A few years ago, Malcom Gladwell wrote a book titled, The Tipping Point.  Basically, Gladwell explains that “the tipping point is the biography of an idea, and the idea is very simple.  It is that the best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, the ebb and flow of crime waves, or, for that matter, the transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth, or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.”

My favorite example that Gladwell explores is how former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his team of leaders dramatically reduced crime in New York City in the 1990’s.  The book sites the statistic that in 1992, there were 2,154 murders in NYC and 626,182 serious crimes. 

So how in five years did the murder rate drop 64.3% to 770 and total crimes drop to 355,893?  What was the tipping point?

The obvious answer to attack these types of terrible crimes would be more police on the streets, which was an expensive solution.

But that’s not what they did. With William Bratton as the head of the police department and Giuliani as mayor, they collaborated on the “broken window theory.”  Attack the lesser crimes in order to decrease the number of more serious crimes.  These are noted as “quality of life” crimes, examples are public urination, public drunkenness. They arrested repeat offenders and cracked down on graffiti.

In fact, David Gunn, the head of the subway department, said that “the graffiti was the symbolic collapse of the system.”  And you know it’s making an impact when Saturday Night Live spoofs the situation, which they did.  (I have searched and can’t find that youtube video.  If you can find it, I would love to see it again and attach it to this blog post.)

Even though these crimes are insignificant compared to the more violent offenses, they were the tipping points in order to make an impact of the decline on more serious crimes.

So what does all of this have to do with healthcare reform?  I’m not an economist, nor do I even have a business degree. But in my humble opinion, there has GOT to be a tipping point in order to fix our broken healthcare system.

Spending more money to tackle the big problem is just not going to work. It’s like putting more cops on the street.  How does that help? 

I’m a strong believer in healthcare reform, but reform in the right way.  Therefore, I feel we, as Americans, should be asking our politicians what are the tipping points that will actually make a difference…what is healthcare reform’s graffiti?

Again, I’m not an economist, but I believe tort reform and strict mandates on buying insurance are the start to tip this thing back in our favor. 

Why? 

Tort reform will lower the ability for patients to sue their doctors, which would lower their malpractice insurance, which would lower their costs for services.

Strict mandates on individuals will force the young, healthier people into the insurance pool, which would 1) get them covered and 2) would lower the premiums for everyone else because of them buying into the system.

Wasn’t that the goal in the first place, insure more people at a lower cost?  Hmm…

Maybe this makes no sense at all; maybe it makes too much sense.  Either way, we really need to watch Washington and make sure they are not just putting more cops on the street when we really need to go after the graffiti.

The Connectors

To those who wish to become much more effective connectors, here is some excellent advice from Maribeth Kuzmeski:

1. Develop a true “What’s in it for them” mentality: Focusing on others brings more for you.

2. Listen – curiously listen: Connecting is not about being a great talker.

3. Important questions to ask are those that attract and nourish connections: get others to do the work!

4. Get the sale to close itself: Use creative strategies to sell without pushing what you offer.

5. Create a memorable experience: Differentiate yourself by the positive, memorable impact you have on others.

Kuzmeski explains how to achieve these objectives in The Connectors: How the World’s Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Clients for Life, published John S. Wiley & Sons (2009).

I also urge you to check out the resources at www.RedZoneMarketing.com.

          Across the street from the governor’s mansion in Springfield Illinois is the Vachel Lindsay Home, where the poet, author of Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, was born and lived most of his live. Lincoln himself is reputed to have visited the house. Maria, the kids and I took the Vachel Lindsay Home tour at my suggestion on a day when for some reason the governor’s mansion was closed to tourists. That was back when Blago was still calling it home.

          I got the impression the Vachel Lindsay Home doesn’t see all that many tourists. We were the only ones in evidence that day other than the tour guide lady, who for some reason kept insisting that although the Lindsays lived comfortably for the times, they “weren’t rich.” Envy must be a problem she frequently encounters, because she repeated that same assertion several more times during the tour of the home, to the point where I began getting defensive. Geez lady, give me a break, I wanted to protest, who do you think I am, the tax assessor? I never said they were rich. The house the Lindsays lived in back in the day looked for all the world like any unassuming two-story farmhouse. Far from being rich, they were so poor they’re still hustling donations in a tip jar at the door.

          You don’t run into all that many rich poets, then or now. Last year one of my sons won a seventy-five dollar prize at college for a poem he wrote. That makes him the third or fourth highest-paid poet in the entire country. The Poet Laureate of the United States’ last chap book sold about seven hundred copies. And even though Vachel Lindsay is right up there with Carl Sandburg and Edgar Lee Masters in the poesy department, my kids were singularly unimpressed, not to mention bored. To this day they still haven’t stopped bitching about the tour of the Vachel Lindsay Home. My younger son has made the experience the centerpiece of his familiar riff about how much he hates books in general and poetry in particular.

          There’s a lot to see in Springfield, IL. The IDOT headquarters, for instance. Every time I drive by the Illinois Department of Transportation building on I-55 I hearken back to a story an erstwhile client told me, about how he needed a job and applied at IDOT. They had him take a qualifying test and it was so hard that he failed. Then somebody told him to go see the precinct captain. One thing led to another and he was invited to re-take the test. He goes into a room at the IDOT building; a guy comes in and shows him a hammer. “What’s this?” the guy asks. “A hammer,” my client replies confidently. The IDOT guy says, “You’re hired.” The moral of the story is: I don’t care what you may have heard; the Windy City doesn’t have a lock on corruption. It’s alive and well in downstate Illinois.

          As a kid growing up in Illinois, I was exposed to a hell of a lot of Lincoln in my day. In grade school they made you memorize Oh Captain, My Captain and recite it aloud in class. I still remember cutting out Lincoln silhouettes in art class for the cover of the big Lincoln scrapbook everybody had to make in the fourth grade.

          As one might expect, there’s a good deal of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia to see in Springfield. Lincoln’s home, now a National Historic Site complete with park rangers and the whole trip, offering a huge Lincoln exhibit that will teach you things you never knew about our Sixteenth President. For instance, how he was viciously pilloried in the press with vitriol unlike anything you see today in the watered-down play-it-safe pabulum that passes for national media. And still it continues, even speculation about the health of a man dead for over a hundred and forty years—that he was clinically depressed because he was gay, that he had tertiary syphilis and passed it on to his wife and children, driving her mad and killing two of his sons, that he suffered from Marfan’s syndrome, a genetic disorder sometimes associated with incest, an affliction he allegedly shared with other world leaders of history, including King Tut’s father Akhenaton.

          I get the impression that to his contemporaries, Lincoln was either a Christlike figure or the devil incarnate. They either loved him or hated him; nobody was lukewarm about Lincoln. The nation at the time was truly divided, of course.

          One hesitates to draw too many facile parallels, but it seems to me the nation is reeling down that same primrose path today. Public opinion is nearly equally divided on many vital issues, virtually at equipoise. That’s why no health care bill with any real reform or teeth in it is ever going to pass. Even with the Democrats controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, there’s gridlock in Washington. Something like forty-nine per cent of the voters polled on any given day kind of like the idea of Sarah Palin for President. And you thought Dan Quayle was scary.

          Stranded at Target the other day while Maria shopped, I began speed-reading a book called The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Remember those homeys at the neighborhood convenient store in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing tearing open bag after bag and speed-eating all the pork rinds and cheetos like they were free samples? When the Korean proprietor tries to run them off they say, “Sorry, man,” talking with their mouths full while they make their getaway, still eating. That’s the kind of reader I am. I read the book at the store, and if I like it enough I pay as I exit. I prefer Borders to Target because at Borders they provide you a comfortable chair and don’t hassle you. Anyway, Gladwell’s thesis in The Tipping Point is that in many contexts, things reach a critical mass before a period of rapid change, like a social epidemic. And, I would add, the period of rapid change is preceded by a slow, steady face-off, a buildup like water coming to a boil. Half the people watch Fox News, the other half watch MSNBC, and one fine day the first shot is fired on Fort Sumter. Remember that the next time you see somebody like Sarah Palin on a show like Oprah. Things aren’t so bad that they couldn’t get much, much worse. And fast.

Malcolm Gladwell (b. 1963) and Steven Levitt (b. 1967 [same year as me, which of course makes me feel like a loser, because what have I done, right?]) both have new books out.

Both are GenXer and both are innovative thinkers. Indicative of the GenX mindset they think quite differently than most others in their respective fields, which is why they are so successful.

Gladwell’s book , What the Dog Saw, is a collection of his essays from The New Yorker where he has worked as a journalist since 1996 according to his wikipedia page. I’ve only glimpsed the intro to this book but am very eager to read it. Loved The Tipping Point and Outliers especially. Blink is interesting but I’m still not sure I entirely buy into the premise. (ah, ever the skeptical GenXer, even in regards to one of my own — yeah, I wish I could consider MG a peer. HA!)

Levitt’s new book, SuperFreakenomics (nice little play on the Rick James song there) is the follow up to his his first book, Freakenomics (2005), which he co-authored with journalist Stephen J. Dubner (b.1963), also a GenXer. Levitt and Dubner turn economis on it’s head by applying the economic thought process or whatever you call it to non-traditional subject matter, from drug dealing to global warming — often to much criticism as well as praise. But they wouldn’t be a GenXers if they didn’t ruffle a few feathers in such a traditional field. Levitt’s economic take on things is fascinating, and he has the uncanny ability to remove all emotional/more predjudice from his researh, which perhaps sounds like a a  “not good” thing but it seems essential to this particular kind “pure thinking,” (whatever tha means, right) the results of which can be mucked up later with barnacles of emotion and sentimentality and morality — junk like that. I’ve just started SuperFreakenomics but am already ready to drink the Kool Aid a second time. Glug glug glub. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. And you will too!

Here are some of the books, that I am reading or have been influential in my development.  Maybe you can add some of these to your own library.  Maybe you have an opinion on one of them. Let me know!

ESV Study Bible (English Standard Version)

This is simply the best study bible out there for people who want to not only read verses out of the bible, but to understand the message of the bible and articulate that message to other people.  Lots of great tools have been included to help one’s study of the Bible. (When you get the Bible, read St. Mark’s Gospel, Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,  and Ephesians )

Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley

This biography was such an amazing tale of a man who through the force of his convictions educates himself and becomes one of the strongest orators and thought leaders of the 60s.  Even if you disagree with his politics, his story is fascinating.

Martin Luther King Trilogy by Taylor Branch (Parting the Waters, Pillar of Fire, and On Canaan’s Edge”

This trilogy I still haven’t finished.  But if you are looking for something on the life and times SURROUNDING Dr. King and the players in that era (e.g. Kennedy, Malcolm X) this is series for you.  The author spent almost 20 years of his life putting the information together and its well worth the read.

Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper

Piper calls for those of us who are Christian to run after God and get out of boring, safe Christianity, and actually run after Jesus.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

If you are trying to pick up some tools to order your life, there are some here.

Desiring God by John Piper

Piper drops this gem. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”  Please read!

Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams

Mr. Williams spent an inordinate amount of his life tracing the history of the decline of ancient African empires to the modern day neo-colonialism that is Africa’s calling card.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Achebe speaks about a civilization — a way of life — that is killed ironically by “civilization.”  Good book: it gave me perspective.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

I just love anything that Mr. Gladwell writes.  The Tipping Point started the love affair.

21 Indisputable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell

John Maxwell writes this great one on leadership.

Slide-ology – The Art of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte

If you are into making presentations and want to understand the art behind great Powerpoint or Keynote slides, pick this one up for your library.

Vintage Jesus by Marc Driscoll

I haven’t read this one yet, I must confess.  However, I hear it is good for those who want to know about the life of Jesus in highly reader-friendly language.

Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin speaks to the discontent of the Black America in the sixties.  Some of what he writes is still prescient for today and he is at his poetic best in this book.  The Letter of a Birmingham Jail is included.

Once again, the voters of East Baton Rouge Parish took to the polls on Saturday to say no to Mayor-President Kip Holden’s proposed $901 million bond issue.  Voters rejected paying an half-cent sales tax increase and a 9.9 mill property tax to fund questionable projects in 2008, and repeated that message on Saturday.

The message is simple.  City Parish government needs to live within its’ means. 

Senate District 16 is known as the most influential voting district in East Baton Rouge Parish.  Out of 103 voting precincts in District 16, 100 precincts voted NO to Holden’s tax increase.  Quite telling.

Unfortunately, Mayor-President Kip Holden and his entourage refuse to listen to those who elected him and appear to be considering a third run at the tax increase.  During the 10:00 p.m. WAFB news report, Holden, while claiming the voters turned their backs on the Mississippi River, hinted at regrouping for a third push at raising taxes.

What is most amazing is that Holden convinced businesses and political allies to donate more than $600,000 on a tax-increase campaign to convince voters to say yes.  The people would have been better served if those funds would have been used in the development of public-private partnerships than a poorly planned and executed tax increase campaign.

Holden pulled out the stops by garnering support from an endless list of politically motivated individuals and groups such as the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) who receives $500,000 annually from Holden for economic development.  Other key supporters included architects, contractors, attorneys and developers who stood to gain financially if the bond issue passed.  

On the other side of the issue, a very effective campaign was run by volunteers associated with the Baton Rouge Tea Party in their Beat the Bond message to voters.  The Tea Party spent less than 3% of the funds raised by their opponents, bringing home a victory with nearly a 3-to-1 vote against the tax increase with 64% voting no to higher taxes.

