Run-off recommendations

Don’t forget to vote!

BESE District 2: Louella P. Givens

We have to stay with the candidate who has consistently fought to restore local School Board control over the Orleans Parish School System. Louella Givens is accused of being anti-Charter. She is not. She merely acts as a watchdog over the Charter system, demanding that they accept all children, and are staffed for students with special needs.

Givens truly believes in a public school system open to all, and we see no reason to deny this watchdog another term on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Judge Civil District Court, Division E: Clare Jupiter

This Yale University graduate has practiced law with an emphasis on litigation for 32 years. Like Bartholomew, she served as General Counsel for the Orleans Parish School Board, earning a similar open perspective on New Orleans issues. Plus, what prepares a judge better to deal with our culture than serving as General Counsel for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival & Foundation?

Jupiter’s peers often invite her to lecture in continuing legal education programs on trial advocacy, ethics and professionalism. That approval from her fellow barristers gives our editors the surest sense that Ms. Jupiter is ready to ascend to the bench.

CA NO. 1 (Act 425 – HB 135) Prohib.new taxes/fees-immov.prop. : YES

This amendment costs the state budget nothing. It simply seeks to prohibit parishes from levying new taxes on the sale of your home or real estate property. (Adds Article VII, Section 2.3 of the State Constitution.)

PW City Council (HRC) Amend HRC – CC: YES

This amendment to the Home Rule Charter of the City of New Orleans allows the city to take a more active role in the reform of the troubled Public Belt Railroad Commission, so recently embroiled in scandal.

This article was originally published in the November 14, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper