As a lawmaker, New Orleans City Councilwoman Susan Guidry is known more for focused concentration on selected issues and careful attention to detail than for rhetorical flair or emotional outbursts. At Thursday's council meeting, however, Guidry was steaming. "Increasing frustration ... severe lack of oversight ... inexcusable ... extremely insulting" were among her comments as she tore into the Safety...
As a lawmaker, New Orleans City Councilwoman Susan Guidry is known more for focused concentration on selected issues and careful attention to detail than for rhetorical flair or emotional outbursts. At Thursday's council meeting, however, Guidry was steaming.
"Increasing frustration ... severe lack of oversight ... inexcusable ... extremely insulting" were among her comments as she tore into the Safety and Permits Department.
The occasion for her anger, as is often the case for moments of conflict at council meetings, was a seemingly innocuous issue -- in this case, approving a change in use for a store at 1000 S. Carrollton Ave. Once a Little Professor bookstore and more recently an exercise salon, among other uses, the store is "grandfathered in" as a legally nonconforming business in a residential neighborhood. However, each time the occupant changes, the city has to certify that the new use will be no more "intense," and thus no more of a burden on the neighbors, than the last one.
The problem in this case is that the latest tenant, a nail salon, opened well before Thursday's council meeting -- and that is what had Guidry upset.
Through some bureaucratic error or oversight by Safety and Permits or the Finance Department, or both, Guidry said, the salon was issued a permit to open before the council ever got a chance to review the request for a change in nonconforming use.
It's a problem that district council members are all too familiar with: permits issued in error or in defiance of the law. Guidry spoke of her "increasing frustration" with such foul-ups and of her inability to get answers and information from the two departments. She blamed "a severe lack of oversight, in my opinion, in these offices" and said the Landrieu administration needs to correct it.
Other council members quickly chimed in. Kristin Gisleson Palmer said neighborhood groups don't trust either Safety and Permits or Finance to enforce conditions the council imposes when businesses are allowed to open.
Council President Jackie Clarkson said she thought many of the problems had been solved when Jared Munster, a City Hall whiz kid and one of the few people in city government with a Ph.D., was put in charge of the Safety and Permits Department, but that obviously some problems remain. "This is insanity that this would continue," she declared, calling a recess until the administration could get someone to the council chamber to respond.
Fifteen minutes later, Munster arrived, declaring that this was the first time he had heard of the problem with 1000 S. Carrollton and that he would look into what went wrong.
But Guidry was not through, citing other complaints, such as three "problem bars" she said were allowed to reopen in her district with any notification to her office or neighbors who have to endure the problems the bars create. She said it is "obvious there is not a real concern for responding to the council" and called the failure by Munster and other officials to produce documents she requested "inexcusable."
Palmer said she has repeatedly requested action on three problem businesses in her district, such as an illegally expanded French Quarter hotel and an adult-merchandise store in a residential neighborhood, and has gotten no response.
Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell said some employees in Munster's department have "an attitude of 'We're Safety and Permits and we're going to do what we want to do." She told Munster he needs to call them to account. "It's just got to stop," she said.
Munster said almost nothing in response. Clarkson told him he has been "terrific" but asked him to meet with her privately to talk about ways to resolve the problems.
When the council finally got back to the issue that had touched off the whole debate, the nail salon on Carrollton, it voted 5-1 to approve the change of use, despite a mini-filibuster by a neighbor who said the business would worsen parking problems on Carrollton. Given three minutes to speak, Virginia Dupont was still going seven minutes later when Guidry finally insisted she sit down. Hedge-Morrell voted against the change; Stacy Head was out of the chamber for the vote.