There is no doubt that this is not the final word on Holden’s plan to increase city-parish spending by passing it on to taxpayers.  Likewise, I believe the voters have gained strength by proving their vote can make a difference.

Voters are more savvy than in any time in history.  They have witnessed their federal tax dollars flowing into the coffers of financial institutions and car manufacturers, not to mention the dollars pumped into special interests. 

The seeds of deception Holden and his entourage sowed with the Metro Council and EBRP voters, no doubt, played a key role in the defeat of his tax proposal.  Once trust is violated, it’s a losing proposition.

Finally, Holden needs to learn that holding fast to a bullying mentality toward those who expressed concern or questioned his decision to increase taxes is no way to win over the public.  Voters have grown weary of political games, and expressed their disdain for this type of behavior.

The greatest event arising from the proposed tax increase was the involvement and feedback from voters who have been silent in the past.  As the Baton Rouge Tea Party says, Silent Majority No More!

Until next time,

Red Stick Republican

I miss reading. I find it hard to read books for my classes these days and I don’t know if it’s because I’m skimming it or reading too fast that I’m not retaining it, but it’s becoming a little bit of a problem.

I want to start reading regularly again.

On my to-do-list

• The Tipping Point
• Blink
• Kite Runner

Suggestions welcome prease

When small things have larger consequences, we say “the devil is in the details” and this precisely describes Mayor-President Kip Holden’s $901 million tax increase which will cost an additional $814 million in interest.

Holden and his entourage have already proven to be less than trustworthy in being forthcoming with the voters.  Now, it is our job to spend a little more time looking at the facts.

It’s tough to fight city hall when they use diversion tactics to keep the voters away from the facts.  Better late than never, the media finally gave the voters critical information that Holden’s entourage chose to keep private.  They are to be complimented. 

I’m not sure which of the critical details are most important, so I’ll let you decide:

• In November, 2008, the voters spoke by voting down Holden’s bond issue.  The Mayor and his entourage have chosen to ignore 51% of the voter’s decision, repackaged the tax increase and is pushing it on us again.
• Mayor Kip Holden’s city-parish budget has increased by $118 million in four years.  Now, he wants to increase spending and pass it on to us in the form of a NEW tax.
• The bond issue is a 30-year tax that will cost the voters $2.175 billion, based on Mayor Holden’s figures of $41 million annually from a 1/2 cent tax and $31 million annually from a 9.9% millage x 30 years = $2.175 billion.
• Mayor Holden and his entourage purposely kept critical information from voters and the EBRP Metro Council regarding land ownership problems that his proposed Alive! will be built upon.
• When Metro Councilman Joel Boe’ brought questions to the forefront that were important for voters to consider, Mayor Holden publicly flogged the councilman. 
• Mayor Holden claims that Alive! will generate unachievable numbers of visitors annually.  Meanwhile, the Louisiana Arts & Science Museum has shown a drop in annual attendance and state funding was cut resulting in shorter hours and increased prices.
• Details of the fees associated with the bond issue have not been revealed to date, yet voters are expected to pay a 30-year note without full disclosure.
• In 2007, we elected Sheriff Sid Gautreaux on the promise that he would do whatever necessary to save the voters $2.6 million annually on housing prisoners in facilities outside of EBR Parish including putting up temporary housing or tents at the parish prison.  Not only has this not been done, he now wants us to build a new prison that will only accommodate an additional 550 beds which Francis Cauffman Foley Hoffman’s study says will only cover a three year increase in inmates.  The tax we are paying, however, is for 30 years.  Former Sheriff Greg Phares declared that a study done by Lensing and Maggio indicated that providing temporary housing would be more cost-efficient with only a slight increase for staff, food and beds.  Gautreaux obviously ignored this study in order to support a tax increase negating another promise he made during his campaign to not increase our taxes once he took the reigns as Sheriff of EBR Parish.
• Consistent misinformation has been shared with the voters including statements made by Holden’s entourage.  When questioned as to how much of the revenues will be derived from the 9.9% mill tax and 1/2 cent sales tax, “it is virtually 50-50” was their answer. (General Questions #6)  Yet The Advocate indicates that the breakdown is actually 62% from the 1/2 cent tax and 38% from the 9.9% millage. 

So much misinformation, so little time to check the facts.  Perhaps this is the plan by Holden and his entourage?  Will it work?  Or will the voters take a hard look at raising taxes in troubled financial times and say, enough is enough?

Will the voters be swayed by groups like the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce that receives $500,000 of OUR tax dollars annually from Mayor Holden to play a public relations role by touting economic development?  What about the mirage of financial supporters to Holden’s tax increase that includes a long list of companies and individuals that will benefit from the bond issue?

Why did Holden insist on not disclosing critical information to the voters, much less his own Metro Council?  Will his tactics of attacking those who question the bond issue work as a bait-and-switch agenda to divert voters from the real facts?

I have to totally disagree with insane claims that we can triple tourism because of Alive! being built, or that it will stop the exodus of our young and talented people.  Or, that we will drastically increase events at the River Center because of an expansion and new parking garage.  We expanded it before and saw virtually no increase in events.  

The carrot keeps moving folks!

Discrediting voters and cost-sensitive residents of EBR Parish has been the focus of the entire bond issue CAMPAIGN by Holden and his entourage. 

It won’t work this time. 

The greatest thing that Mayor Holden’s proposed tax increase has accomplished is a dialogue by more EBRP citizens than in the history of the Red Stick.

It would be funny if it weren’t so sad that the small list of individuals supporting this tax increase has told us in the past that tax increases are not the answer, but responsible government spending is the answer.  What happened to our leaders?  It is stinking thinking to push a tax increase on us and not examine the spending habits of our Mayor.  

Every time these tired leaders want to get our attention and sway us into excessive spending, they use scare tactics and outdated sayings! 

Stop the insanity! 

Years ago we were told the Shaw Center, the rebuilding of hotels, the Casinos, updating the Centroplex, building Catfish Town, and more would save our city and make us a tourist mecca.  Oh, let’s not forget the building of an EMPTY dock on the riverfront.  Pretty to look at, but virtually unused! 

Maybe someone should talk with Secretary of State Jay Dardenne who has done more with less money and increased visitors at the museums under his purvue! 

While you are reading this, Holden’s entourage is working on getting out the vote. 

The only way you can stop this 30-year-tax-and-spend-plan for the Red Stick is to go to the voting booth and pull the lever by sending another message that we will not be bullied into increasing city-parish spending through a NEW tax! 

We cannot tax our way to prosperity, nor become the next greatest city in America by committing to a 30-year tax. 

Revolution is brewing!  Silent majority no more!  Join the Tea Party!  Vote NO to higher taxes, and Beat the Bond!

