New Orleans City Government At Work

It would not be fair to say the New Orleans City Council did no business at its meeting Thursday.

During a seven-hour session that included a nearly 1 ½-hour lunch break, the council devoted about 90 minutes to actual legislative business: passing ordinances, resolutions and motions. It also spent about the same amount of time in relevant legislative fact-finding: getting reports on progress in restoring the city's electricity and on repopulation trends.

But that still left plenty of time for council members to involve themselves in, well, non-legislative stuff. The list included sharply criticizing the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, quoting the formula for a McDonald's Big Mac ("two all-beef patties, special sauce . . ."), denouncing "poverty pimps" and then defending the councilman who denounced them, listening to extended comments by a speaker who refused to identify himself, and hearing from an assortment of speakers who blamed white racism for all the city's problems.

Not to mention the moment when Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson, who is white, told the audience, apropos of nothing, "I dance like an African-American."

Many audience members' eyes rolled at that, but no one said anything. Those who regularly attend the council's meetings are so used to such moments that nothing fazes them. ...