Dear New Orleans City Councilmember Cynthia Hedge-Morrell and Councilmember Jon Johnson:

I ask you to please pay careful attention to your respective schedules to prevent possible jam-ups on Thursday, May 17, 2012 that could result in your inability to participate in the next New Orleans City Council regular meeting (and potential absences from any special meetings that might be called as well).

I realize that dental appointments and such happen, but our city really needs you to be present and engaged right now. Without a quorum of five members, everything stalls.

For instance: If you were somehow unavailable to attend that next meeting, it would mean that newly-elected Council At-Large Stacy Head would be prevented from having her named temporary successor Erroll George confirmed for her former District B seat. By the time of the next regular meeting on June 7, 2012, thirty days will have passed since Councilmember Head was sworn in as At-Large and this duty would be added to our Mayor’s already quite-full plate.

It would mean that the City Council would not be able to fulfill its collective duty to appoint the interim District B Councilmember.

While this could be interpreted as doing Mayor Landrieu a solid, I’d suggest instead that it adds to his current burdens and responsibilities, as he’d then have to take on the pesky and possibly inconvenient task of having to appoint someone of his choosing.

(Wouldn’t it be especially disingenuous if this scenario were somehow a planned and agreed-upon strategic maneuver that might have the Mayor’s blessing, and not simply an unfortunate simultaneous scheduling conflict?)