Until next time,

Red Stick Republican

 

A picture of Dear Leader, displayed as required by Gladwell statute 4531, article C.

• The Pitchman. This essay is all about Ron Popeil, inventor of the Showtime rotisserie and an amazing infomercial salesman. Gladwell chronicles Popeil’s life from childhood to Head of Gladwell Propaganda.

• The Kitchen Connundrum. Gladwell explains why there isn’t more variety to ketchup and why that’s a good thing since Gladwell brand ketchup is the only kind that doesn’t cause cancer.

• John Rock’s error.  Gladwell details the invention and promotion of the birth control pill by John Rock.  John Rock tried to cater his approach to catholic theology rather than women’s health. That was his mistake. Gladwell’s storm troopers punished him severely for this mistake I can assure you.

• True Colors. This essay details the tie-in between hair dye and the women’s liberation movement, and how it led to everyone having government regulated afros like Gladwell suggested.

This is a nice extract from Malcolm Gladwell’s No.1 best seller ‘The Tipping Point’ that discusses word of mouth, trends and how things spread…

“Yawning is a surprisingly powerful act. Just because you read the word “yawning” in the previous two sentences – and the two additional “yawns” in this sentence – a good number of you will probably yawn within the next few minutes. Even as I am writing this, I’ve yawned twice. If you’re reading this in a public place, and you’ve just yawned, chances are that a good proportion of everyone who saw you yawn is now yawning too, and a good proportion of the people watching the people who watched you yawn are now yawning as well, and on and on, in an ever-widening, yawning circle.

“Yawning is incredibly contagious. I made some of you reading this yawn simply by writing the word “yawn.” The people who yawned when they saw you yawn, meanwhile, were infected by the sight of you yawning – which is a second kind of contagion. They might even have yawned if they only heard you yawn, because yawning is also aurally contagious: if you play an audiotape of a yawn to blind people, they’ll yawn too. And finally, if you yawned as you read this, did the thought cross your mind – however unconsciously and fleetingly – that you might be tired? I suspect that for some of you it did, which means that yawns can also be emotionally contagious. Simply by writing the word, I can plant a feeling in your mind. Can the flu virus do that? Contagiousness, in other words, is an unexpected property of all kinds of things, and we have to recognize and diagnose epidemic change.“

Malcolm Gladwell – ‘The Tipping Point’

This is a nice extract from Malcolm Gladwell’s No.1 best seller ‘The Tipping Point’ that discusses word of mouth, trends and how things spread…

“Yawning is a surprisingly powerful act. Just because you read the word “yawning” in the previous two sentences – and the two additional “yawns” in this sentence – a good number of you will probably yawn within the next few minutes. Even as I am writing this, I’ve yawned twice. If you’re reading this in a public place, and you’ve just yawned, chances are that a good proportion of everyone who saw you yawn is now yawning too, and a good proportion of the people watching the people who watched you yawn are now yawning as well, and on and on, in an ever-widening, yawning circle.

“Yawning is incredibly contagious. I made some of you reading this yawn simply by writing the word “yawn.” The people who yawned when they saw you yawn, meanwhile, were infected by the sight of you yawning – which is a second kind of contagion. They might even have yawned if they only heard you yawn, because yawning is also aurally contagious: if you play an audiotape of a yawn to blind people, they’ll yawn too. And finally, if you yawned as you read this, did the thought cross your mind – however unconsciously and fleetingly – that you might be tired? I suspect that for some of you it did, which means that yawns can also be emotionally contagious. Simply by writing the word, I can plant a feeling in your mind. Can the flu virus do that? Contagiousness, in other words, is an unexpected property of all kinds of things, and we have to recognize and diagnose epidemic change.“

Malcolm Gladwell – ‘The Tipping Point’

Hi there!  How are you this week? I’m good and I’ve been thinking about how important emotional Intelligence (EQ) is in the workplace.

How important EQ is to creating and maintaining a healthy workplace. 

I keep reading about how important EQ is for effective leadership. YES it is!

I also keep reading about how important EQ is for career success (getting the job you want).

What I’ve not read much about is the relationship of EQ and healthy workplaces.

EQ was first made popular by Daniel Goleman. Daniel Goleman has written a number of excellent books on the subject and I would recommend that you read Emotional Intelligence and Working with Emotional Intelligence if you are not familiar with his work.

If you read Working with Emotional Intelligence you’ll discover that the person responsible for first identifying the need for EQ skills at work was David McClelland.

Basically EQ skills fall into the following categories:

• self-awareness (knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses, values, leadership style, communication style etc.)
• self-regulation (managing one’s internal states–anger, fear, frustration etc.)
• motivation (persistence, taking initiative etc.)
• empathy (understanding others, developing others etc.)
• social skills (influence, communication, conflict management, collaboration, team building etc.)

We all have to take responsibility for making improvements in the places we work. If we see someone being mistreated we need to speak up. If we know of someone who is acting unethically we need to “blow the whistle”. If we are not happy with the way our colleagues treat us we have to stand up to them. If people don’t pull their weight we need to raise the issue with them, the team and the boss.

What we need in order to “take responsibility” is to use our EQ skills.

Some organizations are now attempting to hire people with these skills. But organizations also need to help people develop these skills if they don’t have them. 

In fact, this might be the best investment they make!

What if everyone in the organization that you work in had good relationship-building interpersonal skills? What about your team? Sometimes the best teams are the ones in which everyone has the skills to work together–EQ skills.

What if everyone took responsibility for creating an organization that was healthy and productive? Maybe I’m naive but I think that a shift is taking place. Remember the book The Tipping Point?

Well, there is a growing emphasis on EQ and on leadership.

There is an explosion of people stepping up and stepping into leadership roles–in their work, in their communities, in their places of workship, in their schools and around the world.

I believe that we have the power to improve our workplaces but only if we all take some responsibility.

Cheers,

Lesley

“The people have spoken” used to mean something.  We entered the voting booth, pulled the lever, and our vote counted for something.  Unless you are Mayor Kip Holden or a member of his entourage.

I listened intently to last week’s special Metro Council meeting and heard some interesting comments from individuals for and against keeping Holden’s proposed tax in the form of a bond issue on the ballot in November.

It was Elizabeth Dent that succinctly explained that the people had already spoken in 2008 by voting NO to the tax increase/bond proposal.  Holden and his entourage continue to choose to live in denial over the voice of the people.

What part of NO don’t you understand, Mayor Holden?  

Perhaps the most creative comment for the tax increase was to “pull the lever for hope”,  although I don’t see Holden’s Alive! amusement park something that our children should ‘hope’ for when making their Christmas wish list.  At least not when statistics published in May, 2009 indicate we have 2,000 homeless children in our parish.    Or, the fact that Louisiana ranks #1 in children under the age of 5 as being on the brink of hunger! causing the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank to call for more donations this Thanksgiving/Christmas.

