God knows how much I’ve put off writing this post. On a
normal day when I write about Ben Zahn (or Mike Yenni or really almost any
politician) I get criticized.
“You have an axe to grind.”
“You’re still bitter that you lost an election.”
“Why are you always negative? (Insert your favorite maligned
politician here) is doing a great job.”
Add that to the fact that is the Christmas Season (the
“Season of Giving” right?) and I’m sitting here listening to my favorite Nick
Cave & The Bad Seeds song (“Brother, My Cup Is Empty”, which is a very
appropriate song title considering that we’re talking about Ben Zahn).
Even singing, or, in my case, attempting to sing, “I am the
Captain of my pain” along with the aforementioned Mr. Cave can’t elevate my
mood.
By the way, Nick Cave’s career has been resuscitated by the
Netflix series “Peaky Blinders”, a great show even if it isn’t historically
accurate.
So what, you ask, caused my jovial Christmas mood to go down
the dumper?
A Christmas Card from Ben Zahn.
Until the mail arrived, I was doing fine.
I overlooked the first ever “Ben Zahn District 4 Newsletter”
that showed up in my mailbox last month.
Tried my level best to ignore the irony.
After 3 years of not informing District 4 residents of his
“accomplishments” it’s humorous that Ben wants to write now and pat himself on
the back, a year before his re-election bid, for many things that he had
little, or nothing, to do with.
Not to sound “bitter” or anything but really, if I held an
elected position for 3 years I would have more than a 4-page newsletter (that’s
really about a page and a half without photos) to discuss what I’d done for the
people who elected me. And, when you consider that most of what was included in
the newsletter really wasn’t an “accomplishment” of Zahn’s, the newsletter is
even more of a joke.
And, if I held an elected position for 3 years, I would have
sent out a few more newsletters and held some town hall meetings to talk with
people who aren’t campaign contributors.
But then again, my name isn’t Ben Zahn or Mike Yenni or insert your favorite maligned politician here who has forgotten that he was
elected to “represent” the people.
And, I’m surely not “bitter”.
By the way, how are those “regular town hall meetings” that
you promised the people of Kenner in 2010 coming along Mayor Yenni?
It is also appropriate and worth noting that the last
conversation (if you could call it that) with Ben Zahn was 3 years ago this
month.
I was walking the aisles at Tuesday Morning while I waited (patiently, I might add)
for someone to finish her shopping, and from around a corner who appears but Ben Zahn and
his family.
When they saw me, they stopped dead in their tracks.
I said, “Merry Christmas, Councilman.”
Ben grabbed his wife’s arm, looked down and walked right
past me as if I didn’t exist.
So much for Ben’s Christmas spirit.
But, even recanting that episode wouldn’t make me want to write about
Ben Zahn mere days before Christmas.
No, the tipping point was turning over the Zahn Family
Christmas Card and reading “Not paid for with public funds”.
Of course, it wasn’t paid for by the Zahn Family either.
You know as well as I, since Ben Zahn can’t even buy himself
a bottle of water or Icees for his family with his own money, there is no way
in hell that Zahn spent one penny of his own money on his “Christmas Wish”.
For a refresher, here’s the September 2013 post about Zahn’s campaign account spending.
No, I bet the money for the Zahn Family Christmas card came from campaign contributors.
Now before I hear “Campaign contributors gave Zahn the money
and he can do whatever he wants with it” (which is exactly the wrong opinion to
hold), consider this: If politicians can use other people’s money at will to
enhance their personal lifestyle, why does Louisiana have the alleged “Gold
Standard of Ethics”.
Oh, that’s right. The “Gold Standard of Ethics” was really
just a bill of goods sold to us by politicians.
While it’s true that as a JP Councilman, Ben Zahn earns more
money than he ever has in his previous life as an unlicensed Florist (even including
the $50,000+ he got from Aaron Broussard’s campaign account), he still can’t
cough up enough of his own money to buy Christmas presents for his Council
staff.
Last November and December, Zahn spent $50 at Applebee’s for “Gift cards for
clerks”; $100 at The Home Depot for “Christmas Gift Cards for Secretaries”;
$150 more at Applebee’s for “Christmas Gift Cards for Secretaries”; $18.10 at
Dollar Tree for “Christmas bags for office” (What? The Gift Cards needed a
bag?); $27.60 at the Post Office for “Stamps for office Christmas cards”;
$150.00 at Walmart for “Christmas Gift Cards for workers”; $265.87 at Mike
Yenni’s favorite store in the Esplanade Mall, The Frame Shoppe, for “Christmas
Prints for office” after spending $226.69 the month before at The Frame Shoppe
for “Prints for office”; $143.97 at Robert Fresh Market for “Christmas Party
for neighborhood and constituents” (Ben must have misplaced my invite to that
one); $33.08 at Five Guys Burgers & Fries for a “Staff Luncheon” (Ben’s
staff must be light eaters) - all spent
from his campaign account or “Other People’s Money”.
