What’s on the Nov. 5 ballot? In New Orleans and Jefferson Parish, what’s there matters.

By Clancy DuBos

Source: Gambit

October 28. 2024

Other than the bitterly divisive presidential race, the Nov. 5 ballot features few contested elections in Orleans and Jefferson parishes. In fact, the hottest local item appears to be a proposed City Charter amendment to create permanent local funding for affordable housing in New Orleans.

Voters in both parishes will consider several ballot initiatives.

Statewide, a proposed constitutional amendment would dedicate revenues that the state receives from alternative offshore energy sources to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Fund.

In New Orleans, a second proposed charter change expresses support for workers’ rights. In Jefferson Parish, voters will consider a Home Rule Charter change regarding “at-will” clerical employees hired by council members and the parish president.

Regionally, U.S. Reps. Steve Scalise, R-Metairie, and Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, each face four lesser-known opponents. Both incumbents are overwhelming favorites to win re-election.

Scalise has held the First District seat since winning a special election in 2008. He has risen through the GOP ranks to become House Majority Leader, the Republicans’ second-in-command behind Speaker Mike Johnson of Benton, La.

Carter likewise won a special election to capture his Second District seat, winning it in 2021 after President Joe Biden tapped his predecessor, Democrat Cedric Richmond of New Orleans, as a special advisor.

Carter is Louisiana’s only Democrat in Congress — but that will likely change soon. A federal court-ordered redistricting plan that lawmakers reluctantly adopted in January created the state’s second Black-majority House district. State Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, is the odds-on favorite to win that seat.

The only other contested elections in New Orleans are two seats on the seven-member Orleans Parish School Board.

Jefferson Parish has no contested local elections.

Housing on the ballot
The New Orleans City Council has proposed a pair of City Charter amendments — the first to permanently fund affordable housing initiatives, and the second expressing support for worker rights.

Proposition 1 has generated the most attention, largely because of the city’s longstanding and severe shortage of affordable housing units for low- and middle-income families. Even critics of the proposal acknowledge the urgent need to address that problem. The point of contention is how best to do that.

The council unanimously approved putting Prop 1 on the Nov. 5 ballot last spring. Council members also passed a “backup plan” in the form of a city ordinance that does pretty much the same thing — in case voters reject the proposed charter amendment.

The main difference between the two is permanence, or lack thereof.

If voters approve Prop 1, the 2% dedication could be changed or removed only by another referendum or by unanimous vote of a council quorum during a declared emergency. If voters reject the proposed amendment, the ordinance would allow the council to change or repeal the dedication any time by majority vote.

Neither would create a new tax. Instead, each would require the council to spend a similar amount on housing initiatives.

The charter amendment would dedicate 2% of the city’s general revenue — around $17 million in 2025 — to addressing the city’s shortage of housing for low- and moderate-income residents.

General revenues are those not already dedicated to specific needs or agencies. They account for less than 19% of the city’s total capital and operating budgets, according to District B Council Member Lesli Harris, who authored the proposed charter amendment and leads the effort to pass it.

The backup ordinance, authored by District A Council Member Joe Giarrusso, sets a goal of $20 million for affordable housing, with the amount to rise each year with inflation. Unlike Prop 1, the ordinance would allow the council to use federal money that the city already receives to reach the $20 million goal. Prop 1 requires the dedication to come solely from local funds, in addition to federal funds.

Both Prop 1 and the ordinance would establish a housing trust fund administered by agencies outside City Hall — the quasi-public Finance Authority of New Orleans and the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority — but all disbursements would be subject to council oversight.

A seven-person advisory panel appointed by the council, the mayor and housing nonprofits would advise the two agencies in determining which initiatives to fund. Advocates have suggested programs to support first-time homebuyers, to provide gap financing for affordable housing developers and to subsidize fortified roofs and other weatherization work for homeowners and small landlords.

In addition to the unanimous backing of the council, a handful of New Orleans developers and housing advocates have provided financial support to the NOLA First Political Action Committee, which is promoting Prop 1. The PAC created the Yes to NOLA Housing website to support the creation of the NOLA Housing Trust Fund.

