A story's warning to New Orleans city employees: watch your back

Judith Martin - In New Orleans, the hope is that
with the new mayoral administration of "Mitch" Landrieu off and running,
improvements needed before and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 can
finally be addressed.

These improvements pertain to
infrastructure, overtime, and the use of updated computer technology to
streamline record keeping.   But will things happen as promised?  Most
victims of the storm who have observed what has happened in these five
years would tell these employees,  "Don't turn your back, even if it
looks as though the situations are getting better."



For some former and present City
Hall employees, most of retirement age now, hopes for the future also
contain a fervent wish that remnants of ugly events of the past will be
put to rest for good. In 1991-1992, they were key witnesses in an
investigation by City Hall into alleged drug dealing at what was then
the three brake tag inspection stations of the Motor Vehicle Inspection
Bureau.



There are untold stories,
unrelated by the media, but some of the details have been known by folks
who have worked in City Hall.  Drug dealing has been part of City Hall
situations, and likely remains today.



In New Orleans supervisors who have
been involved in corrupt activities have friends in high places, and
that is why their punishments have usually amounted to mostly only a
slap on the wrist, or a demotion at the worst. Also, it isn't easy to
identify too closely the employees and supervisors of the MVIB who had
witnessed and endured so much because of their willngness to speak up
about what they had seen and heard.



These MVIB employees and at least
one other person from City Hall was involved in an operations handbook
for the MVIB and created a computerized spreadsheet with which to keep
track of inspection fee collections.  She soon learned from fellow
employees at the stations that she had been sent to be a spy.  Even
those who knew more or less or actually next to nothing about what was
going on, were threatened with jail time if they did not give some kind
of story to the city's "integrity inspection bureau."



Useful information of some sort was somehow given, and the raids came down on the brake tag stations.



Fairly quickly, most of the
employees, who had reported on the drug activity, were relocated to
obscure neighborhoods in New Orleans. They were given "cover names" and
false IDs to protect them from being tracked down by the drug dealers
who, understandably, wanted revenge. The uproar seemed to dissipate by
1993, and the employees from the brake tag stations were able to return
to their jobs, although they still had to live in obscurity.



The "spy" from City Hall was
dismissed from her job, even though she had been promised a new job at
City Hall in the Department of Safety and Permits for her computer work
for the MVIB.



Among all the employees at the main
inspection station in Mid-City New Orleans, only she and the former
director of the MVIB, the late John Scully, had been white. When a black
cashier had accused this woman of being a "spy", that was the first
time she had heard of such a thing. Naturally, she was horrified that
she was being used by City Hall in such a revolting manner.



 When she was forced to give
testimony to the city inspectors, all she could report was hearsay that
one of the other workers had told her about what he had heard and seen.
City Hall was very disappointed in her refusal to act as a spy in any
way whatsoever.



Out of work, this young woman
returned home, shaken and dismayed that City Hall would betray the trust
she had put in people, even her supervisor who lived within a block of
her own house in her own neighborhood. What did not help her unhappiness
was knowing that drug dealing was going on in a house "right next
door."



The friends of the convicted drug
dealers from the MVIB seemed to zero in on her to exact revenge.
Suddenly, if she was driving with her mother to a nearby grocery or to
church, she would see that she was being followed by either a black or
maroon Toyota Corolla, and that in it were at least two or three very
large, dark men.



This intensive trailing went on
through 1994. There was no question that whoever was responsible was
maybe not aware of the daily schedule at this young woman's house, but
certainly had set a watch on her house to see when she would leave, so
that she could be followed.



In the following years, the
employees from the MVIB who had given evidence in the first instance
were suddenly expected to repeat the whole process as the cases were
challenged and reopened in court. One employee stood her ground and
refused to submit to cross-examination by the court, and was sent to
jail for a whole year. The other employees were reassigned to other
inspection stations of the MVIB on the east and west banks of the city,
and relocated to live close by.



Before Katrina in 2005, the MVIB
system of the three inspection stations was dismantled, and the conduct
of inspections was farmed out to local gas stations. City cashiers from
then on had to function as cashiers for the gas stations as well. This
is the system that is still in effect today. There was no possibility
that a closely-guarded drug ring could reestablish itself in any related
City Hall venue.



Have there been any more
instances, post-Katrina, where the very reluctant "spy" is still being
tailed by large dark men in small economy cars?   It continues, some
know.Yes. Once anyone crosses paths with people who are there to report,
to follow, to frighten, they make certain to let that individual know
that "they have not been forgotten" and that "we could do something real
nasty to you, but we don't feel like it right now."



And this is the sort of ugliness
that it is hoped will be expunged relative to City Hall, so that
employees who simply did their civic duty can now live in peace, and not
have to look over their shoulders for fear of threats or worse from the
criminal element in New Orleans.



Landrieu, the new Mayor, looks for
ways to bring hope to the city.  City employees should be hopeful as
well, but the message is:  just watch your back.