Shreveport city councilman James Green loves to dance and sway while at his pulpit.
He strokes his obviously died beard in a commercial that aired on his church website.
Just this week he was on a TV newscast promoting a new beauty topic.
He combined all these talents in his well-rehearsed made for TV press conference this week explaining the pay raises he handed out to the staff of the council clerk's office.
Many of his comments were disingenuous at best, and outright inaccurate and less than truthful.
Here is a sample of Green's manipulations of facts:
1. Other council chairman had given staff raises without approval of the council. He could NOT name chairman simply because none had taken such a brazen and unlawful action.
2. He said that the council staff work so hard that they deserve a raise. He overlooked the 13% percent pay raise enacted last year, the bloated size of the staff and the overcompensated staff members.
3. Green said he was the only person involved in the pay raise fiasco. Green overlooked the fact that someone had to type the paperwork granting the raise for his signature and deliver it to the payroll department. To rescind the pay raise he displayed a form that he signed and mistakenly gave it to a TV reporter. Council clerk Shanerika Fleming then grabbed the form from the reporter and said she must deliver it to the payroll department.
4. Green did not disclose how he arrived at the amount for each of the five pay raises. Who knows. Maybe it was divine intervention.
5. Green said NONE of the clerk’s office staff asked for the pay raise. This may be true, but it’s a well-known fact that council clerk Fleming is being paid substantially less as council clerk than she received as chief advisor to former mayor Adrian Perkins.
6. Green did NOT explain why he had not advised the council of his actions. Seemingly he feels as chairman that he is KING of the council, much like he is at his church.
To his credit Green did say that he expected the council clerk staff to re-pay the unauthorized pay raises in installments over several months.
Unfortunately, this casual remark is not binding on the staff.
Green apologized to the clerk's office staff, the council and Shreveport citizens.
Thankfully Green did not pull out the race card in his comments. Maybe that is because all of the clerk's office staff are African Americans.
He ended his remarks with a prayer in an effort to make everything "right."