Doing the Math

Previously, I published the 2005 – 2008 budgets showing Holden has increased city-government spending — an increase of $116 million in less than 4 years. 

Shouldn’t we be cutting spending?  Instead, we plan to spend 2.175 billion on a tax increase. 

You may ask:  Is that correct?  Well, let’s do the math. 

The proposition states that a tax of 1/2% is expected to yield 41.5 million annually and an ad valorem tax of 9.9 mills expected to yield $31 million annually. 

41.5 million+ 31 million = 72.5 million x 30 years = 2.175 billion

Perhaps these figures will help us see the bigger picture and understand that if the actual items in the bond issue cost us $901 million, the difference will be going to something else.  The difference is $1.274 billion.  Now, we’re doing the math!

That ’something else’ ($1.27 billion) will be paid to a long list of individuals and companies who sorely want to see this bond issue pass. 

Now, I challenge the media and Metro Council to find the breakdown of who will make $1.274 billion while the voters will only enjoy $901 million for Alive!, a new prison, new JV facility, new public safety complex, new city hall, added light synchronization, some drainage improvements, expanding the River Center, and parking garages. 

In plain english, others will be making $373 million MORE than the taxpayers will be gaining.  Who will be making $1.274 billion on this bond issue?

Now, talk to me again about pulling the lever for hope?  Hope for whom?

Just in time for Halloween, Red Stick politics not only makes for strange bedfellows, but for deals that will make your head spin like Linda Blair in the Exorcist. 

Until next time,

Red Stick Republican

Designer de Chicago cujo o estilo é baseado em bicicletas cintilantes, banhadas a ouro e cheias de brilhantes. Na imagem estão a ver a “Tipping Point” que levou à exposição “Stages” em Paris.

The Tipping Point

http://www.dzinestudio.com

Motek Parker*

This podcast from The Tipping Point explores storytelling and how it impacts sales.

Topics covered in the podcast:

• Andrew Davis talks to Stuffed Robots — with analysis from David Meerman Scott (someone I follow religiously)
• Jim Cosco interviews Don Connelly about stories and salesmanship
• Some hilarious Amazon reviews; a new kind of storytelling
• Jim Cosco explores Airborne and the power of perceived authority and stories

My favorite part of the podcast is the Stuffed Robots piece. The Stuffed Robot project was helped along by the entrepreneurship program at Wake Forest. And being an alumni of Wake, I, of course, want to give them props!

Whether you call Mayor-President Kip Holden’s Alive! bond issue Waterworld, KipWorld, KipLand, or what it really is — a tax increase — one thing is for sure:  Voters are on a “need to know basis”.

Government is famous for the “need to know basis” that is indicative of individuals who do not want unwelcome scrutiny of their work or project.  Yet voters are intelligent enough to know that anytime there is a lack of information there is a reason. 

Former shadow mayor Walter Monsour was awarded a new position with a compensation package of $365,000 as the head of the East Baton Rouge Parish Redevelopment Authority.  That’s quite a little compensation package given the fact that he has been totally free to spend the majority of his time as a consultant and advisor to Mayor Kip Holden on the Alive! project.  Then again, it’s tax dollars, so who cares.  Right?

Now, do you understand how Red Stick politics works?

JR Ball of the Baton Rouge Business Report is digging deeper into the Alive! controversy and painting it in a very accurate light.  Yesterday, Ball portrayed Holden’s bond issue as a campaign coming undone with Alive! barely hanging on life support.  His acknowledgement that anyone not agreeing blindly with Holden and his entourage are immediately attacked hit the nail on the head.  In fact, it’s just further proof of the “need to know basis” campaign that Holden and his entourage have been running.

It’s pretty simple folks, and I know you are smart enough (given the facts) to figure it out.  2 + 2 = 4  

Buyer beware!  There is not one investor worth his salt that would invest nearly a billion dollars without having every inch of the detail of the deal.  Ask the Donald.  Any acquisition requires an extensive Due Diligence in order to be assured you are making a wise decision.  It’s common sense!

Oh, I suppose if you are spending someone else’s money (like the taxpayers) you might not worry about doing a comprehensive checklist of crossing your t’s and dotting your i’s.  This is what our Mayor and his entourage have done.  It’s a sad commentary on city-parish government and what has been going on behind the scenes for years.

Alas!  We wanted NEW, fresh leaders on the EBR Parish City Council.  We got them.  Thank God!  They are like the new kids on the block and I feel like a proud parent cheering them on from the sidelines.  They are to be commended for their leadership and inquiring minds.  Joel Boe’ caught my eye as did Trae Welch, Chandler Loupe, Scott Wilson, Alison Cascio and Tara Wicker.  Go, Go, Go!  You do your jobs by representing the people:  VOX POPULI is your cry.  You are even converting and giving wings to potential leaders like Smokie Bourgeois.  There is strength in numbers!

Citizen Kane, also known as Lane Grigsby, has long been a huge supporter of electing fresh new leaders with a vision of the future and the ability to effect change.  Lane understands the principle that he will not be here forever and wants to leave a legacy of strong young leaders behind to carry on.  He has been highly criticized from time to time for his political antics, and I cannot always endorse his methods.  As they say, though, to know him is to love him if you understand his motivation to see new leadership rise to the top.   He was responsible for some of these new leaders.  Thank you Lane!

All of these things that I have screamed from my soap box for the last few years tie together.  The voters need to be informed, active and not dismissed.  Politicians need to be more open and honest.  We are adults here and we do not need to be coddled or treated on a “need to know basis”. 

As in my profile, I always say and believe that if the people are provided with the full picture they can make an informed decision.  All of our decisions may not be right, but at least we have the facts and will learn from our mistakes. 

Government spending is out of control.  No one will argue that fact.  At the same time, while we are excited about LSU, Pennington Biomedical, Perkins Rowe, and the widening of I-12, we still have a long way to go in properly funneling and controlling city-parish spending.  I will never give up my belief that the people of this parish need to be respected and treated like first class citizens and not sheep being led into the voting booth for slaughter.

Get out the black vote?  Give them info on a need to know basis?  Stand on polls that show a 93% favorable rating?  Promise no more downtown studies while we are studying away?  Tell them what we think they want to hear?  All of these things are based on political strategies that may have worked in the past, but no more.  Enough is enough! 

While Holden and his entourage may have the support of organizations that receive city-parish funding such as the Redevelopment Authority, Downtown Development District and Baton Rouge Area Chamber, there is a larger and more important constituency that is against the Alive! bond issue.

Never underestimate the power of the voters.  If you believe a woman scorned was difficult to deal with, welcome to the world of enlightened voters.

Until the next time,

Red Stick Republican

Today is my birthday and this, being my very first blog, is my special gift to myself (and to you).

