NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Residents of New Orleans are not easily surprised by events at City Hall. They are used to the foibles of a politically entrenched local government that tends to move at a snail's pace and wink at its own reputation for ethical carelessness.
But events of the past weeks in New Orleans have turned many citizens' heads. Some now speculate that, for the first time in their lives, positive, groundbreaking political change may be afoot. Many are excited that the city's perceived tradition of political corruption could be drawing to a close. Some are just incredulous.
"Nothing that's happened in New Orleans in recent decades has approached the magnitude of what's gone on here in the last week," said Rafael Goyeneche, who for 22 years has gone head-to-head with local corruption, first as a staff member in the district attorney's office and later as president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission.
What has people excited is a chain of events that began to unfold as many opened their newspapers on July 22. A headline across the top of the page broke the news that the mayor of the city would, on that morning, launch a major crackdown on corruption in city government.
Within hours, the head of the Public Utilities Department had been fired, and cops had placed the department's deputy director under arrest. Police closed three motor vehicle inspection stations that fall under the department's purview, in response to allegations that station employees had routinely issued safety stickers for unsafe vehicles in return for cash payments.
Meanwhile, police began rounding up 84 cab drivers on warrants charging they had bribed public officials to obtain operating permits.
A day later, the fired utilities department head was arrested and charged with malfeasance in office based on her alleged role in enabling fraudulent certification of taxicabs and other vehicles.
The person wielding the broom in the big cleanup was the man who had become mayor of New Orleans less than three months earlier.
Voters swept businessman and political novice Ray Nagin into office based on his promise to fight political corruption and make the city more business friendly. But to voters in New Orleans who say they are more accustomed to disappointment than to follow-through by their public officials, Nagin's actions produced something of a shock.
"I was surprised not because it wasn't known that there's corruption in the city," says Ernest Stalberte, a local business owner. "I was simply surprised that a candidate actually lived up to his promise."
Stalberte, a native of the city who operates an Internet services company in eastern New Orleans, says he's thrilled to see Nagin act so decisively.
"It's simply long overdue," he says. "The perception of corruption has been hampering business here for a long time. That perception clearly needs to be shattered."
Nagin appeared bent on busting the corrupt image wide open last week as shocked onlookers stood agape. Even as television cameras recorded a parade of cab drivers on their march into central lockup, the mayor said at a news conference that the crackdown had only just begun.
Then, as further evidence of his resolve to stomp out the political patronage and favoritism seen as characterizing past administrations, Nagin noted that his crackdown had already touched one of his own: The son of a Nagin cousin was among the cab drivers arrested in the bribery sweep, he said.
"I told the (chief administrative officer) that nobody should be considered immune," Nagin said.
The mayor has said his sweep will likely touch other areas of government soon. At least five city departments are said to be under intense scrutiny.
While citizens around the city continued to express shock at Nagin's actions days after the initial arrests, members of the mayor's inner circle said they weren't surprised at all.
Kimberly Williamson, who signed on as Nagin's chief administration office after directing the city's Downtown Development District for the past two years, said she had discussed the mayor's plans to get tough on corruption when she first interviewed with Nagin. The crackdown is simply a keystone in his agenda, she said.
Nagin Communications Director Patrick Evans agreed that events are going according to Nagin's plan. "He said he'd go after corruption and now he's doing it," Evans said.
Nagin himself says that, while he has been surprised at how fast after taking office the depth of corruption at City Hall became apparent to him, he felt no hesitation about moving swiftly in response.
"We are following up on any and all credible leads concerning corruption within city government," he said. "This administration is committed to rooting it out wherever it may be."
At 45, Nagin is the first mayor in many decades to climb to the city's highest political office carrying no political experience or baggage. Having never held or sought elective office, he put a successful career as head of a regional franchise of Cox Communications Inc. on hold to run for mayor last fall.
While he was well known in local business circles, Nagin was virtually anonymous among the population at large when he made the startling decision to throw his hat into the ring barely eight weeks before the mayoral primary.
"My oldest son was considering going away to college, and all of his choices were out of state," Nagin explains. "He said that he didn't believe there was anything for him in New Orleans."
His son's lament echoed complaints Nagin had heard from parents of many other local kids. It gelled his resolve to do something.
"We owe it to our children to ... improve city government and the business environment here," he said. "They need to have opportunities to stay to enjoy the rich culture of New Orleans."
Voters saw the businessman-turned-candidate as sincere, and they quickly embraced his message. He easily won a spot in the runoff election, then captured the prize in a landslide.
In the early days of his crackdown, Nagin and others in his administration had harsh words for previous mayor Marc Morial and Morial's chief administrative officer, Marlin Gusman.
Morial, like his father Dutch, who was mayor of New Orleans in the 1970s, served two terms before failing to win a charter change that would allow him to run for a third term.
While Marc Morial went into office promising governmental reforms, including an end to a long tradition of political patronage, Nagin has made it clear that he believes patronage and corruption became further entrenched under Morial.
Nagin also has come down hard on Gusman, who he says was aware of allegedly corrupt practices in the Utilities Department but kept the information under wraps.
Gusman, who has since won a seat on the New Orleans City Council, has quickly emerged as Nagin's staunchest enemy on the council.
Political enemies aside, Nagin appears thus far to be winning the battle on the public relations front.
The Metropolitan Crime Commission's Goyeneche says that of the more than 900 phone calls the commission received last week on a hotline set up to receive tips on government corruption, about a third came from people simply calling to express their "glee" over Nagin's actions.
Of the remaining calls, Goyeneche says about half offered tips "specific enough for referral" to the police, the FBI or back to the Nagin administration.
Goyeneche emphasizes that long-term improvement in city government will take a lot more than firing a few city administrators and rounding up low-level white collar criminals.
He adds, however, that Nagin has made important progress the likes of which current residents of New Orleans haven't seen in their lifetimes.
"Nagin has broken the three cardinal rules of being mayor: Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil, when it comes to corruption in City Hall," Goyeneche says. Having broken the rules, he says, the mayor can't even consider turning back.
