New Orleans City Council introduces new public comment cards
11th June 2018 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
The New Orleans City Council last week launched what members assert will be a multi-step effort to strengthen and protect the democratic process at council meetings by revising the cards citizens must fill out in order to speak at council meetings.
The most prominent adjustment to the speaking registration is the addition of a check-box asking whether the speaker is being paid or compensated for his or her appearance and comments at the meeting. Also significant is a new signature line on the registration card requiring the speaker to affirm the truth and veracity of their comments. Other changes to comment cards include an update to the land use and committee card to make it “appear more professional” and an update to the General Matters Card to limit it to only one agenda item.
When the Council initially announced the changes, it didn’t refer specifically to the development that in effect triggered the adjustments to the comment cards — the revelation that Entergy New Orleans paid numerous actors to speak in favor of the company’s proposed $210-million power plant to be located in New Orleans East at multiple council meetings. The use of paid actors to advance a cause at public meetings and events is often dubbed “astroturfing.”
However, in a subsequent statement to The Louisiana Weekly, City Council President Jason Williams acknowledged that the Entergy debacle was, in fact, the primary motivation for the changes to the comment cards and related speaking rules.
But Williams also stressed that while Entergy’s actions might have spurred the rules changes, the end goal of the new speaking process, as well as more steps to come, is to ensure that such flim-flams don’t pollute the democratic process in the future.
“The allegation and subsequent confirmation of astroturfing in [power plant] public hearings was disturbing and eye opening,” Williams told The Louisiana Weekly. “While this specific interference in the democratic process served as the catalyst for a review of internal policies, this Council had to look thoughtfully at how such practices might infect other important public matters and deliberations before the body.”
The City Council held a public hearing about the proposed power plant in October — at which the actors paid by Entergy spoke at the hearing in favor of the project – then approved the plant in March.
Williams said the new measures aren’t intended to stifle public debate or punish anyone who addresses the Council, and he noted that astroturfing doesn’t appear to be illegal in any jurisdictions that he’s found.
However, he added unequivocally that any outside citizens, companies, organizations or other entities that would compromise the city’s democracy are now put on notice.
“I truly hope that this will serve as notice to anyone hoping to muddle the important work of this body by employing paid actors for the purpose of swaying public opinion,” he said. “We intend to make it difficult for astroturfing to thrive in the City of New Orleans. Any attempt to pervert the true purpose of public discourse will not be tolerated.”
But at least one organization that’s clashed with Entergy and the Council over the power plant proposal is skeptical that the new speaking rules will make any real difference or truly reform the local democratic process.
Monique Harden, assistant director of public policy with the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, told The Louisiana Weekly that councilmembers are missing the point of the public outcry over Entergy’s actions. In addition to their paid comments, she said, Entergy’s representatives at meetings, simply by their presence, prevented grassroots activists and plant opponents from even being seen by the Council.
“The Council does not appear to understand that the paid actors scandal was caused by Entergy, not comment cards,” Harden said. “The actors were not only used to show support for the Entergy gas plant, but also to block the participation of residents opposed to the gas plant by taking up the seats and filling the time with paid speeches.”
Harden went further, alleging that the Council isn’t enforcing existing open meetings laws, which she said were flaunted to such a degree that the only fair and just action to be taken by the Council is overturning its approval of the power plant.
She pointed to the filing of several lawsuits by local groups to block the construction of Entergy’s proposed facility as evidence that the public is demanding more accountability and action.
“The Open Meetings Law is clear on what should be done when people are locked out of Council meetings and denied the right to participate, and that is to void the Council decision approving the Entergy gas plant,” she said. “Why won’t the Council follow this law? Why does the Council have to be sued before it will protect the rights of New Orleanians to fair and open meetings?”
In a statement to The Louisiana Weekly, Entergy Director of Corporate and Executive Communications Emily Parenteau said that “since comment card policies relate to how the New Orleans City Council elects to run public meetings, we defer to the Council and do not have any comment on that.”
However, Parenteau also reiterated the company’s earlier comments on the astroturfing issue, saying that “a contractor to Entergy, without our knowledge or approval and in violation of our contract, retained a separate subcontractor that paid people to attend two City Council meetings… This kind of activity is wholly unacceptable and is directly counter to the way we conduct our business.”
Parenteau added, however, that the company does accept responsibility for the contractor’s actions, and that Entergy has apologized to the Council, the community and supporters. She also said that “we are also taking immediate steps to ensure that no similar situation arises in the future.”
This article originally published in the June 11, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
