The Opinion And Drama of Pat Bryant
Entergy has some good actors and bad playwrights. The City Council would be smart to wake up and smell the coffee. Entergy paying actors and others to flood the City Council last October and February to impress the Council that there was widespread support, and there isn’t, for a gas plant in the New Orleans East wetlands. A throwback to the C. Ray Nagin days.
This is just a tip of the proverbial iceberg. Hang on for a minute while I tell a true story that should be a best selling novel.
Entergy has consultants who produce very little, but make up to $20,000 per month. I don’t see much they do but stay in touch with the City Council on electricity matters. The money they are paid is a company operating expense paid by you in your electric and gas bills.
Add the consultants possible influence on the City Council to a couple of hundred folk Entergy paid wearing bright tee shirts telling the council New Orleans needs the gas plant. What do you have? Six Council persons voted for the plant one against. Charades.
Entergy and its local subsidiary president Charles Rice had another dramatic production in 2002. Lillian Regan was director of the City’s Utility Department under Mayor Morial. She led the City to sue Entergy, Cox Cable, and Bell South for overcharging the citizens.
In comes Mayor Ray Nagin. Nagin appointed Charles Rice to become City Attorney. Rice was previously employed in Entergy’s legal department. Nagin was top executive for Cox Cable.
The next scene is forty brake tag inspectors and taxi drivers arrested, hand cuffed, and chained together like on a slave ship, or plantation. The inspectors and cabbies were charged with bribery and accepting bribes. The director of the City’s Utility Department was charged with malfeasance of office. All charges were dismissed by a judge of criminal district court. Nagin dismantled the Utility Department and privatized brake tags.
The next scene is City Attorney Charles Rice negotiating and settling out of court with Entergy, Bell South, and Cox Cable the law suits Mayor Morial and Lillian Regan had brought against these companies. New Orleans has not had a City Utilities Department since it was abolished by Mr. Rice and Mayor Nagin. That department was a watchdog for the people of this City.
While the City Council investigates who paid the actors to dupe them, they would do well to investigate (1) who were paid consultants for Entergy for the past 8 years? (2) How much were the consultants paid? (3) Did they write reports? (4) Did they meet with citizens?
In the next scene in come the FBI, Attorney Jeff Landry, the State Police, and the New Orleans Inspector General. A lot of bages flashing, and a lot of people uneasy.
In the next scene the citizens rise up. The City Council took action Entergy is replaced by a municipal corporation that provides electric and gas service, and cable service as well.
The citizens of New Orleans rose up, organized and demanded better.
The City has a Utility Department
Utility bills are reduced. There are no outages. Everybody has basic cable for free. There is a charge for premium channels.
This can be done if we kick the rascals out! I know we can do it. Our lives depends on it.
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu