1
http://www.troyhenry.com/
1. What will you do to bring more young professionals to the city? Also what are your plans to retain more New Orleans professionals that we lose to Houston and Atlanta? New Orleans has great people, food, history, and culture, but we also need a strong and diversified economy, with good paying jobs, so we can retain and attract the talented individuals that will help our city to grow and prosper. I’ll bring 40,000 to 50,000 new jobs to New Orleans by doing extensive recruitment of Fortune-1000 companies to move some of their business units/support services to the City. These jobs pay between $50,000 and $80,000, plus some management positions. I’ll also ask President Obama to show that the federal government believes in the quality of the levees that they built to protect our City by moving thousands of federal jobs to the area. I’ll lead this recruitment effort while working closely with other City and regional leaders in the public and private sector to ensure success. My administration will also support local entrepreneurship, particularly in industries of the future like energy efficiency and green technology, digital media, and biotechnology. The City itself can also be an economic development engine. Every year, the Administration spends millions of dollars on City contracts. I’ll make every effort to ensure that those taxpayer dollars are recycled in our own community by choosing capable and qualified local firms to do work in the City. 2. What capacity role will police play in educating our youth? The Police Department can play a major role by improving its image. Under my Administration, the NOPD will finally implement real community policing. Community Policing allows police officers to foster good relationships and bonds of mutual respect with neighborhood residents and kids. When kids begin to see that officers are friends rather than enemies, come to help rather than hurt, the kids will start to go to police officers when they have a problem. And through that interaction, that becomes a police officer’s best chance to positively impact young lives. 3. What is your position on the Youth Study Center? The Youth Study Center needs a full-scale makeover of its facilities and operations. First, the Youth Study Center needs classrooms. It needs increased bed space, recreational areas, and classrooms that have the same technology that is available to other students. It also needs a staff of trained professionals. The current atmosphere at the Center is not conducive to learning at all. In fact, in lawsuits filed against the Center
Troy Henry’s answers
2 conditions, sited at the facility include the existence of rats and mold, a lack of educational services and adequately trained staff, and the practice of holding youngsters in cells for at least 20 hours a day. For the Center to be effective, counselors need to develop strategies that deal with the youngsters as individuals and address the needs of the whole person. For instance, there should be a Physical Education program for physical activity and wellness, also group counseling for substance abuse and teen pregnancy. There should also be increased educational requirements, especially in literacy, for youngsters housed at the facility. 4. What qualities are you looking for in a new police chief? I’m looking for the best man or woman to lead the Police Department. That person will be experienced, and will have the ability to communicate effectively (especially with the public) and work collaboratively with neighborhood residents. He or she will also have a demonstrated record of success and be willing to commit to excellence and to have success measured by specific goals of crime reduction, police professionalism, response times, public satisfaction, and the Department’s ability to work effectively with the other agencies that comprise the Criminal Justice System, including the District Attorney, Sheriff, Judges, Office of the Public Defender, U.S. Attorney, and other federal law enforcement agencies. The Police Chief will also commit to finally implementing Community Policing that has proven effective in other communities that have dramatically reduced crime. As with all of my staff, the Police Chief will be held to the highest standards of integrity in words, deeds, and associations. 5. If all the candidates agree with the 10 for 2010, how will they execute the ten points and bring them to fruition? Are you willing to make cuts to city personnel, or city perks, such as cars? As Mayor, I’ll work with the residents of New Orleans to set the City’s budget priorities. I’ll hold monthly meetings in each City Council district and annual community congresses with all residents (similar to the citywide meetings we held during the Unified New Orleans Plan process). City spending will be based on the input from residents that we gather from those meetings. We will evaluate all perks and benefits to ensure that they are properly allocated and in the city’s best interest. My administration will care and respect the city funds and treat them as the precious asset that has been entrusted to my team.