Yes, this is my very first blog, which I find strange considering telling people what I think; what I like, what I don’t like, my discoveries, my experiences, etc., is the one thing that comes completely natural to me.  I’m like one of those “mavens” Malcolm Gladwell talks about in The Tipping Point; I like sharing my information with anyone I come in contact with, in hopes that it will help them advance somehow in life.  That’s just my nature.

Since this is my introductory blog, I feel it’s important to tell you a little bit about me… Originally from Toronto, Canada, I now live in California with my husband and two sons.  I am the author of the (soon to be published) book, Gratitude and Goals.  I am really thrilled to announce that a very famous “The Secret” teacher is reading my book as we speak.  Last I heard, he told the person that I gave it to that it is “really well written.”  Needless to say, I am waiting for his stamp of approval (in the form of a good review, hopefully) before finalizing the cover and ultimately publishing it.  But I am proud to announce that best-selling author and goal setting guru, Paul J. Meyer, did indeed pen the foreword for my book; so all those who are a fan of him, you’ll want to check it out when it comes available!

In my spare time I love studying personal development.  I enjoy reading and am the president of the Personal Development Book Club of America (website under construction).  I also enjoy discussing spirituality,volunteering at my kids’ school, cooking Indian food, and learning about health and vitality.

My goal for this blog is to not only tell you what I think (because let’s be honest, there is already enough people doing that on the Internet) but to possibly help others achieve their dreams and inspire them into action, simply by showing them … hey, if I can do it, then so can you! Here, I will discuss personal development philosophies such as gratitude, gratitude journaling, goal setting, success, intuition, prayer, faith and spirituality…to name a few.  I will also keep you up to date on the going on’s with my book; what it’s really like to self-publish and promote yourself, including creating websites, booking speaking engagements and attracting media exposure, etc.   I will also discuss books that I am reading and other (related) projects I am pursuing.

Did I already tell, you…TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!  I think I did, but I don’t mind saying it again.  And I am not shy about telling you my age.  I am 38 years old today; better yet, 38 years young if I consider all the years I have left to achieve all the things I am dying to achieve in this lifetime. (In case you are interested in knowing which other famous people are celebrating birthday’s today: http://tinyurl.com/mp6pbk ).

Today I am grateful for…

1) Me.  For all that I am and all that I have, I am grateful.  I have no complaints.  Thank you, God, for all of my dreams and for the talents you have given me, such as creativity and tenacity, to make them a reality.

2) My family.  Thank you, first of all for my mom, who 38 years ago gave birth to me (hey, I’m a mother of 2, I know how hard it is to bring a baby into this world)!   And of course I am thankful for the rest of my family and my husband, who love and support me and all my endeavors.  I am also so grateful for the opportunity I have been given to raise two such wonderful little boys, each and everyday and the incredible joy and happiness they give me everyday.

3) My friends.  Thank you for my truest friends;  those whom I have come to trust and confide in; those who boost my confidence and give me courage when I need it most.  I am also very grateful for the hundreds of people around the world that I have come to know, via the social media sites I’m a member of.  I would not have been able to meet these kinds of like-minded individuals any other way; so thanks, Facebook!

4) Gratitude and Goals.  Thank you, God, for my book, Gratitude and Goals and the amazing future it is creating for me in every way.

I know this is a very long blog, but please forgive me; it is my first.  I do promise to make subsequent blogs shorter.

All the best, world!  And Happy Thanksgiving, Canada.

My sincerest gratitude,

Stacey Grewal

http://tinyurl.com/yzv8sec

From the LA Times, more on the recent outbursts of Kanye West, Serena Williams, and Joe Wilson:

In the wake of these high-profile outbursts across disciplines — politics, entertainment and sports — many Americans have found themselves asking what is going on. To some, it’s not a coincidence but rather the manifestation of a deepening social dysfunction.

“It’s extremely regrettable, but not shocking,” said Pepper Schwartz, a University of Washington sociologist. “And there is a viral element to it. It’s like Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘The Tipping Point.’ You get to a critical mass of something and it spreads like wildfire.”

It’s interesting to see theories crop up about this behavior, as people try to reason out why adults–seemingly those who should be mature–are acting like complete buffoons in public.  Here’s a snatch of one theory:

Many have bemoaned the erosion of civility represented by these rants, but cultural critic and writer Joseph Epstein thinks civility was purely a facade to begin with.

The public figures who crossed the line have careers that generally require them to create “false PR personalities,” Epstein said. “These were eruptions of true, loathsome feelings after all these years of suppression and having to pretend to be such sweet characters when they are not. What they all were before is as phony as can be. They all just said, ‘I can’t take it anymore,’ and they all fell apart.”

Uh-huh.  Riiiiight. The article’s worth a read to get a pulse for how people are approaching idiotic adult behavior.

It’s funny to see our society–or at least some of it–with a sense of cultural embarrassment over the antics of the aforementioned celebs.  I say “funny” because that same society has precious little explanation for why adults–who, once again, are supposed to be mature–are acting like children.

There are certainly reasons that can account for this kind of behavior.  At least one of them, however, has to be that people are sinners, and they aren’t being taught that, and so they’re growing up to believe that they really are the center of the universe and can act as they see fit.

I’m guessing we’ll only see more of this as time goes on and the entitled generation grows up.  The sad thing?  People acting idiotically really will think, per common wisdom, that they are acting rightly, because they’re acting authentically.  That’s the standard by which many younger folk seem to judge their actions today.

For awards shows, tennis matches, youth groups, churches, and so on, this cannot bode well.

Identifying what you own is important.

A permanent mark on ambulatory assets is an important initial goal

However, an unintended consequence over time is the accumulated effects of modern franchising on a society. The extended nuclear family is still the dominant source for advice, support and wisdom to individuals. This goes for small business investing, too.

I think franchising has worn out its welcome at many kitchen tables. Common industry practices have overgrazed the SME investment community.

Let’s take a look at some very conservative assumptions for Canada:

1. 80,000 franchisees,
2. 5% exit systems in one year, and
3. 1/3 of exiting franchisees have what they perceive to be a “negative experience”.

Therefore, over 10 years 13,333 individual have had a sour taste that they attribute to an “unfair” situation ((80,000 x .05 x 10)/3). This doesn’t seem too much of a stray problem, especially when you assume they’re a docile and stupid quadruped (sheeple).

Information Sharing: But assuming franchisees are people, and people are social animals, they tend to communicate with others that they care about. And social media such as Facebook, blogs, YouTube, etc. seem to help enable anonymous warnings. Somewhere I read that every person knows 250 people.

So, maybe, there are +3.3 million that think franchising is dodgy. (13,333 x 250)

Or about 10% of all men, women and children who giving, for free, 24/7, an “anti-franchise” message to their family and friends. Battle stories along with life savings scars. Authentic, nitty-gritty, genuine, hyper-sincere detailed stories. Tangible life stories versus self-serving hyperbole.

