When public officials don't want to respond to a reporter's question, it is not uncommon to get a "no comment,” but in a number of recent cases, Mayor Ray Nagin's office of communications hasn't even said that.

WWL-TV

Mayor Ray Nagin

WWL-TV reporters Katie Moore and Lee Zurik have encountered that, while covering stories involving City Hall and you read the same kinds of phrases in the newspaper.

In a Times-Picayune story about recovery, for example, the reporter wrote “Nagin's press office did not respond to questions."  In a story about repairs to the sewerage and water system: “A Nagin spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment." 

“I read newspaper articles and they end up saying ‘We didn't get a response.’  ‘We called or e-mailed and didn't get a response,’” observed Jay Handelman, former spokesman for Mayor Ernest “Dutch” Morial.

“On your station, I’ve heard you say that ‘We called and didn't get a response,’” added Handelman, who directed the mayor's office of communication under the first two years of Dutch Morial's administration.

“I am concerned when particularly that office is not responding as I think they ought to, to news media requests,” Handelman said.

“The specific role of the office of communications is to get the message out of the mayor and to get the message to the constituents,” said Dillard University political science professor Gary Clark. 

He adds that a non-response to media questions is different than a "no comment,” but he says it still sends a message.

“That's a statement in itself.  Again it demonstrates their priorities,” Clark said.  “Let’s say if someone is impotent in a certain issue and they don't respond to it, well what happens is the constituents will respond.”

He says President Ronald Reagan became known as the great communicator not because he got along well with the media but because he knew how to communicate to voters through the media.

“Individuals who are effective politicians know how to take the media and work with the media,” Clark said.

So why doesn't Mayor Nagin’s office respond to some media inquiries?  We took the question to the director of the mayor's office of communications, Ceeon Quiett.

“That's where we are going to disagree,” Quiett said.  “Because my office does comment.”

When asked about times when communications staffers have not responded to requests for comment, Quiett said, “We have responded but the answer may not have been the answer you wanted.  There has always been a response.”

When pressed on whether reporters who say there was no comment are lying, Quiett answered:  “I have challenged that several times.  I'm saying that it's not accurate.  We may have responded late or after your deadline.”

But in the examples we cited, and others, WWL-TV never did get a response.

We asked Mayor Nagin why his administration at times chooses not to respond to questions from reporters.

“Well probably for some good reasons,” Nagin said.  “We’re focused on recovery and we're not going to chase every little rumor that you, that certain people bring up.  That's just part of us managing our time.”

But Gary Clark says an elected official's connection with voters is a social relationship and if communication breaks down, so does the relationship.

“When access is denied, it does not exist, then that's when you begin to have systemic breakdown,” he said.

Some observers raised eyebrows when Nagin hired Ceeon Quiett away from the Detroit mayor's public information job at a salary of $131,468.  That's more than the mayor himself earns.

Almost two years after Quiett was hired, how does the New Orleans office of communications compare to similar agencies in other cities of similar size?

New Orleans, with a population 327,000, according to Nagin, has 9 positions in the office of communications.  The annual budget just for salaries is $561,917. 

The city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a population of 312,819, has three positions in the public information office.  The annual budget for salaries is $167,000.

Bakersfield, California, which has a population of 323,213, has no public information department.  The assistant city manager handles those duties. The annual salary is $93,922.32.

When asked why that budget would be so much smaller, Quiett said “You cannot compare any department, when you talk about New Orleans, to another department.”

Quiett says, unlike public information agencies in other cities, her office has to deal with national and international media reporting on the New Orleans recovery. She also says her office has taken an active role in helping the mayor reach out to displaced New Orleanians in other cities.

“We’ve done about 35 community town hall meetings with the mayor,” Quiett said.

So how does New Orleans office of communication compare with much larger cities?

San Francisco, with a population of 864,515, has five positions in the mayor's office of communication.  The total annual salaries equal $421,869.

Dallas, with a population of 1,213,825, has six people in its public information office.  The total annual salaries equal $477,169.

Both cities, more than twice the size of New Orleans, have smaller staffs and smaller total budget for salaries than New Orleans.

Meantime, Quiett confirms the city is negotiating with a private firm, called Uniworld, to help with some public relation duties.

“It's obvious that some cities are able to do more with less,” said Gary Clark of Dillard University.

Yet Mayor Nagin says his communication staff is smaller than it was before Hurricane Katrina and he sees no problem with it being larger and more expensive than cities more than twice as large.

“And we have demands that are not only local, but they’re statewide,” Nagin said.  “They’re national and international, so I think it's justified.”

But Jay Handelman questions whether Nagin is getting his money's worth.  At least two other agencies deal with tourism.  And Handelman thinks recovery should provide a lot of good stories for the mayor's communication office to tell.

“Either they’re not doing anything or they’re not getting the story out,” he said.  “I think they are doing things and they’re just not getting the story out.”

How would Quiett answer questions that say her office is ineffective?

“I would say that that isn't true.  But I would say that I understand because this recovery is overwhelming.”

Mayor Nagin says it's the media's fault.  He says his administration has offered plenty of good stories about the recovery, but he says the media have chosen to ignore them.