“We’re setting the stage for real change,” says Andreanecia Morris, executive director of HousingNOLA, an affordable housing advocacy group. “These dollars, which are in addition to federal dollars for housing programs, are flexible — but there are guardrails put in. The council will oversee the administration of the money. It will also allow the city to respond when there is a crisis.”

Housing advocates have pushed officials for years to do more to address the local housing shortage. They say the city needs at least 47,000 new affordable units.

The nonprofit Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) has issued an analysis of Prop 1 — and opposes it.

“The city can and should make new housing investments as part of its strategy to alleviate the problems,” BGR stated in its report. “While the proposed charter amendment would guarantee consistent new funding for housing, it would also be difficult to alter or undo. It would unnecessarily limit the city’s budget flexibility as it confronts substantial new costs for personnel, infrastructure and other needs.”

BGR instead recommends that the council strengthen the affordable housing ordinance already in place by increasing the annual local appropriation, adopting a long-term financial plan for the housing fund and adding greater transparency and accountability to the fund’s advisory panel.

Harris took issue with BGR’s analysis, saying the group acknowledges the severity of New Orleans’ affordable housing crisis but “fails to consider the fact that an ordinance can be repealed at any time. If that occurs in this case, we will go back to investing zero city dollars into our residents’ housing.”

Workers’ rights
Proposition 2 would add to the New Orleans City Charter’s bill of rights a nonbinding expression of support for worker rights.

“It’s aspirational and does not have the force of law,” says City Council President Helena Moreno, the proposed amendment’s author. “But it’s important to state what kind of city we want to be — one that supports equal pay, fair and safe work environments, health care pay and a living wage.”

Although the proposed amendment would not grant workers additional rights or legal standing to sue, Moreno says it’s important for the city to make a statement in support of workers’ rights — particularly in light of state lawmakers’ refusal to raise the minimum wage or pass equal pay laws.

“Advocates of workers’ rights have suggested adding this to the charter’s bill of rights,” Moreno said. “After the Hard Rock Hotel collapse, which killed several workers because of unsafe conditions, we thought it would be appropriate to give workers an expression of support in the charter, even if it’s not enforceable.”

Offshore energy revenues

The only statewide proposition on the ballot is Amendment No. 1. If approved by voters, it would dedicate federal revenues that Louisiana receives from alternative or renewable offshore energy sources to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Fund.

Louisiana voters created the fund via a constitutional amendment in 2005. That amendment required all future federal mineral revenues received by the state from offshore oil and gas drilling to be placed in the fund and dedicated to wetlands preservation, coastal restoration, hurricane protection, and infrastructure directly impacted by coastal wetlands loss.

In its analysis of the proposed amendment, the nonpartisan Council for A Better Louisiana (CABL), noted that Amendment 1 takes the current offshore revenue dedication “a step further.”

“In a sense, this is a prospective approach because there is currently no federal legislation that authorizes the sharing of these types of revenues with the states,” CABL noted.

Louisiana’s Rep. Steve Scalise and Sen. Bill Cassidy, both Republicans, have filed legislation to allow federal revenues generated by offshore wind projects to be shared with states, but Congress has not yet acted on either measure.

Meanwhile, Louisiana has lost 2,000 square miles of coastal land in the last century. Mississippi River levees kickstarted that loss by depriving the wetlands of land-building sediment, but thousands of miles of marshland canals dug by the energy industry accelerated it. Oil and gas extraction also caused land to sink and give way to open water.

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Congress passed the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act — known as GOMESA — which allowed Louisiana to receive hundreds of millions of offshore revenue dollars over the last 18 years. Those funds, combined with more than $7 billion from the BP Deepwater Horizon settlement and hundreds of millions of dollars in state surpluses, have fueled a massive investment in coastal restoration and hurricane protection efforts along Louisiana’s coast.

But Louisiana faces serious funding challenges in the coming decade. BP oil spill funds dry up in 2031, and state surpluses will soon disappear. GOMESA and other funding sources remain, but they cannot sustain the coastal investments Louisiana has seen in recent years.

