2027 Proposed Budget Hearings - Day 4.

Mayor's Office Corps Leader

They are critical in doing that, and our goals are really aligned around being more efficient and making sure we're getting that engagement up in front. Intergovernmental relations. This is one that I don't think gets enough credit. Again, you talk about a smaller team. I think under the previous administration, they had eight full-time staff, and we've got three. They're dedicated. The focus really is how do we maximize support for the city of New Orleans at the federal level, at the state level, and then how do we work with our partners here on the council to ensure that we're moving ordinances, legislation forward, supporting the various departments within city government that have needs before the council. Again, I give Chuck Toney, who's our director of IGR, a lot of credit. He is very process-oriented and sees the need for us to improve our processes to make sure that things flow smoother, and that's been a big part of his focus for this year, and that'll continue into 2027. This is our newest office. I don't want to steal too much thunder because they'll be here, I believe, on October 20th. There's a committee, but Chris Ard has come over, and his focus in that Office of Population and Demographics, a big part of it is forward-looking to the census that's coming up in 2030, but also this current update that's happening now, local update of census addresses, which is a critical process to make sure that we are counted properly. There's a big part to get some of the hard-to-reach folks, so people that may not be native English speakers. When you think about the university students that both you, Council Member Harris, and you, Council Member Caron, have in your district, when there's new dorms that go up, ensuring that those dorms are registered in our system so we can properly collect those addresses, as well as in the development and apartment complexes. But I also want to make a note, some really critical operations around addressing in general, right? So not to go back to sanitation fee, but we know there are challenges with addressing that or the crux of the issues we had with collecting enough and making sure we're billing right. Chris's office is a critical part of the process moving forward, right? So when we have new eligible verified addresses, those go to Chris to confirm that we have the right addresses in the NOMAD system, the city has that addressed properly, and then gets handed off to another team to ensure that that's connected to Seward's World War account. So a lot of important work there, and I look forward to him presenting to the Council on the 20th. Ava Hurst, our ADA coordinator, both is kind of a front-line employee to kind of take a lot of the inbound questions, concerns that our residents have about ADA services with the city, but is also working with departments to make sure that they're fulfilling their duties and responsibilities. There's a big push right now with ITI because there's a lot of new guidelines from DOJ regarding the website and web and online services to make sure that they're set up for success by that deadline in April, and then also making sure that we're doing basic trainings for all of our departments so that they're able to serve the needs of all of our citizens regardless of their accessibility. With that, I'll take a break if there's questions. Happy to answer those. Yeah, I have a couple questions. The first is the presentation notes about $4,091,657 as the total for the 2026 budget, but the budget book has a discrepancy of 4.2. Do you know which is the correct number? What department codes are you looking at for the 2026 budget? What department codes are you looking at? I'm looking at the budget book where it has their total amount of 4.2 here. And then on the presentation it's $4,000,000. So it could be different department codes. I can say something. It could be different department codes that's included in here. Okay, I'll have Dominique get the department codes for you. Um The staff situation I get that you guys are down 20 people but the variance is $240,000. During 24k, what is that variance like what's included in that personnel? Yeah during the course of the year Office of population demographics a great example that was added in we had some transition for some other staff Dr. Jenny means is now as a special advisor the mayor Under the office of the mayor when it was previously under economic development And so those transitions and some coding with that led to that increase. Okay. I see you're just moving around personnel There are a couple brandy to the point of about budget lines there are a couple of codes and quest to co where the copiers and current releases are Different it's like three different coding. I just assume that you guys are consolidating all of those The leases for copiers the leases for we have a lot of getting as much as consolidated some of the expense We're in the mayor's office summer loops together in the CAO's office So we have looked at several different expenditures for both offices to try and figure out how to best realize cost Okay, so we are trying to consolidate all of those Look every penny counts.

