Stacy Aline Singleton Head (born June 30, 1969)
is an American lawyer and former president of the
New Orleans City Council
The New Orleans City Council is the legislative branch of the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The current mayor-council form of city government was created in 1954, following the 1950 amendment of the state constitution that provide ...
.
Early life and career
Stacy Head was born in 1969 as the daughter of the former Katherine Hamberlin and Ernest Lynn Singleton. She grew up in
Greensburg,
Saint Helena Parish, in southeastern Louisiana.
She has a (younger) brother, Michael Lynn Singleton.
Head is by profession an
attorney-at-law
Attorney at law or attorney-at-law, usually abbreviated in everyday speech to attorney, is the preferred term for a practising lawyer in certain jurisdictions, including South Africa (for certain lawyers), Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and the United ...
; she clerked for Phelps Dunbar LLC from 1991 to 1995 when she finished her
juris doctor degree at
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...
's
Paul M. Hebert Law Center and began working for Stanley, Flanagan & Reuter LLC. Her association with politics had begun when, as an undergraduate, she worked for the
Louisiana Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature (french: Législature d'État de Louisiane) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is a bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representa ...
although at the time she anticipated no notion of ever seeking elective office. That interest began in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina when the New Orleans City Council "unanimously asked Gov.
Kathleen Blanco
Kathleen Marie Blanco (née Babineaux; December 15, 1942 – August 18, 2019) was an American politician who served as the 54th Governor of Louisiana from January 2004 to January 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first and, ...
to extend daylight-saving time just for Orleans Parish"—an idea which Head found not only "impractical" but also "tinged with mad futility"; she compared it to
King Canute
Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norw ...
's attempt to hold back the sea.
In June 2007 she completed
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
's
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
course for Senior Executives in State and Local Government.
Election to city council
Stacy Head was elected to the New Orleans City Council in 2006, defeating incumbent
Renée Gill Pratt
Renée Gill Pratt (born 1954) is an American politician from New Orleans, Louisiana. She was also Director of the Center for Student Retention and Success in Southern University at New Orleans. On July 25, 2011, she was found guilty of racketeering ...
. Councilmember Head's candidacy benefited from concerns about governmental effectiveness and efficiency in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, developers who had obviated the desires of neighborhood residents, and affinities between incumbent Gill Pratt and then-
Congressman William J. Jefferson (
D), already under investigation on a variety of felony charges.
Bruce Nolan of the ''Times-Picayune'' has described as "intense, caffeinated personal" Head's approach to her work on the Council.
New Orleans writer Nordette Adams (''nomme de plume'' Vérité Parlant) has described Head as a "drama queen" (together with less-flattering designations).
Garbage and e-mail controversies
In 2008, Councilmember Head began delving into the relationship between fees collected and services rendered by the Sanitation Department, which, along with its director Veronica White, was alleged by
WWL-TV
WWL-TV (channel 4) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Slidell-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WUPL (channel 54). Both stations share studios on Rampart St ...
New Orleans Channel 4 (
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
) to be on too-friendly terms with the
office of mayor Ray Nagin. The Council generally supported Head's inquiries.
Retaliation to garbage inquiry
White retaliated by giving thousands of e-mail messages, from the computer accounts of the four white members of the Council, to activist lawyer Tracie Washington, under the proviso of
freedom of information
Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, Indigeno ...
but without proper redaction by city attorney Penya Moses-Fields, to remove statements protected by law. Washington, sympathetic to White, had set about to post the messages on the internet when a federal court, at the request of sources supportive of the Council, enjoined Washington from doing so and subpoenaed (and acquired) White's computers to thwart the possibility that messages on them from the Council might become published.
That e-mail controversy followed on the heels of an earlier e-mail controversy, after WWL-TV New Orleans Channel 4 (
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
) sued the mayor's office in an attempt to gain 6 months of e-mails as a public record.
In the context of the convoluted e-mail controversies ''Times-Picayune'' columnist Jarvis DeBerry proposed (perhaps
tongue in cheek
The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner.
History
The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scott ...
) that Council members communicate exclusively by means other than e-mail. DeBerry's column was met with a letter-to-the-editor rejoinder by Steven J. Lane (a
legal counsel
A lawyer is a person who Practice of law, practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different Jurisdiction, legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney at law, attorney, barrister, canonist, canon l ...
in the city attorney's office), who—after analyzing the potential insecurities of communication via
snail-mail,
fax
Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer o ...
,
telephone
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...
, and face-to-face
conversation—described DeBerry's recommendation as folly. DeBerry observed that Lane's assertions his office needed more time to vet the e-mails was met by Civil District Judg
Madeleine Landrieu'sretort that "We're not going to take thousands of hours"; then DeBerry commented:
::I don't know how to reconcile Lane's suggestion that going through all the e-mails amounts to a Herculean task with Lane's suggestion that going through all the e-mails can take a few weeks with Lane's suggestion that going through all the e-mails can take "thousands of hours."
