By James Gill
November 18, 2009, 5:01AM
The tequila they gave Mayor Ray Nagin at the Mexican consulate in New Orleans must have packed quite a punch.
Ted Jackson / The Times-PicayuneMayor Ray Nagin in 2008It was a glittering occasion, but Nagin appears to have forgotten all about it. The purpose of his trip to Merida early next month, his flack explains, is to "re-sign a sister-city agreement" that has been in place for 20 years.
Why that should be necessary would be a mystery even if Nagin hadn't already re-signed the agreement when Mayor Cesar Bojorquez Zapata came to town in September.
The Mexican Consul General was there, together with a large assortment of dignitaries, as the mayors attached their John Hancocks with a flourish.
Let us hope that, when Nagin outs with his pen in Merida, they don't ply him with tequila again. He could spend the entire rest of his term re-signing the same piece of paper.
There is no danger of that, say the cynics, because Nagin knows a reprise of the ceremony is quite unnecessary. He is very clear-headed about why he is going, and it is not because New Orleans and Merida "are working to renew their historic cultural and business ties," as his flack claims.
As the end of his term approaches, he will neglect no opportunity to indulge his fondness for visiting exotic locales, provided he doesn't have to pay the bill. It may be the taxpayer on the hook, or it may be a city contractor. Nagin is not fussy.
The cynics can hardly be blamed for characterizing the Merida visit as a free vacation, for Nagin's four-day schedule is blank save for a private tour of Mayan ruins, featuring an "in-bus cooler." Lunch and a "one-hour open bar" follow. Do not choose the tequila Mr. Mayor, for it can make Chichen Itza very hard to pronounce, and you might later have no recollection of what you saw there.
City Hall flacks have had considerable practice dreaming up vague business pretexts for mayoral junkets, and this time we are assured that other events will be planned and that Nagin and Zapata will "inaugurate a business exchange." It is a fair bet that this is the usual hocus-pocus.
If it isn't, we may be in trouble. The only business deal discussed when the cities reaffirmed their sororal bonds in September was the transfer of jobs from here to Mexico. The idea was for New Orleans companies to reduce production costs by moving their plants to Merida, while maintaining distribution centers here.
Sending the mayor abroad to give jobs away might not sound like much of a deal for local taxpayers, but Merida would be doing us a favor too, according to the president of its chamber of commerce, who is evidently a canny fellow.
New Orleans would lose in the short term, but profit in the end because companies that might otherwise go bust would survive and at least some jobs would be preserved here, he says.
The notion that Merida would be helping us out is probably easier to credit after a couple of tequilas.
Nagin, at the September shindig, did have a plan to milk Merida for a few bucks, however. He figures that Merida will provide a steady flow of patients for the medical complex that LSU wants to build in Mid-City. Perhaps, when Merida has grabbed all our jobs, the sick of the city will be rich enough to fly here and pay some serious bills.
They had better not be in a hurry, however, for, sister cities though New Orleans and Merida may be, there is no direct flight between them. Another pesky detail is that there is no medical center, and won't be unless several hundred million dollars drop from the heavens -- or we get the money from FEMA and Wall Street bond underwriters, which would be even more of a miracle.
Nagin will be long gone before any hospital is built, however, so he might as well take it easy in Merida. Those who believe that that is precisely what he plans to do will note that Nagin's wife, as usual, will be in tow. Asked who is picking up her tab, the flack grew evasive, so there is no doubt this is another public expense. If Nagin were ever to reach into his own pocket for his wife's travel, we may be sure we'd hear about it immediately.
That would be the biggest miracle of the lot; Nagin hasn't even scrupled to make us pay when he took his wife out to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
He'd better not have drunk tequila that day, however. He'd be embarrassed if he forgot that one.
James Gill can be reached at jgill@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3318.
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