New Orleans City Council
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Cynthia Hedge-Morrell releases statement regarding City Council absence
Posted by Kevin Allman on Tue, May 22, 2012 at 12:40 PM
There has been rampant speculation in regards to my decision to leave the early May council meeting as well as my decision to not return to subsequent council meetings.I appreciate this opportunity to clear the air regarding these circumstances and my decisions.
I left the early May council meeting because I was extremely frustrated by the politicizing of the Council At Large legislation, which is focused on ensuring that our at-large elected representatives receive a majority vote of the people.
Landrieu's 2012 State of the City address
Posted by Kevin Allman on Tue, May 22, 2012 at 10:51 AM
Mayor Mitch Landrieu is scheduled to deliver his midterm 2012 State of the City address at 2 pm this afternoon at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts in Armstrong Park. Last year's SOTC was held against the backdrop of the traffic-camera controversy and a soaring murder rate. This year's speech is expected to have more details on new plans to reduce the murder rate — and, of course, there's also the question of whether the New Orleans City Council will be there in toto.
We'll be liveblogging here from around 1:30-1:45 pm until the end of the mayor's speech. Join us.
Friday, May 18, 2012
WDSU: Hedge-Morrell will return for next Council meeting
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Fri, May 18, 2012 at 2:43 PM
Which, oh by the way, is scheduled for June 7, nearly one week after the interim appointment of the now-vacant District B seat gets kicked to the Mayor's office.
WDSU reports that Hedge-Morrell notified city officials in an email earlier this week that she did not plan to attend any meetings until July. Then, today...
But two days after the email was received by more than a dozen people connected to the Council, Pugh sent a second message:Please be advised Councilmember Morrell will be in attendance at the June 7th and 21st Council meeting since the dates of the conferences has (sic) changed.
Update: Hedge-Morrell, Johnson met with mayor before boycotting Wednesday and Thursday meetings
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Fri, May 18, 2012 at 10:35 AM
According to Cynthia Hedge-Morrell's personal calendar, which was obtained by Gambit through a public records request, she and fellow absentee Council member Jon Johnson were scheduled to meet with Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Tuesday May 15, the day before City Council was scheduled to meet to wrap up its unfinished May 3 agenda.
Lena Stewart, Hedge-Morrell's chief of staff, confirmed that the meeting with Landrieu did, indeed, take place as scheduled. However, she added, she could comment on what was discussed as she was not present for the meeting and neither Council member discussed it with her.
Among the items leftover from May 3 — and subsequently placed on the May 16 and May 17 agendas — was the confirmation of Errol George as an interim appointment to the now-vacant District B seat. Neither Hedge-Morrell nor Johnson attended that meeting. They were again absent from a May 17 regular Council meeting.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Hedge-Morrell, Johnson again absent from City Council meeting
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Thu, May 17, 2012 at 1:17 PM
Once again, no quorum today, as only four members, one short of quorum, were present in City Council Chambers for what was supposed to be the May 17 regular meeting.
However... "We can't conduct any of the city's business," said Clerk of Council Peggy Lewis following today's predictable roll call (Cynthia Hedge-Morrell: Absent, Jon Johnson: Absent).
What followed was basically more of the same. Instead of the 42-page agenda, which included a number of items from the unfinished May 3 regular meeting, we got a few presentations: a wrap-up of Navy Week, a proclamation honoring Unity GNO on the occasion of its 20th anniversary and lots of righteous indignation from the four Council members who decided to come to work. That last non-agenda item largely centered around City Council's continued inability to confirm the interim appointment of Errol George to the District B Council seat, which has been vacant since Stacy Head was sworn as an at-large Council member on May 2.
(More after the jump)
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
City Council standoff: The emails are flying
Posted by Kevin Allman on Wed, May 16, 2012 at 5:57 PM
- Will they be at City Council tomorrow?
Council president Jackie Clarkson and Councilwoman At-Large Stacy Head have fired off a statement regarding the quorum stalemate at the council — while AWOL councilmembers Jon Johnson and Cynthia Hedge-Morrell have done the same.
The takeaway: Clarkson and Head find the standoff "disappointing," but will try for a quorum again tomorrow morning at the council's regular meeting. Meanwhile, Hedge-Morrell and Johnson want you to know "the absence of City Council legislative action at its May 3rd regular meeting" in no way will affect the ongoing project to fix the city's streetlights ... which sounds like they won't be in chambers tomorrow. (Though we certainly will. Join us on Twitter tomorrow morning, won't you?)
