As Mayor-Elect, you would think (or, at least, hope) that
Lyin’ Ben Zahn actually cared about Kenner.
However, as I told you before the election, like his BFF,
former Kenner Mayor and Current JP Sexual Predator-In-Chief Mike Yenni, Ben
Zahn cares about one thing…Ben Zahn.
When Yenni was reelected as Kenner Mayor in the Spring of
2014, he immediately began his campaign to become Jefferson Parish President.
When he wasn’t trying to hook up and have sexual romps with
teenage boys, Yenni was fundraising, making promises to contractors and
neglecting the position that he was elected to.
Kenner went for a year and a half with an absentee Mayor
looking for his next political job (and sexual conquest).
After he was elected Parish President, rather than immediately
resign his position as Mayor, Yenni waited until he was inaugurated as Parish
President. This meant that, instead of a Spring election to fill the remainder
of Yenni’s unexpired Mayoral term, the election would be delayed until November
of 2016 and Kenner would have an unelected “Acting Mayor” for almost a full
year.
So, an absentee Mayor campaigning for a year and half and
then an “Acting Mayor” for another year.
Since the Kenner City Council President was elevated to “Acting
Mayor”, in this case the ethically-challenged District 2 Councilman Mike Sigur,
the residents of Kenner’s District 2 were essentially left without a Councilman
and any representation on the City Council.
In addition, since Yenni tapped Kenner Councilman-At-Large
Keith Conley for a position in JP government, an Interim Councilman was
appointed to replace Conley. That appointee served almost a full year denying
the entire City a duly-elected Councilman-At-Large.
As was the case with Yenni, after Yenni’s election to Parish
President, Zahn immediately began his Kenner Mayoral campaign.
And, like Yenni, now that he has been elected, instead of
resigning his position on the Jefferson Parish Council, Zahn is delaying his
resignation and his delay will result in the election to fill Zahn’s unexpired
term happening in October of 2017 instead of this Spring.
Zahn claims that it would be foolish for him to resign his
seat on the JP Council before his election as Mayor is “certified”.
Certification normally takes place within 10 days of the election.
Since Lyin’ Ben won by a 2-1 margin , his opponent, Kenner
City Councilman Gregory Carroll isn’t calling for a vote recount, and there are
no claims of Russian Hackers impacting this election, Zahn’s claims about
certification are specious.
Due to Lyin’ Ben’s delaying tactic, JP District 4 will be
without an elected representative on the JP Council for almost a full year.
Not that Lyin’ Ben, as a JP Councilman for 5 years, did
anything great for Kenner. In fact, Zahn did 1,000 times more for Metairie than
he ever did for the City he will preside over next month – or whenever he gets
around to it.
At least Metairie got some decorative lights on West Esplanade and LaFreniere Park got an Al Copeland statue for the pigeons to aim at.
Of course, the JP Council will appoint an Interim Councilman
until voters can elect a replacement to fill the rest of Zahn’s JP Council
term. The bad news is that, invariably, the Council just rubberstamps whomever
the outgoing Councilman (Zahn) nominates.
Lyin’ Ben says that he will “interview” several candidates
before making a decision on whom to nominate.
Yeah, that makes me fee much better.
