City councilman Oliver Thomas, widely known as a good guy to everyone down here, is the latest politician to be caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Sunday morning’s headline reads, “Thomas expected to plead guilty,” except it was in all caps. Underneath: “Alleged shakedown involved parking contracts,” and “Convicted restaurateur Stan ‘Pampy’ Barre’ tipped off the feds.’

The lead paragraph calls this “the most dramatic development to date in a sprawling probe of corruption in New Orleans city government.” The senior member of the City Council, Thomas has 13 years of service, and is in his second term as one of two ‘at large’ members. He has been vocal about the foolish statements of our mayor, about the crime problem in New Orleans, and about the need for better leadership. Most had speculated he would run for mayor next time around.

Turns out, any running he will do will be around the yard at the big house.

Pampy Barre’ has had his sentencing delayed while he cooperates with the local U.S. attorney’s office. Apparently when it became obvious he was going down, he decided to take some of the local hypocrites with him, particularly if it would ease his own time away from home. Barre’ owned a parking company which won the rights to manage three city-owned lots in the French Quarter, but with the understanding that Oliver Thomas would receive a kickback. No word yet as to the amount of money we’re talking about.

Sunday morning, I sent this “letter to the editor” of our newspaper: “Could we have a new law that says whenever a leader violates the public trust, the level of punishment he or she is given will be determined by the public outrage over their misdeeds. If we get such a law, we can safely predict that some of our crooked politicians will never see the light of day again.”

Speaking of that, the couple who owned St. Rita’s nursing home in St. Bernard Parish where 35 elderly residents died in Katrina’s floodwaters, are about to go on trial. The courtroom drama was moved to West Feliciana Parish to try to find a more impartial jury. That would put the case in St. Francisville, the sweet little tourist mecca north of Baton Rouge.

Defendants Mabel and Sal Mangano have tried to subpoena the governor as a witness in their defense, blaming, as they do, the debacle on government mismanaging and conflicting warnings in advance of Katrina. However, since other nursing home operators evacuated their residents without incident, it would appear, on the surface and from this vantage point, that this is a poor defense. Stay tuned.

One of the strangest things happening locally–in a city where strangeness is the rule these days–is that some who are in the process of renovating their property are finding their homes slated to be demolished. One told his story on the op-ed page in Saturday’s paper, describing the levels of unresponsive bureaucracy he had to negotiate in search of someone who could protect his home from destruction. Some city office finally sent him a letter assuring him they had changed their records accordingly, he said, but the address listed the wrong house number!!

It’s not easy living in this city at this time. When the Saints played their second pre-season game on TV Thursday night before a national audience, an announcer said following Katrina most players on our team were begging for some other team to take them. They just wanted out of here, he said.

Most of them got a ticket out of town, but not the way they had intended. New coach Sean Payton sent the majority of the previous year’s mediocre team packing and started afresh with the outstanding bunch now wearing the jerseys.

That’s why we’re always encouraged when someone chooses to move to the city. Pastor Sam Gentry left the rolling green hills of Missouri to take the leadership of the First Baptist Church of Belle Chasse recently. Today, Sunday, I worshiped with them. From everything I see, it’s a great match, Sam and FBC. Attendance has almost doubled and they’re renovating the sanctuary, meeting for a couple more Sundays in the fellowship hall. This morning, two people joined the church after making recent professions of faith. “We have ten awaiting baptism,” the pastor said, “just as soon as we re-enter the sanctuary.”

We welcome Pastor Sam and pray God will use him to do wonderful things in that strategic community which borders the Belle Chasse Naval Air Station.