Mayor's Office Corps Leader

So, um, I know it sounds crazy, but we're all poured in water and pens and paper all the things All right neighborhood engagement How many people do we have in neighborhood engagement right now So neighborhood engagement team has three and then we have two additional staffers that do community engagement Angel Wilson and Oliver Fletcher is that Do you foresee? Increasing those positions as we get into a better Place, I would love to increase a lot of positions Yeah, clearly I will tell you I think the work they do is critical Yeah I think when we talk about What our mission is what we're trying to do Having those credible people out in the community that are organizing leading on things like Civic Leadership Academy Those are all really valuable assets for us, right? I think the challenge is always is as we get more resources You want to be really thoughtful about where you are able to deploy those? And you know, the reality is we have a lot of needs and I look at communications. Jonah Gilmore is doing an incredible job He's got two full-time people under him, right? You know as we try to manage all the communication needs press conferences Dealing with the media. I'd love to get more support there again going back to IGR and Chuck Tony Amber and Liz are incredible. I'd love to get him some more support there And so I think as we get to that better place, which I know we're all expected in guiding the city towards that Yeah, I mean last last administration we had dedicated neighborhood engagement people for each district Which I thought was great if we could get there That would be awesome because it just takes the load off of our constituent services folks as well As you know, we each probably have I have four and a half people The rest of us, you know have five six people trying to manage our offices And so it's it's always helpful to have that extra neighborhood engagement person Yeah, I appreciate that it and just know we've got a lot of our team dedicated to helping to support that. So just at Thompson That that assistant is at the front desk Leo my Oliver Fletcher and then Sophia Landry on my team that wears many hats They are all actively responding to emails a lot of times things are escalated from those constituent service folks We're funneling those up to the right contacts within the various departments, but more would always Yeah, and and thank you to Oliver Fletcher who is a proud district B resident. Let's go very engaged Any questions for IGR, I don't are your buttons working I pressed it All right, I see I see I see councilmember McCarran councilmember Willard councilmember green Well, thank you all for presenting. I'm just gonna piggyback on what councilmember Harris said about neighborhood engagement We get asked like every single meeting Every single neighborhood meeting like when is at least coming back to neighborhood engagement? I know at least is working hard at Department of Public Works but that it sort of just brings everything together and and threads that needle between council and Administration and I know, you know neighborhood engagement does great work. I spoke at their Their civic leadership Academy in fact like I took that class several years ago and it's wonderful that they're able to still put that on but It would be a huge huge help to our council offices if there were additional Staffing there because you know, the residents are so used to it I mean, they love us obviously, but they like to have that connection. They felt like Someone else from the administration was also attending their neighborhood meetings by by helping out and being there. So Whatever we can do to provide additional support and additional people there Would be very helpful from from my standpoint as a councilmember and as councilmember Harris just said so that's that's my one big thing Today about neighborhood engagement and thank you guys. I see y'all here appreciate all the work that you're doing Thank you Thank You councilmember Willard. All right. Thank you Kevin Renee. Thank you guys for coming down today. Just a couple of questions it looks like the 27 budget has 27 and a half FTEs Down 43 from this year Were those positions that were that went unfilled and were vacant or is that further? reductions moving from 26 to 27 So so some of that has to do with what the mayor changed when she came into office That's when some of the changes the majority are happened at the beginning of this year. Okay, so where the change is, okay Yes, okay, so those changes occurred already And we're just budgeting there's some that are also going to occur as we as Kevin alluded to some of the increase in decrease So those numbers reflect The updates already, correct? Okay For IGR it looks like the budget may be increasing a little bit. It has personnel listed at 8 for 27 Can can we get a list of who's included in that? Yeah, I'll double check that in the budget You can just update the org chart to reflect what area but the org chart is listed there To count but we can reflect which ones are in which area for budget codes. Yes, okay Yeah, just I didn't think we had that many people there So if we could some of them that may not be an IGR different places like the front desk miss Loretta She falls on that budget code. Got you. Okay, and a rehearsal 88 coordinator as well falls under the IGR budget. Okay We can we can verify that and get you the correct. Okay. All right. That was that was my questions.

Mayor's Office Corps Leader

Thank you guys I'd like to add to the neighborhood engagement discussion by just saying Thank you to the Office of Neighborhood Engagement on Saturday past For example, I attended a seminar at the mosquito and termite and rodent control board With over 200 people and they heard from department head they heard from the Representatives who are put in place to make decisions in important areas and just like last night with the number of people I had A chance to go to multiple nights out against crime Our citizens want to engage our residents want to engage and neighborhood engagement The name says what it does it engages the neighborhoods and make sure that they understand and have access to information that can help them So I'm willing to make some of the tough decisions that are gonna have to be made I know that it's been put on us and we'll have some discussion about it but neighborhood engagement is an important process of making people feel that the city of New Orleans is willing to answer their Questions and that in some respects that their tax dollars are being spent well when you hear from in one day safety and permits and the Office of Department of Code Enforcement and you hear from homeless services and strategies and you hear from police You have a chance to know that all of those offices are doing something every day and that's what neighborhood engagement provides an opportunity to have that done So I'll work with you on that and council members to help the staff that office. Thank you council.