No wonder there are so many immigrant family horror stories. In their innocence, they actually believe white crime is punished when it happens in Canada. Discovering a network of snakes in suits hiding in plain sight is the 2nd, much more profound existential trauma.

Teach you Children Well: Franchising is an exceptionally powerful teaching technology: the tuition to learn these lessons about modern commercial standards is not without cost. Dairy and beef producers have different management philosophies and practices.

From my experience, branded families are finding their digital voice and starting to be herd.

It’s easy to understand why some refer to the Red Stick as “Kip World” or “Kipland” if you simply check the Webster’s Dictionary.  The definition of despotism is an individual or tight knit group of individuals that rule with absolute political power. 

Now we are getting to where the rubber meets the road in East Baton Rouge Parish. 

For those who are unaware of the tremendous political power held by a handful of individuals in the Red Stick, you need only to keep your ear to the ground and read carefully between the lines.  

History was not my favorite subject in school, but now I completely understand the importance of the past in order to understand the present.

Mayor-President Kip Holden was marked as unfriendly to business, a tax and spend liberal and named as one of two ”King of Legislative Junketeers” according to The Advocate in 1997.  By 2004, Ginger Sawyer from Louisiana Business & Industry proclaimed Holden as the candidate with one of the worst LABI ratings.

Time has changed little for Holden’s political ventures.  Last year, former Councilman David Bonneno proposed a tax decrease for businesses in regard to new equipment and machinery.  Monsour quickly put a halt to the proposal at the direction of Holden. 

Now, Holden wants us to pay more taxes and build a downtown Epcot.  Holden took exception to the term ‘Epcot’ though it was birthed by the Downtown Development District, one of the main drivers of the proposed Audubon Alive! project — not the media as Holden claimed.

Holden makes a lot of claims that have no substance.  Examples include claiming there is no ownership issue with the proposed site for Alive! when in fact there is an issue with the railroad that was never resolved — or that he plans to have the state fund the $40 million required to raise the batture out of the swamp when in fact there was no discussion or approval. 

It’s part of the Secrets of the Red Stick that those in power hope we won’t notice or discuss.  I refuse to aspire to that mandate.  Instead, I will continue to ask the tough questions of our leaders and hope the newfound questions by the media will continue on behalf of the community they are charged with representing. 

The fact that the EBR Parish Metro Council was not made privy to these issues is proof in itself that Mayor Kip Holden believes he is large and in charge with no regard for others.  In fact, just yesterday it was revealed that Clerk of Court Doug Welborn was not told by Holden that his office was to be moved until Welborn viewed a slide show presentation.  Amazing!

Our community, political and business leaders need to realize that to whom much is given, much is required.  Their legacies should not be rooted in higher taxes, building larger buildings and entertainment complexes, or funding organizations that duplicate services. 

We can no longer ignore the obvious.  The truth is that our leaders are allowing Mayor-President Kip Holden and his entourage to spend millions of dollars at taxpayer’s expense while our real needs go unmet in the Red Stick.

The truth is painful. 

We can never be the next greatest city as long as we have children that are hungry, women that are abused, men that are absentee fathers, teenagers that are committing more crimes than in the history of our parish.  So much so that District Attorney Hillar Moore is proposing a full blown truancy program.

As long as we spend $500,000 annually to fund the Baton Rouge Area Chamber for economic development and approve contracts in the amount of $49,999 so that these expenditures do not have to be made public at Metro Council meetings, we are allowing Mayor Holden and his entourage to fail us as leaders. 

I suppose I shouldn’t even mention the hours spent doing ’security sweeps’ by the Mayor’s security team before he enters facilities?  All the while witnesses to crime cannot be protected and murderers are set free.  It’s a  slap in the face to victims and their families.

Meanwhile, our citizens are tracking in the sludge from a failing sewer system into their homes making their children sick.  Perhaps it is true this is one reason our staph infection is at an all time high in the Red Stick? 

What on earth are we doing here in the Red Stick?  When will this madness stop?  At what point will JUST ONE LEADER in our community stand up and demand that we stop the excessive spending and taxation? Where is Tax Busters and Fred Dent when you need them?

If we truly want to be America’s next greatest city, we will stop the insanity of city-parish spending, address a failing sewer system as promised, house our inmates in tents as promised, have a no-tolerance for crime stand as promised, stop raising taxes, stop duplicating services, stop creating contracts for campaign contributors, and stop attacking those who question these ungodly practices.  Questioning is our duty!  These are the Secrets of the Red Stick that are injustices to our citizens.  

Somehow we have lost our way.  As a mayoral candidate, Rolfe McCollister, Jr. said, “I don’t believe in taxing our way to prosperity”.    What changed?

Until next time,

Red Stick Republican

Bill Wasik's And Then There's This helps us understand how outburst like Joe Wilson's "You lie!" go viral.

It’s every blogger’s dream.

A post is written.  Friends look at it on Facebook.  People start to Digg and Stumble Upon it.  Retweeting kicks in.  The page views climb.

Then, something happens.  Like an airplane taking off, the connection between the ground and the air stops and the post starts to lift off into the blogosphere.  Page views climb dramatically, and then furiously, like the pages of a calendar in old black and white moves that used to indicate the passage of time.  

And then, just as suddenly, it stops.  The page views shut off almost instantly, like a water faucet being turned off.  

Harper’s editor Bill Wasik has helped create and sought to understand the viral trajectory, and he shares his findings in And Then There’s This: How Stories Live and Dive in Viral Culture. 

And Then There’s This covers a wide range of topics, from the Mob meetups Wasik convened in New York City to an indie band whose popularity had peaked even before its first album had been released to psychologist Stanley Milgram’s experiments on obedience and conformity to trendy economists Steven Levitt and Nicholas Nassim Taleb.  

Unsurprisingly for a book about trends, Malcolm Gladwell gets some Wasik love in the form of  a mention, although Wasik has an intriguing box in which he compares Gladwell’s messages about trends in The Tipping Point to George Orwell’s 1984.  

The irony, of course, in reading this or any book about viral marketing is that Wasik’s point about the half life of stories being remarkably and increasingly short these days could easily be applied to the points that he makes in And Then There’s This.  He notes in the book while writing about the phenomenon of Politico that the online worlds of politics of 2004 and 2008 were closer to light than four years apart. 

In part because of my love of books and my previous ignorance on the topic, I stuck with Wasik’s breezy tome.  

In an interview with Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.Net, Vitaly Friedman of Smashing Magazine addresses the reason behind going for a conventionally produced book-it aims for the masses, he says-and other viral topics. 

For those looking for more recent fare, Liz Shannon Miller of newteevee.com writes about two outbursts that are among the most recent to go viral-Joe Wilson’s yelling “You lie!” during President Obama’s health care speech to Congress and Kanye West’s interrupting Taylor Swift’s receiving a VMA award.

