Nagin Criticized on Two Fronts...

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was criticized in court and in the City Council chambers as reported today in the Times-Picayune. Kimberly Williamson Butler, Nagin's former Chief Administrative Officer and current Criminal District Court clerk filed suit in March,

shortly after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dismissed the claim that her ouster from Nagin's administration was an act of discrimination based on gender, religion and disability, saying it could not establish that any federal laws had been broken.

In the lawsuit, Butler claims that Nagin conspired with his top male staffers to remove her as the highest-ranking woman in city government. She also accuses the mayor of retaliating against her after learning she was running for Criminal District Court clerk.

Recent depositions and active settlement talks have brought this issue back to the surface.

Otherwise, Nagin is taking some heat for his inflexibility on a cut in budget for payments to the Louisiana SPCA. The Council called a special meeting for today to address the problem.

In calling the meeting, Council President Eddie Sapir and Councilwoman Renee Gill Pratt, chairwoman of the Budget Committee, issued a statement that was unusually confrontational, as such releases go. It said they had decided the council needed to "take a leadership position in this matter" because of "the failure of the administration to immediately carry forth its responsibility and recommend a viable solution to the critical funding shortage for the Louisiana SPCA's animal control program to protect citizens."

Are there any parallels to be drawn here, any sense of widespread dissatisfaction with the Mayor? Let me know what you think.

jbv's Competitive Edge