Nothing says “Merry Christmas, I appreciate your hard work”
like a gift card paid for by your campaign account.
Of course, Zahn also spent $53.41 at Mr. John’s Steakhouse
on 9/6/2013 for a “Dinner with Campaign Workers” as well as $630.73 on 9/3/2013
for a “Laptop for campaign” and $38.87 spent at Outback Steakhouse on 4/28/2013
for “Dinner with campaign helpers”.
Did I mention that, if there even is a campaign it won’t
occur until October of 2015?
And we’re not going to mention the thousands of campaign
dollars that Zahn spent in 2013 on Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (C’mon Ben. Do
you really need to charge your campaign account for all those Hamburgers at
Wendy’s and all that coffee at Starbucks and Puccino’s?), the thousands of
dollars spent at The Frame Shoppe on “Prints for Council Office” (how big can
that office be that it needs new prints every other month?) or the $68.90 Zahn
spent at Circle K/Exxon on 4/24/2013 for “Travel to Baton Rouge for meeting at
Capital” (I guess the Zahn Mobile must get about 3 miles to the gallon) after
his “Breakfast Meeting ($3.80) at McDonald’s in Kenner and somehow also
managing to spend $117.26 at Casa Garcia in Metairie for a “Secretaries Lunch”
and forking over $248.49 at Walmart for “Supplies for office” (Can’t Jefferson
Parish afford pens and pencils for its Councilmen?), not to mention spending
another $85.41 two days later at Office Depot for “Office Supplies”.
Of course, we’re talking about Ben Zahn – the man who
charged his campaign account for the $3 he spent at Dollar Tree so he could
donate vases to Relay for Life.
But, I digress. I’ve already spent enough time proving the
dual points that
a). Political Ethics in Louisiana is an oxymoron.
b). Ben Zahn is cheap and loves spending other people’s money.
Now we have empirical evidence that Zahn likes giving away
people’s money too. In this case, it’s YOUR money.
At the risk of being called a “Scrooge” at Christmas, Zahn’s
machinations regarding the lights at Lafreniere Park are unbelievable and show
that the audacity of Zahn is truly mind-blowing.
As Adriane Quinlan at Nola.com illuminated, despite nearly
endless lines of traffic, the donation of Al Copeland’s Christmas Lights
actually cost Jefferson Parish taxpayers money.
The headline calls the Christmas Lights a "Money Pit". For Nola.com, which endorsed Zahn, them's fightin' words.
Not only does it cost JP money for electricity to power the
lights, manpower to install and maintain the lights and officers to direct the
crowds (although they may want to consider adding even more officers since
traffic really is a nightmare on David and Napoleon most evenings), now Zahn,
in his infinite Economic wisdom, proposed giving 3 nights worth of the proceeds
from the $3 per car fee to the Al Copeland Foundation.
While 3 nights worth of the Christmas light booty only comes
out to about $4,000 (per the Parish Attorney), the Parish also spent several
hundred thousand dollars memorializing Copeland at the Park.
And, the real point isn’t how much money Zahn wants to gave the Al
Copeland Foundation, it’s that, once again, it isn’t his money to give – it’s
ours.
Now, I have nothing against the late Al Copeland, his
non-profit foundation (other than the fact that a non-profit gave Newell
Normand a campaign contribution), or the non-profit’s mission (funding cancer
research).
The issue is – what is the proper use of our money?
If Zahn had even an ounce of creativity, he could have come
up with several options to boost revenue at the light show, make it
self-sufficient and not a drain on tax dollars, and help non-profits.
For one, the price could be increased from $3 to $5 or even
$6. Allow non-profits to buy discounted tickets at half-price for a designated
night, sell the tickets and keep the difference for themselves.
This would
allow for more promotion for the holiday lights and, surely like a Groupon
voucher, many people wouldn’t attend giving the Parish even more money to
offset the cost of putting on the event.
That is, if we (the public) even think that the Parish
should get involved in helping non-profits with their fundraising.
And, that’s a very big “if”.
That’s just one idea from a blogger. I’m sure an omnipotent politician
like Ben Zahn and his political consultant, the nearly omnipotent, Greg Buisson
could come up with a dozen or more better ideas.
But, rather than put their heads together or, God forbid,
ask our opinion, the omnipotent Zahn knows what’s best and what’s best is
running a deficit and then making that deficit even greater by giving away even
more money.
I guess it’s easy to spend other people’s money on meals and
gifts and then try to look magnanimous by giving away even more of other people’s
money.
When you’re already omnipotent, it’s easy to be magnanimous,
especially when it’s not coming out of your pocket.
Right Ben?
