Response to last week’s article is that the Northshore Community Foundation is gathering the actual details of the project for presentation to Mayor Cooper’s office and the Covington Business Association, suggesting that the information contained within last week’s article was erroneous or inaccurate. The information presented in the Covington Weekly article came directly from nola.com, the Advocate and the Northshore Community Foundation website. Time will tell how the previously presented information will be transformed into something else.
Opinionated conclusions and suggestions are presented in the CW article, based on tax information offered by the Northshore Community Foundation, and based on past experience in researching how non-profits operate in a governmental role while avoiding the classification of being a ‘quasi-public entity’, or in this case, ‘private foundation’. The point disregarded here is that when government tells their constituency that they will not only be subsidizing a private business enterprise from out of the area, but also at the expense of existing local business, we are no longer in the realm of representative democracy.
Another comment with regard to the article claimed that it was a partisan attack on a public charity. There is nothing partisan about questioning the use of public money, or questioning projects involving public money and private enterprise, or the relationship between local governments and non profit organizations. They call it accountability.
Timothy Gates may be reached at [email protected].