Kevin D'Olio, Director of Aviation

What this project does, and we'll be at 90% completion by the end of this year, is brings on an additional baggage screening equipment for TSA, so that's going to give us an extra 25% screening capacity in that luggage that needs to be screened by TSA, and we anticipate that that will, that extra machine will be online and functional starting at the Thanksgiving holiday, so that's going to really give us a benefit right there for screening that bags. As the Director had already shared, we're very excited about our Express Shuttle Connector Road, which actually helps us get those shuttles from our South Campus, which is our employee shuttle, our Conrac shuttle, which is from the rental car facilities, as well as the employee shuttle to get employees to and from. That is on track. Again, also, we anticipate doing a soft opening and getting that done and in place to start testing and getting opened by the Thanksgiving Day holiday period. The other project that's important is our North-South Runway. That North-South Runway is over 20 years old and being good stewards, as we are, of the aviation assets that we have. It's replacing the whole center portion of that runway, what's called a keel. That whole center portion, all 7,100 foot of that runway is getting replaced. That project is on target and on task. And actually, we anticipate bringing that back online here in the coming weeks so that the full utilization of our full airport infrastructure for the runways will be active by November. And then, lastly, is we're initiating a new project. That project is the demolition of select portions of our South Campus facility. And pretty much, it's the oldest portions. You know, when we moved over to the new terminal, we left a facility that was already 60 years old. And that's pretty much the old concourses A, B, in the easternmost portion of the old facility. It will be coming down to make way for future development and opportunities for aviation uses into the future. Okay. Thank you, Walter. On SLDBE participation, which has been very strong at the airport, I'll ask Philistine Ferrand to speak to that quickly. Good morning, Philistine Ferrand, DVLO at Louis Armstrong Airport. Our participation on the SLDBE program, as the director said, is very strong. We're currently obtaining 58.29% participation on an overall goal of 35%. The airport has adopted the city-wide 35% overall goal, and that's what we adhere to. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Philistine. Next slide is personnel. You'll note the number of budgeted positions and number of filled positions on this slide. And you'll see there's a number of unfilled positions. That's in part due to our work in this environment with decreased employments and so forth to keep our costs down. And also, that was an initiative on our part to pace how we fill our vacancies. And also, the airlines approached us as we were already in the mode and asked that we give consideration to pacing the hiring and filling of vacant positions as well in this environment, as employments have been down, which reduces overall revenues coming into the operation. So working to keep our costs down, working to keep costs low for the air carriers, we have paced how we're going about filling our vacancies. This next slide is our organizational chart. It is a standard airport organizational chart with six critical divisions running across the top and represented by the individuals I introduced here at the table today. Our goals for 2027. To complete a project I mentioned on a previous slide, the East Airport, East Apron Expansion Program, the Express Shuttle Connector Road Phase 2. So we spoke to the North Phase, which is really the most critical phase that we're doing first because that phase gives us the immediate benefit of pulling our traffic off Veterans Highway. The South Phase will connect those facilities on the south side by all on Airport Connector Road. And that's to be completed at least 75% complete that phase by the end of next year. And Walter spoke to the Baggage Handling System Expansion Project, expect to be complete 100% this year. I mentioned earlier the overflow parking lots will be done by the second quarter of 2027. The South Campus Demo, complete 100% this year. And also continue ongoing to work to maintain a reasonable cost per employment for our airline stakeholders at the airport and to meet SLBBE goals. Air service is an ongoing and constant effort to ensure air carriers are aware of opportunities in the market and then service those opportunities. The budget summary and request, I'll turn it to Norman White. Good morning. As the director spoke to earlier, it was our goal to reduce the cost so that gets passed on to customers in the fair state as reasonable as possible given the economic condition of our economy. And we did a pretty good job of that. Basically, our cost increased somewhere between 3 to 4%. A large part of that was in the salary category, we increased benefits, right? That's across the entire spectrum. Healthcare costs increased and that was given to us up and through the city. We did hire maybe additional three positions in our customer service experience area because we need a little bit there, but that's generally all the increased costs that we have in the personnel service area. Operational costs did increase, large part of police service, fire service, emergency services, those line items increased as well. Had some, a little bit of increases in what we consider our contract costs as those contracts went out. Inflation costs in those contracts increased, but they were nominal. But overall, we only increased roughly around 3.7% of our entire budget. Okay. All right. Thank you, Norman. With that, if there's any questions. Why does it take forever to get your bags at the airport? Literally, it's like the worst airport to get luggage from. Is this new technology that you're talking about, the scanner, going to help with the timing? No.