On 2009 May 27 the ''Times-Picayune'' reported that the number of e-mails involved in the suit by WWL-TV was 135,144 and that vetting of them could take up to 15 months, despite a cautionary statement that "We're not going to take thousands of hours" by District Judge Madeleine Landrieu. On 2009 May 29 the ''Times-Picayune'' editorialized against a request by Lane that Louisiana
Attorney General Buddy Caldwell
James David Caldwell Sr., known as Buddy Caldwell (born May 20, 1946), is an American attorney and politician from the state of Louisiana. He served as Attorney General of Louisiana.
Caldwell lost his 2015 reelection bid to Jeff Landry. In 2018, ...
issue a
legal opinion on the amount of time available to redact the e-mails and the nature of information which can be withheld. The editorial insisted that
::The state's Open Records Act is a straightforward statute, with ample jurisprudence and set mechanisms for resolving disputes in court.
Internet posting
On 2009 May 13, prior to a
stay
Stay may refer to:
Places
* Stay, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the US
Law
* Stay of execution, a ruling to temporarily suspend the enforcement of a court judgment
* Stay of proceedings, a ruling halting further legal process in a tri ...
ordered by the
state supreme court
In the United States, a state supreme court (known by other names in some states) is the highest court in the state judiciary of a U.S. state. On matters of state law, the judgment of a state supreme court is considered final and binding in b ...
, Washington briefly posted on the internet certain of Head's e-mail messages. The messages, wrote Bruce Eggler in the ''Times-Picayune'', appeared to have been chosen to cause her
ouncilmember Headmaximum personal and political embarrassment.
::They contain disparaging references to City Councilwoman
Jackie Clarkson and other public figures and an irate description of the allegedly extravagant purchases of a
food-stamp recipient in line ahead of Head at a grocery. In the latter message, Head, a Democrat, threatens to vote for "the freak"
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
presidential candidate
John McCain and his "trash bag" running mate,
Sarah Palin.
Observing that in the e-mails Head had labeled Clarkson an "ASSS" (''sic''), James Gill took the occasion to criticize Head's spelling:
::It is quite an achievement for an elected official to turn off Democrats and Republicans in one sentence, and no doubt Head will be more careful with her e-mails from now on. Perhaps that will improve her spelling.
When Head began publishing the e-mail messages herself on 2009 May 18, she was promptly interviewed by
WDSU-TV. In the interview Head said that "The person who hates me deep down more than anything has had my e-mails" in referring to Tracie Washington.
As Head's e-mail messages became public, by 2009 June 25 it was apparent that "hostility" (the word used by the ''Times-Picayune'') between Head and Washington involved assessments of Washington's house, messages by Head to her lawyer confidante Nyka Scott alleging that Washington's home had been under-valued by the assessor to lower Washington's taxes. Head's e-mail also revealed thoughts and potential plans for a retaliatory demonstration in front of Washington's house after a demonstration by Washington's supporters in front of Head's house. Head had incorrectly indicated Washington's house as being in the assessment territory of assessor Nancy Marshall, but the property is actually in the territory of assessor Henry Heaton. Both Marshall and Heaton said that Head had never communicated with either of them about the valuation of Washington's property—a request that they said would have been unethical in that the City Council reviews appeals of assessments retroactively but does not interfere with assessments of individuals proactively. City Council president
Arnie Fielkow clarified:
::I don't think it's right of us that are privileged to be on City Council to be asking others to look at assessments of particular people. I think that's very wrong.
Head denied that alleging an underassessed value for Washington's property had anything to do with their nemesis relationship:
::If somebody has done something that I perceive is wrong, are they then immune from me taking any appropriate action? I can't live that way. I try very hard to be even in the way that I deal with things. There are multiple entities that I've reported to the IRS, multiple entities that I've reported to the assessor as questionable nonprofit status.
On 2009 December 7 an echo of the e-mail controversies reverberated when New Orleans police chief
Warren J. Riley claimed that Head had written a derogatory e-mail about him. He had apparently trashed the e-mail and was unable to retrieve it when questioned at a press conference.
Recall drive
Councilmember Head faced a recall petition in late 2008 continuing into 2009, ostensibly for not representing the
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
community and then for her support of
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
candidate
Anh "Joseph" Cao, in his successful 2008 challenge to incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson, considered Gill Pratt's ally or even mentor. Two days (on 2009 December 8) after Cao's victory, WDSU-TV carried a statement by
Mayor Nagin that Head had made "race-baiting" comments. The vitriolic quality of the environment had already been evident in allegations on a left-wing web site dubbing Head a "notorious racist and poor people hater" as well as a "partner in evil" with fellow Council member
James Carter, an African American. The recall petition officially began on 2008 November 3, when recall leader Malcolm Suber formed, for the purpose, an organization calling itself Citizens for Accountability and Transparency in Government (CATG). On 2009 March 9, a week after the petition garnered the support of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...
, Suber claimed to have collected over half the requisite signatures, despite protests from African American constituents who defended Head on WDSU-TV New Orleans Channel 6 (
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
).
James Gill, ''Times-Picayune'' essayist, lampooned the situation with a column title
"Of all the accusations against Stacy Head, only one sticks—she's white" (Suber is black; Cao is
Vietnamese American
Vietnamese Americans ( vi, Người Mỹ gốc Việt, lit=Viet-origin American people) are Americans of Vietnamese ancestry. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American ethnic group after Chinese ...
). Head dismissed the leaders of the petition to recall her as "poverty pimps" pursuing their own agendas. Political scientist Ed Chervenak described the recall effort as the "opening shot in an anybody-but-Head councilmanic campaign" to emerge in Summer 2009. Head at first declined to indicate her reelection plans or lack of them
but soon, and generally, indicated t
WDSU-TVan
WIST-Radio New Orleans AM 690(
Fox News Radio) her intention to be a candidate for 2010 reelection. The recall drive failed to produce the required 18,000 signatures within 180 days. Head had this to say about the leaders of the recall:
::Given the momentum that reform and progressive politics has had recently, they are, I'm sure, having trouble dealing with their obsolescence. . . . This is a last-ditch effort to maintain relevance.
As of 2009 July 23, no challenger had "stepped up" explicitly. Head was reelected on 2010 February 6 with 67 percent (10132 votes) to 33 percent (5021) for Corey Watson, an
electrical engineer and
minister whose father had founded New Orleans' Watson Memorial United Ministries.
Head subsequently endorsed Cao in his 2010 reelection campaign in which he was challenged by Democrat
Cedric Richmond.
Mayor's outlook and Jefferson factor
In a mid-March 2009 interview on
WVUE-TV New Orleans Channel 8 (
Fox), Nagin said, with regard to the councilmembers' e-mail messages, that White had "followed the policy"; Nagin declined, however, to rule out disciplinary action in either White's case or that of the city's Chief Technology Officer, Harrison Boyd, who supplied the e-mail messages to her. But simultaneously, in another proceeding, Nagin had been defending his own e-mails from disclosure, whereupon ''Times-Picayune'' columnist Stephanie Grace accused him of "inconsistency" and noted a similar behavior with respect to New Orleans Katrina-recovery czar
Ed Blakely
Edward James Blakely (born 1938), for most his career, was a Professor of Urban Planning at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1994, he retired as a leading scholar in the field with award winning books. He is known primarily for having ...
; Grace wrote:
::The fact that many of the mayor's records had been purged didn't come to light until WWL went to court. In a separate suit . . . outgoing Recovery Director Ed Blakely said in an affidavit that he deleted most of his e-mails after being told that his inbox had exceeded its space limit. The message came two months after the
'Times-Picayune''newspaper requested the records.
On 2009 May 22, James Gill posited a network of individuals tied to former congressman Jefferson (whom Mayor Nagin had endorsed for reelection) as out to get Head's head. Gill noted that Gill Pratt had been Jefferson's aide when Jefferson served two terms in the
Louisiana Senate
The Louisiana State Senate (french: Sénat de Louisiane) is the upper house of the state legislature of Louisiana. All senators serve four-year terms and are assigned to multiple committees.
Composition
The Louisiana State Senate is compose ...
a generation earlier, from which position she advanced to the
state House of Representatives and then to the New Orleans City Council, all the while, according to Gill, steering "vast sums of money to non-profits established by Jefferson's brother, Mose Jefferson, and his sister,
Property Tax
A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inhe ...
Assessor Betty Jefferson"; then "the Jeffersons just helped themselves to the money" until Mose was "charged with bribing" the
Orleans Parish School Board. Head was a fly in the Jeffersons' ointment as she upended Gill Pratt from reelection to the City Council. Renée Gill Pratt, the columnist said, was at the "Celebration of Service" staged for Jefferson two weeks prior to the start of his 2009 June 2 trial on 16 felony counts. As Gill Pratt—after Head defeated her for reelection—was appointed director of one of the Jeffersons' non-profits, Tracie Washington came on the scene, organizing a "Justice for Jefferson Steering Committee" in which she, as chairwoman, said that the "Machiavellian twisting of
Karl Rove and his
Brownshirts
The (; SA; literally "Storm Detachment") was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi ralli ...
" had been directed, in league with the press, at Jefferson as victim. Head provided additional effrontery by endorsing Joseph Cao, the
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
who ousted Jefferson from Congress. On 2009 August 5, virtually 7 months after the day when Cao defeated him, William J. Jefferson was convicted on 11 felony counts; two weeks later Mose Jefferson was convicted on four counts involving bribery.
