My sources say the feds have already paid Meffert a very threatening visit … to his home, no less. It was ugly, and he’s scared.
American Zombie has much more, of course.
Thank goodness former N.O. Technology Chief Greg Meffert is a white Republican*. If this scandal metastasizes like it could, Meffert's doughy skin pigment and conservative affiliations will prevent certain stupid political narratives from forming (i.e., the feds are just targeting another black New Orleans Democrat...).
T-P:
When he became Mayor Ray Nagin's first technology chief, Greg Meffert -- who was hailed as an entrepreneurial wizard -- said he had forsaken lucrative options in the private sector for a selfless mission to modernize the city's broken bureaucracy.What a guy.
Meffert's exact role in [companies headed by former Meffert associates] remains unclear, but the e-mails show that he often participated in and directed decisions that had nothing to do with the firms' work in New Orleans.
Such as?
In one case, Meffert pitched crime cameras to Houston's technology chief, claiming they produced "immediate and huge" reductions in New Orleans crime. Meffert then coordinated travel plans to Houston with Mark St. Pierre, who once worked for him in the private sector and went on to head three related firms -- Imagine, NetMethods and Veracent -- that earned money from no-bid city technology work.
...
Meffert's e-mails shed further light on his involvement in crime cameras, including his efforts to market St. Pierre's wares in other cities. A few months after Katrina, for instance, Meffert wrote to Matt Hyde of Houston's technology office to sympathize about crimes committed in Houston by Katrina-exiled New Orleanians. He then pitched cameras as the solution.
On March 15, 2007 Greg Meffert was interviewed on Garland Robinette's "Think Tank" radio show about a T-P story on Meffert and the crime camera contracts.
You know, I was on this show two years ago. It was my idea to bring the cameras forth in the first place. I can't agree more that we need it. I can't agree more that the crime's out of control, and I can't agree more that it ain't working... You know, I see these kinds of deals, and, in the end, when we talk about these contracts and these companies, in the end, we can talk about the fact that you know these are just a handful of guys that did a lot to bring this city from where it was and where it is, worst in the nation in technology to literally number one in the nation. They're not a bunch of hacks, but I let that role, because that [fact] gets surgically extracted from these [T-P] stories.
...
When we put [the cameras] in the 6th District, we saw the murder rates drop 67%. No one was happier than me.
Here's American Zombie's commentary about Garland's interview. YRHT snark here. I don't present this old interview as damning information (though there might be some), just as an additional reminder about what a lying buffoon Meffert is.
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* I'm assuming he's Republican [Commenter Celcus says he's registered as a Dem.]
More soon.