Every Saturday, I update my Recommended Reading list. I think you’ll find my suggestions thought-provoking, inspiring and educational.

To see the Recommended Reading list, please click on the link. “Recommended Reading”

*For your convenience, if you want to purchase any of the books, I’ve linked all the covers directly to Amazon.*

If you have any comments, please write them below. If you’re interested in a consultation or have questions, please email me at Robert@RobertFinkelstein.com.

Alas! The Advocate has a reporter that has researched and revealed that Mayor Kip Holden and his entourage have not done their due diligence in regard to land use for his proposed Audubon Alive!  As mentioned previously in my posts, who do you know that would plan to build a $229 million complex without clearing the land title?  Better yet, why should your tax dollars be spent financing a project without title clearance?    Kudos to Michelle Millhollon for her excellent article in  this morning’s newspaper!

Along the edge of the Mighty Mississippi sits a 22 acre triangular-shaped piece of property in the Red Stick that some believe is our Bermuda Triangle.  It is a batture that is partially underwater and can be viewed here.

For 10 years the Downtown Development District, City of Baton Rouge, State of Louisiana, and The Audubon Institute have presented the tax payers with various scenarios for this batture on the riverfront.  From sports venues to DeSoto Park to Audubon Alive! ideas have been pursued, and sometimes partially funded.  

BREC was shut out years ago from potential involvement, even though all parks in our parish are overseen by them.  Why wouldn’t BREC be involved in a new park, and a potential moneymaking venture?  Some say the decision was political.

The Audubon Institute convinced city and state officials in 2002 that this same property should be the site of DeSoto Park. 

In 2004, unfortunately, the courts ruled that the State of Louisiana did not own the batture across from the Pentagon Barracks, and that the railroad had owned the property for over 130 years.  This immediately halted forward movement of the proposed DeSoto Park.

One of the major issues, besides ownership, was the fact that the property is under water and floods regularly.  In order to address this problem, a proposed expenditure of $41 million was required to ‘raise the dirt’ in order to avoid future flooding. 

At that time the State of Louisiana’s financial coffers were supposedly overflowing and the money was approved to address potential flooding issues.

The State of Louisiana, however, stopped the project immediately and DeSoto Park was no more than a bad memory in the minds of state officials who failed to run a check on who owned the property.  I suppose this would be laughable if it weren’t so sad. 

Who do you know that can or would build any project without having all the proper land clearances in advance?  

To add insult to injury, $11 million was already spent according to Commissioner of Administration Mark Drennan, with Coastal Bridge Contractors in Phase I of DeSoto Park.  Though attorney Charles Landry and DDD Director Davis Rhorer claimed they expected an agreement to happen, the project did not make a comeback, and the land remains for the most part under water.  My research did not result in an explanation of those funds Drennan said were spent other than the fact that the work had begun and stopped abruptly.

Perhaps this will help you to understand why I am so adamate over the lack of details for the proposed Alive! project. 

Unwise decisions and careless spending of our tax dollars is of no concern to politicians.  After all, it is not their personal monies involved — it’s yours. 

Imagine knowing you have millions of dollars at your disposal to fund your pet peeve projects on someone else’s dime, and full disclosure isn’t required in advance of your vote to fund the projects. 

Perhaps the best question to ask is why is this information not laid out in its entirety for taxpayers?  Maybe its because the math doesn’t add up? 

The Audubon Nature Institute has an annual payroll of over $6.6 million annually according to their financial reports.  They indicate 600 employees on their payroll and 518 volunteers required to run their properties.  The Institute runs the Zoo, the Park, the Insectarium, the Wolberg Park, Research Center, Survival Center, Imax and Aquarium.  If this is the case, how does Mayor Holden expect us to believe that we will generate 1,000 jobs upward to 2,000 jobs permanently for Alive!? 

There is no doubt that Audubon and all their entities are great attractions.  Our family has enjoyed them for years.  Let’s not get caught up in the pitch.  We should demand, as taxpayers, the accurate detailed information. 

Of course, if you don’t provide all the details, you can’t be held accountable.  Can you?

Until next time,

Red Stick Republican

No doubt that Louisiana politics has a dominant place in the archives of U.S. history, and some have reveled in that fact.  Perhaps it is the age of information or the downfall of American family values that has caused the average voter to long for political reform in our good state.  Reform should always start in our own backyards.

The reform movement will come at a great price.  That price includes putting a stop to dangerous liaisons that thwart true reform.

For me, political corruption in Louisiana began with the labor unions.  I remember succinctly as a child the effects of the AFLCIO on our personal lives.  My father refused to be a member of the union, and the price we paid was both physical and emotional as mentioned in a previous post.  

Mayor Kip Holden and Sheriff Sid Gautreaux are supported, funded and often work in collusion with the AFLCIO and other local labor unions.  These are truly dangerous liaisons for the Red Stick.

What is most troubling is how real corruption is camaflouged and overlooked by the media, community and business leaders.  Political corruption still abounds on a local and state level.  This must stop.

It was Senator Robert Kostelka that forced the Louisiana Board of Education and media to publicly announce that contracts were not being publicly bid.  I believe that Chas Roemer erred in saying that no-bid contracts are justified if there is only one provider. 

How do we truly know other providers do not exist without the bid process?  This type of mentality opens the door to facilitating more dangerous liaisons, especially given this particular contract totaled $625,000.

Closed meetings, no bids, private conversations among community leaders, business owners and politicians makes for more dangerous liasons.  Why do we allow these practices to continue?  Only The Advocate would allow our mayor to get away with this incident without forcing the hand of community leaders.    Interesting.

Just this past week Baton Rouge Area Chamber officials asked the media to leave the room so they could ask private questions to Mayor Kip Holden about his bond proposal.  Adam Knapp and his ‘leaders’ should have realized this would leave a negative impression in our community.  Where are real leaders when you need them?

Mayor Kip Holden gives $500,000 of YOUR tax dollars to the Baton Rouge Area Chamber annually.  Everything BRAC does is funded by local monies whether through memberships, sponsorships or municipalities.  What kind of questions could they ask that we shouldn’t know about?  I see more dangerous liaisons on the horizon.

No matter how you slice it, dangerous liaisons in political matters still abound in Louisiana.  On a local level, even more so.  What I am still amazed at the ability of the media to overlook just about everything that Mayor Kip Holden does while criticizing Governor Bobby Jindal for the same issues. 

Mayor-President Kip Holden is the king of private liasions personally and professionally.  The proposed $900 million bond issue is immersed in potential corruption and secrecy.  Will voters endorse the continued practice of dangerous liaisons in city-parish government or put them to a stop by saying no this fall?

Until next time,

Red Stick Republican