For almost two years, he's made big promises, but to many New Orleanians, recovery director Dr. Edward Blakely has done little to spur the city's recovery.

Blakely has been one of the area's post-storm enigmas, with many saying his world class credentials haven't translated to on the ground success.

To help find out just what Blakely is doing on the job, Eyewitness News requested more than 12 months of his schedule and had two political analysts and a former City Council member analyze his work.

“Mr. Blakely is talking to all of the right people,” said Edward Chervenak, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Orleans.

“He’s talking to architects, engineers, planners, FEMA officials.  He’s talking to VA officials,” said Chervenak.

But to Chervenak it's the time away from the job that is the real story.

“On average, he is basically only putting in about six hours a day into his job.”

That number comes from a spreadsheet Chervenak assembled, putting each notation on Blakely's calendar into a category.  For example, the spreadsheet notes whether Blakely met with a city or state official, whether he went to dinner or his schedule was marked “out.”

A light schedule?

When you figure in all of that off time, counting vacation, Chervenak says the recovery director is only averaging about six hours a day on the job.  WWL’s analysis showed almost 35 weekdays/non-holidays on Blakely's calendar where he was either out, had a blank day on his calendar, or was on vacation or annual leave.

“When I used to be in the banking business, you’d have to, to accumulate six weeks vacation, you’d have to work over 10 years, and that was years ago,” said former City Council member Jay Batt.

Blakely did travel often for work, according to Chervenak, about 20 percent of the time traveling to the nation's Capitol and Panama, with a few speeches and meetings sprinkled in around the country.

“This lends to this idea that he's probably not as focused on the recovery as probably most of us would like to see,” said Chervenak.

Digging deeper into Blakely's calendar leads to even more questions.

“When he's here, the days are complete,” said Gary Clark, a political science professor at Dillard University.

Clark points to the time Blakely spent in town.  The majority of his days seem to be filled and he sometimes works more than 10 hours, going from meeting to meeting and often attending an event for dinner.

“It seems more of the meetings to me seem to be more political then policy meetings,” said Clark.

Meeting with the right people

To him, it's not how long Blakely is working, but who he is working with. Clark says Blakely's calendar points to a political agenda, rather than one focusing on policy.  That is something Clark says should be the objective of the recovery leader.

“What is glaring to me is the absence of our national leadership and our national representatives.  Where is Senator David Vitter in this equation?  Where is Senator Mary Landrieu in this equation?” Clark asked.

Neither was on Blakely's calendar, although he did make a few trips to Washington, D.C. and likely met with them under a notation that referenced the state's delegation.

Eyewitness News also examined the amount of time Blakely spent with the person who is perhaps the Gulf Coast's most important federal official: the coordinator of federal support for the recovery and rebuilding of the Gulf Coast.

That position was formerly held by Donald Powell and is now held by General Douglas O’Dell.  Blakely had one scheduled meeting with Powell in October of last year and two with O'Dell in May.  Then the two met in August, just days after O'Dell criticized Blakely, saying he is "failing" at his job and often doesn't return phone calls.

“He should be meeting with them once a month at a minimum and at least having scheduled conference calls and having meetings with maybe their underlings, if you will,” commented Batt, who from 2002 until 2006 represented District A on the city council, an area which includes storm-damaged Lakeview.

Blakely did seem to meet regularly with FEMA officials, and had countless appointments on the proposed LSU/VA hospital.  According to Chervenak’s spreadsheet, Blakely met 60 times with Mayor Ray Nagin, or in his office.  The analysis shows Blakely met 70 times with city council members.

“He's met with the media about 90 times, so he's meeting the media more than he's meeting City Council members or the mayor,” said Chervenak.

So what is missing from Blakely's schedule?

“That schedule should have been chock full of meetings with developers, entrepreneurs and federal officials,” Batt said.

Batt adds that many of Blakely's meetings seem focused on projects far down the line, instead of the bricks and mortar needed now.

“There's nothing wrong with thinking big and outside the box.  I think that’s wonderful, but a lot of it is pie in the sky, and I think what the people in the city want to see is results.”

Divided time

What is clear is that Blakely is busy.  He teaches a class at UNO and according to his schedule, traveled to Australia, spoke or attended many conferences and even a few board meetings.

“Obviously his time is divided,” said Clark.

Some say he's an academician with big ideas, big credentials, but according to our analysts, no big time success to point to on the ground in New Orleans.

“It seems like he's being pulled in different directions because of his academic work,” said Chervenak.  “Certainly there is probably lots of action behind the scenes that are taking place that aren’t being presented here in his calendar. In all fairness, someone like Mr. Blakely is always working.” 

WWL-TV requested an interview with Blakely for this story, but that request was never granted.

Late Wednesday evening, a City Hall spokesman sent a statement from Blakely.  In it, he writes, "I see no useful purpose in reviewing my schedule unless this review also includes an analysis of the many nights and weekends I spend on the job, as well as the travel that I take on behalf of the city of New Orleans. This has included trips to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress and the leaders of federal agencies in an effort to accelerate our recovery.”

“Any time when I have not been on the job, it has been for personal reasons, including the fact that my family lives elsewhere. For each trip that has not been work related, I have taken vacation, sick or personal time or unpaid leave," the statement said.