6. If Mayor, will you restart a recycling program? Will you eliminate people’s trash bill if they pay a monthly fee for recycling? As Mayor, one of my goals is to transform New Orleans into one of the greenest cities in the U.S., so we need to restart a recycling program. But one of the things I will do as Mayor is engage the community to help my Administration to set spending priorities. If recycling is a community priority, we will know it and it will be fully funded. Regarding monthly fees for trash pick-up, currently residents are only paying about half the cost of
Troy Henry’s answers
3 solid waste removal in this City. So we have to figure out the best way to pay the cost of sanitation other than through deficit spending. Some communities have developed programs that allow residents to pay sliding fees based on the amount of trash they actually produce and put out for pick-up. Recycled material would not be included in the trash count. If that fee structure were implemented, it would definitely benefit recyclers. But recycling programs cost money to operate also. So eliminating fees is probably not feasible. But as a community, we’ll come up with the best answer for how we move forward to provide a recycling service. 7. As mayor, how will you work with the New Orleans Public School System to ensure that children and youth get access to quality afterschool programs? The first thing I’ll do is to fix NORD, so that it can create quality afterschool programs that are diverse, accessible, and effective. As Mayor, I’ll work collaboratively with our school leaders to direct kids to those programs. I will also coordinate NOPS afterschool programs with NORD programs so that logistical challenges such as transportation and start times can be reconciled. 8. As Mayor, will education have a place in your administration? Absolutely! I will support and be a strong advocate for school leadership continuing the great progress that we’ve made in student achievement over the last few years. Our redesigned education model has received national acclaim and is working. I think the best thing the next Mayor can do is to work to continue those successes. Also, as the system is eventually returned to local oversight (over the long-term), we need to begin thinking about how we transfer our new model into a support structure that is free from the type of top-down bureaucracy, mismanagement, and political interference that contributed to the systemic failures of the school system pre-Katrina. I’ll work with school leaders to develop a model where schools continue to have a degree of independence that fosters creativity in curriculum, teaching methods, student activities, and overall management at each school; and which also fosters competition amongst schools, so that principals, teachers, and support personnel at each school are incentivized to perform well. 9. How will you ensure/create more opportunities to prepare our youth for career opportunities or for college? The youth of New Orleans are the future of New Orleans! They will be the direct beneficiaries of my economic development, education and public safety strategies. I will strongly encourage Local companies, city contractors and professionals to hire our youth thru internship opportunities. My company has done this as a policy for several years. The exposure for the kids is motivational for their college aspirations. So as we grow and diversify the New Orleans economy, our youth will realize a tremendous opportunity for experience and exposure. 10. How do you plan to decrease the drop out rate? The school system and parents have to be responsible for doing the bulk of the work in this area. The school system has to provide school environments that are safe and conducive to learning. Parents have to be involved in their children’s education and provide nurturing home environments. I’ll use the bully pulpit of the Mayor’s office to hold
Troy Henry’s answers
4 them accountable. I also think that the Mayor can be most impactful in ensuring that the educational safety net is in tact for students that have an increased likelihood of falling through cracks in the system. That safety net includes having a well-function NORD, community centers and youth advocacy organizations that provide mentoring programs, trade schools that provide young people opportunities to have gainful employment, a business community that cooperates with those efforts, and a Police Department that the community sees as a partner and whose officers serve as role models for youth. 11. What are your plans to fix NOPD and NORD? As Mayor, I’ll fix the NOPD and NORD the same way I will fix all of City government – by instituting a cultural transformation throughout City government that focuses on accountability, transparency, performance, professionalism, excellence, and results. In question #4, I discussed my plans to hold the new Police Chief accountable. For NORD, I support having the public and private sectors work in partnership to improve facilities and programs. However, before that happens, I’ll put standards in place to ensure NORD’s accountability, transparency, and performance. I’ll use the Baton Rouge Recreation and Park Commission (BREC) as a model. BREC is one of the most effective, well-funded youth recreation agencies in the U.S., and it provides broad range of recreational, sports, nature, and cultural programs. 12. If you were to number your priorities as mayor, what number are youth on your priority list? I have a five-pillar campaign platform that is all-citizen focused, so it inherently prioritizes youth. And as a father of three children that have led good, successful lives, I understand how having loving households, positive role models, good schools, recreational opportunities, and good communities can positively impact kids lives. What I plan to do as Mayor is work collaboratively with parents, schools, youth advocacy leader and organizations, NORD, and others to build the kind of community that prioritizes youth. 13. Are you in favor of the current school system? Why or why not? I support what works. The bureaucratic, top-down management structure that New Orleans had pre-Katrina was not working. Our current charter school model needs improvement, but it’s been a huge success thus far. Since Katrina, we’ve seen test scores in Orleans public schools skyrocket. I believe it’s because charter schools have a degree of independence that fosters creativity in curriculum, teaching methods, student activities, and overall management at each school. The charter school model also fosters competition amongst schools, so the principals, teachers, and support personnel at each school are incentivized to perform well.
14. How can the city address special needs youth? What are your plans to fix this issue? As Mayor, I will work with NORD to ensure that as we’re developing programs for kids, the specific needs of special needs youth are included. The new ballparks built that were built through the leadership of Carrollton Boosters community residents on “The Fly” at
Troy Henry’s answers
5 Audubon Park were designed specifically to accommodate special needs youth. It’s a prime example of what we can re-create throughout the entire City.
Troy Henry’s answers