Kevin D'Olio, Director of Aviation

Given one that grew up in the industry, I was a long-time airline person. Baggage delivery to the claim area is totally our responsibility. It's, you know, our measures, at that time, we're 15, within 15 minutes, the first bag needs to hit the claim area. You don't always see that, but they work real hard at it, air carriers. But, you know, it's the air carrier's responsibility. You'll see varying delivery times on the part if you use different carriers coming in. And there could be reasons they can't control on their part if they have bin door issues or some other type issues that delays delivery of bags to the claim area. I can't speak to their issues, but I can tell you it's not something the airport can step in and take over the function. So it's not your fault, it's the carrier's fault. No, it's the responsibility of the carriers to deliver bags to the claim area. And whatever that time is, that's the time that carrier's able to get them there. Man, I hate checking my bags at home. I hate it. The worst. Council Member Murrell. Thank you. This is kind of like a gray sense of my previous questions. Subcommittee meetings. Do you have them? Committee meetings are... I didn't ask for committee meetings. I asked for the subcommittees of the airport committee, the building committee, contracts, the like. Are they meeting? That's the airport committee. And they meet as a chairman determines the need to meet. And the chairman of the committee, of the subcommittee. I can tell you our new chair coming in is looking at the committees now and determining how we go forward as to frequencies of meetings and committee make-ups and so forth. So there's more to come there. Because obviously, like I said, gray sense because I don't see... I think there's a significant problem with public transparency when you have committees for an airport that deal with very important topics that literally haven't met in years. And I'm not exaggerating. They have not met in years. And it's disconcerting when you go on a website for the airport, you click on committees and you see nothing. Especially when there are very important issues. When I talk to, for example, DBEs who are interested in seeing what's going on with contracting and they want to attend a contracting meeting to see how contracting is going forward and they find out there aren't contracting meetings and there haven't been meetings for years, it really undermines public confidence that there is a transparent process and the availability to witness the process in a way that is inclusive. And that kind of leads to my next question, and it's something I've heard from DBEs in particular, how often are we putting out RFPs for these larger contracts? Do we have contracts that are 6, 8 and 10 years old that have never been re-let again? Not to my knowledge. So you're saying there's no contracts for any professional services that are more than 6 years old that have been re-bid? I can't say there's none. I would say I don't believe there is. And I can tell you our process as we contract and as we procure services and award contracts, it's a set term and that term also will normally have the ability to extend maybe 3 years in that overall term. But we typically run about a 5 year overall term with the base and then renewals, annual renewals on top of that. So we don't lock it down for the full period on the front end. We'll give maybe 3 of the 5 years or 2 of the 5 years or 1 of the 5 years and have the ability to pull it back by not awarding an extension or awarding the next year on the contract when that comes up. There may be some for different reasons that have gone beyond that, but that's our practice primarily. And any that have gone beyond are for good reason and the process is working to replace those as well. So that's how we work. And as far as transparency with committees, the items that go to the committees, if you look at our board agendas, they're broken down by the respective committees as to the items on our overall board agenda. Those items are fully discussed. There's questions in our board meetings. So as to transparency, more people have access and hear the discussion on those topics through the full board meeting than would hear it in a committee meeting. And those questions that would be asked in a committee meeting, if there was any questions, are asked in a full board meeting. But I'll give you that the committees established. Again, I mentioned the new chair is looking at how they function going forward. I can tell you also there was a good period of time at the airport where the airport went from committees to no committees and then reestablished the committees as you see them today. So again, that's essentially how we work there. The committees are not required, but we did establish committees. And as needed, they've met in the past. That will be different going forward. As I know, the new chair is looking at the matter as well. I'll give you an opportunity to supplement the record and maybe give me a list of all of the contracts that are older than six years old. I will tell you that with all due respect, and I do mean that not in a disrespectful way, but with all due respect, sincerely, that's not how committee structures work. If you have committee discussion at an airport meeting, the same meeting in which a vote is going to take place, that is not full consideration. The purpose of having a committee in these processes is that when the committee meets, if the public or the members of that committee have questions, there is a period of consideration between the committee meeting and the board meeting when a vote is to take place. If you put an item on the agenda for a vote, that is not committee consideration. That is, here's the information, now vote. And that is not transparent.

Kevin D'Olio, Director of Aviation

Because I can tell you having talked to former and current board members, including board members who served previously years ago on the airport board, part of that transparency is that when members of the public attend a committee and say, I am concerned about X, it gives the board member and the airport the opportunity to, if they cannot answer the question... at that board meeting, there is a period in which that question can be answered at the latter meeting. So I hear you. If there was an opportunity where the airport had no committees, I think that is tremendously troubling on our very basic level as far as consideration. I say that because I have, I understand the airport as a closed system when it comes to money. The airport does not generate funds for the city of New Orleans. That's not, it's not that I advocate for this because I think somehow it will help our budget crisis. It can't. But part of the benefit of the airport being operated as a subdivision of the city, to your point, you point out very extensively in your report, DB participation for an example. We're able to reflect to the public that there is a benefit to the city operating an airport such as we meet or exceed DB participation. If that is not transparent and if I'm hearing from DB saying I don't know when I can bid on a contract, I am in a competing field and it seems like these contracts are perpetual, that undermines all of that. Because if the same eight people are getting all the contracts forever, that's great for those eight people. But for the other people who want opportunities, that is not helpful. So I've been talking to the chairman, extensively the new chairman, Mr. Williams. He shares the mayor and I's responsibility that this has to be a transparent process. And part of that is returning to a committee structure where the average person can ask questions when items are brought up. My last question, which is I know that there recently was some announcements regarding the old terminal and construction moving forward. Were our airline partners consulted or aware of that announcement before it happened? I ask that in a way that the public asks, why didn't you take care of making that? Why didn't you make that owner sell that property? Sure. Sure. I'm going to do two things. I'm going to have the senior chief deputy address it and also ask Latifa Harris to come up to the microphone, who is the chief deputy in charge of that division as well. But generally speaking, property owners have property rights. We have a constitution that we have to adhere to. There's due process involved in that as well. So it's not quite as simple as just taking privately owned property away from a private citizen. But even if they don't show up for a hearing, we still don't have the right to do any action that violates the constitution. They actually have a right to not show up for the hearing. We simply put a fine or a lien on the property that if they don't pay, stays on the property until such time as the property is sold. Am I correct? Correct. So there's sort of two things. There's the idea of what's an acute emergency and what powers the city may have when something presents an imminent danger. That's separate and apart from something that might just present, you know, it's a property that's not in imminent danger but is an eyesore. It's not being properly cared for. It's not. And some of those people are, if they're not paying their property taxes and not doing other things, eventually those things can go to a tax sale. And it's part of what Councilmember Morrell was asking about before, right, where the city can sell that and then hopefully get those properties back into commerce. But there is this other piece where maybe I am paying my taxes but I'm not doing anything to the property. And so all the city can do is essentially get assessed fees either through a hearing process and then record those against the property. And we have no ability to collect them unless and until the property is sold. The city has over $100 million in fines that are technically owed to the city. But at the end of the day, we can't make someone sell a property a lot, for example, that has fines on it simply because it has fines on it. That's correct. Look, this is for information purposes. And it also affects the budget discussion because people need to understand that these things happen in city government and there are limitations. And many times some of the limitations are imposed upon us by state constitution and state laws. Okay, so one of the tools that we have to deal with properties that are in violation and are blighted is lien foreclosure. And that is something that I think that I've talked to the city attorney about resourcing more heavily in the future. So that means that when something does have a lien, we do have a limited number of cases. But as you might have remembered from the chart, we have a staff of three attorneys. And so we are working on selling properties, but that's nowhere near enough. The need for us to sell property and lien foreclosure far outweighs the budget that we have available to do so and the staff. So that is something we want to look at. We also are looking at things to do with adjudicated properties. As a member of my team, I'm a member of those groups that are looking at ways that the city can look at redevelopment, the way the city can look at affordable housing. So all of those things are being looked at and worked together. I think in this particular circumstance that of the particular house collapse, there was work ongoing that was occurring. I think at some point that may have contributed to the issues, but that is something that the city certainly can go after the owner for. And if the property is not in use, there can be consequences. But as Gwyneth was saying, people do have their individual rights, and we are a strong properties rights state.

Kevin D'Olio, Director of Aviation

So we do have to provide adequate notice to all owners. And it's not just an instantaneous process, although I know people wish that it could be. Yes, I understand. This is a good opportunity to explain. There are many, there are thousands of blighted, not thousands, there are many hundreds of blighted lots within a certain community, for example, in my district. But one of the challenges of government and of your office is that we can impose fines and have a hearing, and then they come and cut the lot, and then don't cut it for another year. Yeah. Can you speak on that for a second? Again, this is for public consumption and also for support of when you all make the case for resources that are needed. I want folks to understand the thousands of opportunities that there exist for people to simply get around city regulations by doing something for a temporary measure. I think it's going to take a multifaceted solution. So I think we have to look at our existing legislation. We have to look at things on the state level. State laws. Absolutely. We have to look at what we can do to leverage property that is not in use and put it in hands of people, put it back into commerce. And that is something that doesn't involve just one department, but just engaging in abatement year after year on abandoned property is not the answer. So we have to figure out collectively what those answers are, and there's going to be more than one answer. Thank you. And more than one tool for the toolbox. Yeah, I would just say we're not going to lean our way out of that problem. It does require a concerted, you know, consistent effort and the resources in terms of personnel, the resources in terms of, and like I said, included in this year's budget, which wasn't included in last year's budget, is even the funds to record the liens, to build the record towards, you know, particular actions being taken. So it's an intractable problem and it's going to take all hands on deck to kind of work through it. Yes. I appreciate you raising the issue. Yes. And I appreciate your responses. I appreciate your availability. It's important. And I tell people to watch these meetings and I share it with them. No matter how many are watching right now, at the end of the day, you can still watch it tonight. You can still watch it tomorrow. I want people to understand that these processes the city goes through relative to blighted property, which gives me another opportunity to talk about blighted property. Can you talk about the role that your office plays with the Department of Code Enforcement in terms of trying to secure judgments and what processes are involved to get to the stage of demolition, which is a taking of public property? So we have two methods by which we may demolish property. We can determine that they're in an emergency condition and that they're in an imminent danger condition. And then concurrently, code enforcement and safety and permits can make that determination and then send a work order to the vendor after following the legal process in the ordinance. The second way is through having a hearing and getting a demolition order from the hearing officer. So the Department of Code Enforcement will ask for that based on the conditions of the property that maybe it doesn't rise to the level of something that needs an emergency demolition, but it is something that needs to be demolished because it's deteriorated past a certain point where rehab is not tenable, even if you sell the property, for instance, in a sheriff sale or, you know, say in a sale of adjudicated property. But before the city can do that, we must reach out to all potential owners. Absolutely. So whether it's a great-grandmother and there are 150 people in the queue or whether it's one person and there are only two children in the queue, can you talk about that for a second? What difficulties are imposed in certain areas where successions and wills have not been done? So we have historically property in the city of New Orleans where post-Katrina, many properties were passed on without successions being done, without, you know, basically opening a case to close out an estate was done. So it was passed on generationally without that. And at times, we've talked to family members that, you know, they can't decide what they want to do with property. Post-Katrina was a chaotic time. People couldn't always decide what to do with those type of resources. They maybe did not have the resources to do successions. And so when we're providing notice on abandoned property, what we've advised code enforcement to do is take those extra steps to see if they can determine who the heirs are of the owners so that they have an opportunity. And some people have reached out and said, hey, I didn't know that our family members had ownership in this property and we are interested and we are interested in starting to take care of it to keep our, you know, to keep our family legacy. So I think that we provide adequate notice and that allows us to foreclose in the future potentially or we provide adequate notice and it maybe makes somebody take note and take responsibility for something that's in their family. Blighted properties have such a negative impact on certain communities. You can drive on certain streets in communities where you see some change taking place, but you can go to some other streets and it's all blighted lot. That costs the city a lot of money. Unfortunately, much is imposed upon us by state laws and the like. I hope that your office, and we talked about it, will tell us how we can all work with the state of Louisiana to maybe without ignoring private property rights, to get to the point where we can do things a bit faster because they have such a negative impact on our city. I am actively looking for really constructive opportunities to work well with the state of Louisiana in the interest of the citizen of New Orleans. So I would welcome such an opportunity.

Kevin D'Olio, Director of Aviation

And so am I. Yes. Thank you. We talked about it for a while. Thank you. And the last thing I'll say is CivicSource, I shouldn't have mentioned a company name, but getting an outside entity that does the same thing in many other cities causes a problem because they don't give the attentions that they need, that we need as a city. So as part of the long-term plan in certain areas, looking at outside counsel, there are certain contracts that we can look at too and see maybe we can have established within our own city attorney's office. Well-paid attorneys who would do that work that's so important because right now our city is kind of challenged because we can't move forward on a lot that CivicSource was doing. So it's something to recognize that sometimes paying our own attorneys correctly and creating within our offices the ability to get things done that outside contractors sometimes can't do as well as us, it would be in the best interest of the City of New Orleans to look at that closely. And I know that this administration is doing so. Public Works is the first example, if you will. Absolutely. You know, the people who work for the city, who work in the department, are interested. We are residents. We're constituents. We are part of these neighborhoods. We have the same observations. And so, you know, we're interested where sometimes contractors aren't. So I think that's, you know, I share that perspective. And it's something we're certainly interested in doing as we're able and resourced to do it. Right. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for being available to answer these questions. This has been very valuable. And I think that make your case for what is needed within your office. And this was an opportunity, and I'll be sharing this with many people through my newsletter, but I'll be sharing it in other ways, too. But folks need to know what sometimes happens behind the scenes and what restrictions the city is under, based especially on state law, but on just natural law, too. Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council Member Green. You're welcome.

Judges of Municipal and Traffic Court

And I know how great community court has been. So, according to this budget, your community court funding is around 2 48 32. Is that right? They're getting approximately 400. No, no, I'm sorry. About 300,000 out of the grant. We're funding the other portion, which is about another 300,000. Okay, so you're looking at 300,000 to plug the whole of the grant that expires. Are you sure that grant is gonna expire? Do not. We we're not sure. We're waiting for you to hear that right now. Any day. When will you? Will you let us know when you know we will? Because I mean, personally, I know how great community court is, especially given the fact that we now have state laws that criminalize sleeping outside. And those cases, I think, I believe, we're gonna come to your court for you to adjudicate, and you can get those folks into community court to try to get them the help that they need and use the social workers to do that. It's unfortunate that the state passed such a law without providing municipalities with the funding to actually adjudicate those cases number one and number to take care of the people who are adjudicated under that new statute. So just keep us updated on that funding, and that's that's, you know, something that I will advocate for. Another thing is, you know, one of the arguments made to it, the legislature at the time, was we have 19 million visitors that come to New Orleans, right? Yeah. So those people who may be going to the French Quarter or, you know, whatever, partying it up, doing it, they come before us, right? So we're dealing with those folks, and, you know, we're dealing with them with two less judges to help us carry that burden. Yeah, we certainly have a different volume of visitors than the rest of the state, and, unfortunately, some of those visitors can get into trouble. I do like the idea of adjudicating some of these property owners and blights, and so I'd love to partner with you on that. I'm sure Council Member Green and the rest of the council members would, too. I know there is a working group on blight happening right now, so we'll figure out who to touch base with, which one of y'all to touch base with, or your staff, to figure out how we can plug you into that. We're glad to do it. Any questions, Council Member McCarry? No, Judge, I'd like to also thank you. You're a young guy compared to me, and I'm not planning to necessarily go anywhere, but that's the way the law works, so I don't want to wish you the best as you move forward in doing the practicing or whatever, as well as the relaxing and the financing, but thank you for doing the job in the way that the job had to be done, which was, very honestly, that's why a lot of folks never really heard about the work that you did, because you were doing the right thing, so thank you very much for all of those years of work, and I wish you the best as you move forward. And so thank you, you judges, for the work that you do, again, kind of quietly, but it's important work. Community court is important, and I do look forward to be redundant. You've heard me mention the blight situation before. I know serving people is hard, because many times we have properties that are owned by folks who live out of town, and it's just hard to get to them. But we just can't continue forever to have these lots growing over into other people's houses, into the streets, and houses falling. So whatever we can do to get some of those owners held more accountable, I'm ready to suggest whatever we need to do involving the city attorney and the like. Glad to do it. I wanted to say too, between Joey and Bobby, it's 50 years of resource that the court's gonna lose. You guys did a great job for this city, and we're gonna miss them sorely. I know. I hear you, and I'm sorry that y'all had to sit here through the exciting budget world. If that's it for you, you are welcome to go, and we can talk about day five, which will be exciting, and I hear action packed. So pack your lunch. Oh, no. Thank you all. With that, I'll move to adjourn. Second. Seconded by Council Member Green. All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned.