Citizen investigation and some fine journalism exposed corruption surrounding the New Orleans Affordable Housing Corporation (NOAH). Karen Gadbois and Sarah Lewis — along with media outlets WWL-TV and The Times Picayune — showed federal money appeared to have been given to politically connected contractors who did little or none of the work they were paid to do. The city of New Orleans hired NOAH to gut and board up the storm-damaged homes of the elderly and those with low incomes. The program was designed to help these less-fortunate groups through the $3.6 million project.In typical Louisiana style, corruption took over. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, in perfect form, first chastised WWL-TV’s Lee Zurik in late July for following up on Gadbois’ investigations, calling him “reckless.” Nagin went on to say that federal money being spent on work never done was “completely untrue.” A few days later, the mayor reluctantly admitted there were some “documentation issues” and “discrepancies” in the program. On Aug. 11, agents from the FBI and the Department of Housing and Urban Development seized documents and records from NOAH’s office building opposite City Hall. The contractors may have even been paid for work that was done by volunteers. The program was only supposed to benefit seniors and those in poverty, yet several houses, such as Orleans Parish Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Lagarde and New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley’s homes, were reportedly improved by NOAH, too. Myers & Sons billed NOAH $7,935 for work done on the judge’s home, and NOAH billed the city for cutting grass on the police chief’s home. “I have no knowledge of the grass being cut by the city,” Riley said in a statement to WWL-TV.  Smith & Associates Consulting is one of the highest paid firms in the program, and the ridiculous thing is the company is owned by Nagin’s brother-in-law, Cedric Smith. So far, Smith’s firm has billed the city for $133,000 for work done on 48 properties. Unlike Nagin’s 2002 rebuke of his brother-in-law — incurred when Smith brought controlling interest in a firm that held a contract with the Regional Transit Authority — now Nagin sees no problem with Smith’s contract for the city’s gutting project. Sadly, political corruption is barely news in Louisiana. A month after Katrina, Billy Tauzin, a former U.S. congressman from Louisiana, said, “Half of Louisiana is under water and the other half is under indictment.”Tauzin’s statement still reigns true today. From the indictment of Congressman Bill Jefferson to the convictions of former Gov. Edwin Edwards, corruption is a depressing and inseparable part of Louisiana’s history.  History, however, is important to society’s development. Louisianians can learn from this history and recent events to realize that this behavior is unacceptable. Corrupt politicians — Republicans or Democrats — are criminals and must be treated as such. Hell, it would be stupid for voters to re-elect these politicians even if they aren’t convicted.C. B. Forgotson — a veteran of the Louisiana legislature, a former lobbyist for Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and an outspoken critic of legalized gambling, political corruption and fiscal responsibility — calls the recent corruption “a total lack of accountability with regard to taxpayer dollars.”Incidents like the NOAH corruption should increase skepticism among citizens. We should become very hesitant to allow the federal, state or local government to take on more power or responsibility. If government cannot responsibly handle simple tasks such as gutting flooded houses, how can citizens hope it can handle more responsibility like of universal healthcare?P.J. O’Rourke said it best when he said, “When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.” The government can only be truly trusted with little, so it would have been better to have given it a few tasks the private sector really couldn’t do. So instead of just brushing the NOAH corruption off as another example of typical Louisiana corruption, citizens should be upset and start demanding a higher quality public officials in office.  After all it is citizens’ tax dollars being misused in this way. Plato once said, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” Let’s stop being governed by our inferiors and demand a higher quality politician — if those even really exist.—-contact Matthew Gravens at [email protected]