Proponents of Amendment 1 say it’s an important first step toward replacing coastal restoration funds that are shrinking faster than the coast itself.

School board races
Orleans Parish public schools became the nation’s laboratory for charter schools in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. With more than 80% of the city in shambles and all schools closed, the state transferred more than 100 failing Orleans Parish public schools into the state-run Recovery School District.

The district began reopening failed schools — and the few that had succeeded — as public charter schools managed by private boards. The locally elected school board mostly directed public funds to the privately managed charter schools and renewed or revoked charters’ authority to operate, depending on student test scores and other metrics.

Since the state takeover, elections for the seven-member Orleans Parish School Board have pitted candidates backed by charter proponents against candidates supporting a return to centrally managed public schools. By and large, the pro-charter forces have prevailed, but supporters of local control have gained ground.

This year’s school board elections are no exception — except only two of the board’s seven seats are contested. Five seats were won by incumbents or newcomers who ran unopposed.

District 2 comprises Gentilly, parts of New Orleans East and the Upper 9th Ward, where Gabriela Biro, Eric “Doc” Jones and Chan Tucker are vying to succeed board member Ethan Ashley, who chose not to seek re-election.

Biro is a professional hairdresser and community organizer who participated in Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter protests. She told The Times-Picayune that she decided to run after hearing her clients’ stories of flawed schools and seeing lawmakers pass a bill requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms. She says she supports the district running more schools, if that’s what her constituents want. She is endorsed by the United Teachers of New Orleans union, which represents all school employees.

Jones is a former teacher who spent almost two decades as a director at Teach for America, which has recruited teachers for local charter schools. He also has served on the boards of New Orleans East Matters, the Downtown Development District (DDD), the Industrial Development Board, the now-closed Mary D. Coghill School’s board. He left the Coghill board amid allegations that he had told teachers not to fail any students; he denied those allegations in a T-P interview.

He said he supports successful charter schools but would advocate for the district to take over struggling schools and turn them into “neighborhood schools.” He is endorsed by the Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee, the Independent Women’s Organization (IWO) and other local groups.

Tucker, an executive at Entergy, is the best-financed candidate — and the most supportive of charters. He serves on the board of Audubon Gentilly Montessori, a charter school that his two sons attend. He told the T-P that he supports “parent choice and school autonomy,” and that his experience balancing a $1.5 billion budget and managing hundreds of employees and contractors gives him an “engineer’s” perspective on citywide school governance. He is endorsed by the Louisiana chapter of Democrats for Education Reform, a pro-charter group.

In District 4, which covers Algiers and parts of the Marigny, Bywater and the French Quarter, incumbent Donaldo Batiste faces challenger KaTrina Chantelle Griffin. Both are also endorsed by the Democrats for Education Reform.

Batiste was appointed to the board in 2022 to fill the vacant 4th district seat and then ran unopposed in a special election. He previously taught math in Terrebonne Parish and served as principal of John McDonogh Senior High School, as an administrator in the district’s central office and as superintendent of a school district near Chicago. He has advocated more direct-run schools if enrollment numbers fall and whenever charter schools fail — including a moratorium on new charter schools.

Griffin is an accountant and community volunteer who has worked as a certified police mediator and education fundraiser. Noting that her children graduated from local public schools, she says she wants to emphasize teacher retention and data transparency and address truancy.

Jefferson Charter proposition
Voters in Jefferson Parish will decide whether to change the Home Rule Charter to let parish council members and the parish president hire and fire unclassified — non-civil service — employees at will. The proposed change would not affect classified civil service employees, who make up the bulk of parish workers.

Currently, a small number of council and administration employees, mostly clerical workers, are hired at-will but are protected from dismissal until the end of the elected official’s term. Council and administration chiefs of staff and other top advisers can be hired and fired anytime — and they can work in political campaigns.

The parish Charter Advisory Committee recommended putting all council and administrative employees on the same “at-will” status. The council unanimously voted to put the committee’s recommendation on the ballot.

A “yes” vote on the proposed charter amendment would allow council and administration employees to engage in political campaigns and activities and to serve at the pleasure of the elected official who hired them.

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