the School Board did."

Taffaro said Rodriguez could have used $50 million set aside before Katrina
for sewer and water plant improvements to jump-start recovery projects while
waiting for FEMA reimbursement. He said the council later imposed
constraints to rein in what it viewed as out-of-control spending by
Rodriguez, including $10 million on trailers for which the parish has not
been fully reimbursed.

'Finish what I started'

Rodriguez, who has acknowledged he is in the toughest fight of his long
political career, said the race is about the future of St. Bernard, not his
legacy.

"The stakes aren't high for me. I can get out of this race tomorrow and
retire at 96 percent of my salary," he said. "I just want to finish what I
started for the good of the parish."

Rodriguez has questioned how Taffaro, a licensed psychotherapist who has
eight children, could afford the pay cut that would come with the
$70,000-a-year job as parish president, which would require him to set aside
his private practice and surrender a teaching position at Nunez Community
College.

"It's a substantial sacrifice," Taffaro said, "but it's one I'm willing to
make to help give the people of St. Bernard the opportunity to come back and
stay here."

The three candidates who lost in the primary have issued endorsements in the
runoff. Rodriguez has been endorsed by his son, Henry J. Rodriguez III,
while Don Serpas and Bill Villavaso are backing Taffaro.




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