Under the jump: She said she said she said he said ...
No quorum: Hedge-Morrell, Johnson absent at special City Council meeting
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Wed, May 16, 2012 at 10:11 AM
City Council members Cynthia Hedge-Morrell and Jon Johnson were both no-shows today at a City Council meeting today, once again leaving the city's legislative branch with only four present members, one short of quorum, and unable to vote on any legislation. The four present members — at-large Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson, at-large Councilwoman Stacy Head, District C Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer and District A Councilwoman Susan Guidry — were, however, able to make the most of what quickly turned into, basically, a press event, shaming the two absent members for bringing city government to a standstill.
"There is a lot of city business at stake that's lying dormant, and that's disgraceful," Clarkson said.
Today's meeting was called in order to wrap Council's May 3 agenda, still unfinished after Hedge-Morrell and Johnson walked out in the middle of that meeting. Among those items was the confirmation of urban planning consultant Errol George as the interim District B Council member. That seat has been vacant since Head assumed the at-large seat.
(More after the jump)
Friday, May 4, 2012
Last group of inmates leaves House of Detention
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Fri, May 4, 2012 at 11:53 AM
"The House of Detention is now a closed chapter in the history of the sheriff's office and the city of New Orleans," Gusman said at a press conference, minutes before the few remaining HOD residents boarded a bus taking them to other Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office facilities.
More than 600 OPP inmates — all of them Orleans Parish, rather than state, detainees — have been moved out of the facility since Gusman's April 10 announcement, Gusman said. To make room for them, 400 post-conviction state inmates, recently housed in other OPP buildings, have been handed over to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections to be placed in other facilities throughout the state.
(More after the jump)
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Financial advisory firm begins audit of city's criminal justice system
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 3:52 PM
Public Financial Management Group (PFM), a Philadelphia-based advisory firm that specializes in government finance, this week began a two-month-long financial and operational review of the city's entire criminal justice system. Its findings will ultimately be used as a guide in writing the departmental budgets for the New Orleans Police Department, the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office and the city's court system, Criminal Justice Commissioner James Carter said today at a meeting of the Orleans District Law Enforcement Council.
David Eichenthal, director of PFM's Chattanooga, Tenn. office, who's leading the project, said the company will conduct a full review of those departments' budgets, identify operational deficiencies in each and propose new and theoretically more effective strategies.
PFM has a consulting contract with New Orleans government going back to 2007, when it was hired for just under $1 million to develop a five-year plan to fix the city's finances. That yearlong contract has since been renewed five times — a total value of nearly $4.5 million over the five year period, city records show.
Eichethal said PFM staff have already begun reaching out to "key stakeholders" (meaning high-ranking police and sheriff's office officials, judges and other court personnel) for interviews.
"All these folks will be contacting you," Carter said to meeting attendees, including NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas, Sheriff Marlin Gusman and Municipal Court Chief Judge Paul Sens. "This will literally determine our budgeting process.
PFM will be back in town on April 23 and May 7, one week before and one week after April 30, when the city puts out initial requests for departmental budget offers for the 2013 fiscal year. PFM is scheduled to have a draft report completed by late May or early June.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Gusman will close House of Detention
Posted by Charles Maldonado on Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 3:47 PM
The Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office will begin closing one of its facilities, the city-owned House of Detention, beginning today, Sheriff Marlin Gusman announced this afternoon. Gusman, speaking at a press conference outside the construction site for the Orleans Parish Prison's (OPP) new kitchen and warehouse facility, set to open later this year, said the decision came partly as a result of criticism from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), including a report released just this week which found OPP to have a particularly high number of sexual assaults.
"Certainly the mounting criticism, the inspections by the federal people," were a factor in the decision to close the House of Detention, Gusman said today.
The most recent report by the Review Panel on Prison Rape included testimony from former OPP inmates who claim to have suffered multiple rapes at the jail and say they received little protection from sheriff's deputies. Gusman claimed that DOJ chose not to include his office's rebuttals to the findings.
That, in turn, came less than a week after the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a class-action lawsuit against Gusman citing inhumane conditions at the jail. See this week's lead news for more on that.
(More after the jump)
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