In the meantime Head had continued assaulting the garbage-collection fees, on 2009 July 30 proposing to eliminate general-fund subsidies to the fees so that residents, irrespective of neighborhood, would face the actual costs on their bills. Councilwoman
Cynthia Hedge-Morrell countered that "I don't think that will pass" whereupon Head responded:
::We always want to get something for nothing in government. . . ; our job . . . is to get people to the harsh reality that we have to pay for services.
S&WB controversy
In 2012 Head sought election to an
at-large seat on the New Orleans City Council. As a member of the city's
Sewerage and
Water Board
A water board is a regional or national organisation that has very different functions from one country to another. The functions range from flood control and water resources management at the regional or local level (the Netherlands, Germany), w ...
(S&WB), she had information on subsidized rates charged to
public entities
A statutory corporation is a government entity created as a statutory body by statute. Their precise nature varies by jurisdiction, thus, they are statutes owned by a government or controlled by national or sub-national government to the (in so ...
such as
firehouse
__NOTOC__
A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equipment, fire h ...
s and asserted that the lower rates cause some of the public entities to waste water at the expense of other subscribers. She alleged situations of water use by public entities which were really required to be free under state law.
Representative at-large
After besting
Cynthia Willard-Lewis for the at-large seat, Head soon attracted the ire of council members
Jon D. Johnson and
Cynthia Hedge-Morrell for announcing plans by
Big Lots
Big Lots Stores, Inc. (stylized as Big Lots!) is an American retail company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio with over 1,400 stores in 47 states.
History
The Big Lots chain traces its history back to 1967 when Consolidated Stores Corporation ...
to open a store in
New Orleans East
New Orleans East is the eastern section of New Orleans, the newest section of the city. It is bounded by the Industrial Canal, the Intracoastal Waterway and Lake Pontchartrain. Developed extensively from the 1950s onward, its numerous residential ...
(an earlier Big Lots store there closed after
Hurricane Katrina in 2005). Hedge-Morrell asserted that the announcement should have been made by Johnson, in whose district the store was to go, or jointly by Johnson and Head. Johnson said that he had delayed making an announcement because Big Lots' plans were still unconcluded. Another perception of the situation was that Head was merely repaying in kind the votes by Johnson and Willard-Lewis to block Head's nomination of Errol George to replace Head in the District B seat, which instead went to
Diana Bajoie.
[ ''Cf''. this article written at a time when George's "appointment" by Head was viewed as a ''fait accompli'': ]
Personal life
Head is married to accountant Jeremy Thomas Head,
and the couple have two children.
The family attends Trinity Episcopal Church.
[ As a teenager she was chosen queen of the ]Oyster Festival An oyster festival is a food festival centered on the oyster. There are a number of oyster festivals worldwide, including the following:
Australia
* The Brisbane Water Oyster Festival — Woy Woy, New South Wales
* Narooma, New South Wales &md ...
in Amite, the parish seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
of Tangipahoa Parish
Tangipahoa Parish (; French: ''Paroisse de Tangipahoa'') is a parish located in the southeast corner of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 121,097. The parish seat is Amite City, while the largest city is ...
.
Election history
Councilmember, New Orleans District B, 2006
Threshold > 50%
First Ballot, 2006 April 22
Second Ballot, 2006 May 20
First Ballot, 2012 March 24
Second Ballot, 2012 April 21
See also
* Anh "Joseph" Cao
* Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson
Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson (born January 17, 1936) is an American politician who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1994 to 2002, and multiple tenures on the New Orleans City Council (1990–94, 2002–06, 2007–2013). She ...
* Cheryl A. Gray Evans
* William J. Jefferson
* Helena Moreno
* Rosalind Peychaud
Rosalind Magee Peychaud (born 1948) is a Democratic former state representative for Louisiana House of Representatives District 91 (which she represented from 2002 to 2004). In 2009 Peychaud became deputy chief of staff for U.S. Representativ ...
* Jim Singleton
* Cynthia Willard-Lewis
Notes
External links
Stacy Head - Veronica White altercation
New Orleans City Council video on YouTube
New Orleans City Council argues over trash pickup
WWL-TV
WWL-TV (channel 4) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Slidell-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WUPL (channel 54). Both stations share studios on Rampart St ...
New Orleans Channel 4 (CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
) on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Head, Stacy
1969 births
American Episcopalians
American whistleblowers
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Living people
Louisiana Democrats
Louisiana lawyers
Louisiana State University Law Center alumni
New Orleans City Council members
People from Kentwood, Louisiana
People from Greensburg, Louisiana
Women city councillors in Louisiana
21st-century American politicians
21st-century American women politicians