MAYOR
CANTRELL RELEASES FIRST QUARTER CHECK-IN TO UPDATE RESIDENTS ON PROGRESS MADE
Quarterly departmental
progress reports now available online
NEW ORLEANS – Mayor LaToya Cantrell today updated residents with an overview of the first 90 days of her administration to examine the progress made and to identify next steps heading into the final quarter of 2018.
 This first quarter check-in serves several purposes:
- Provides context for the challenges the City faces when effecting a transfer of executive, administrative and infrastructural oversight
- Identifies and highlights the initial progress made
- Offers a glimpse of the hard work moving forward into the second quarter as the City faces serious budget challenges
The overview, produced with support from the Chief Administrative Office and City department heads, revealed a range of achievements throughout the administration. Those achievements include improvements to infrastructure, enhanced community engagement, establishment of executive leadership in key departments, and accountability.
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Points of progress include:
Infrastructure
- During
the first 90 days of the Cantrell Administration, the City and Sewerage & Water Board (S&WB) have
greatly accelerated their spending of the nearly $2 billion in funds from
the FEMA settlement for streets and sub-surface drainage. In fact, the
spending of S&WB’s funds for infrastructure is double that than was spent
during the entire period between the obligation of this settlement in July
2016 through the Mayor’s inauguration on May 7, 2018. Additionally, 25
percent of the total city streets funding that has been spent from this
same settlement has been expended since May 7 alone.
- Hired
a new Executive Director for the Sewerage & Water Board – Ghassan
Korban, former commissioner of Milwaukee's Department of Public Works, who
will start in September.
- Completed
a series of capital projects, including reopened NORD facilities and libraries,
and the first phase of the Brechtel Lagoon.
Housing
- Awarded
$10 million in HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME), Community
Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Neighborhood Housing Improvement Fund
(NHIF) funds for the development of affordable housing in the City of New
Orleans.
Public Safety
- Established
a Gun Violence Reduction Council that will serve as an advisory committee
for the Mayor to develop innovative approaches to reduce gun violence,
which accounts for 90 percent of murders each year in New Orleans.
- Completed
a comprehensive study of the use of traffic cameras to ensure that they
maintain public safety and are used fairly and strategically throughout
the city.
- Increased
fire-safety and awareness campaigns that have led to sharp increases in
data collection and sharing, smoke-alarm system installation, fire-hydrant
testing, commercial occupancy inspections, and public engagement.
City Operations
- Initiated
a search for a Chief Executive Officer for the New Orleans Recreation Development
(NORD) Commission, as NORD has reopened the last two NORD facilities that
had been closed since Hurricane Katrina, with renovations completed at
other facilities.
- Established
an Office of Transportation, followed by the appointment of its director,
Laura Bryan, and two others to the Regional Transit Authority’s board of
commissioners.
- Created
a Procurement Office inside the Department of Finance to ensure more
efficient, inclusive and transparent procedures for City contracting.
- Set
the framework for “Clean Up New Orleans,” a campaign that will launch in
mid-September and will galvanize efforts in several departments, including
Sanitation, Public Works, Parks and Parkways, and Code Enforcement to
create a comprehensive clean-up effort throughout the city.
Inclusion
- Established an Office of Youth and Families, headed by Emily Wolff, to
address persistent issues related to health care, education and inclusion,
and to strengthen the well-being of New Orleans' youth.
- Set
new leadership and doubled staff for the Human Relations Commission for
the first time in two decades, with first steps including the reassignment
of the Commission’s Advisory Board and the establishment of an LGBTQ+ Task
Force to focus on challenges faced by communities of color as well as the
transgender community.
“At the beginning of this administration, I committed to the
people of New Orleans that we would hit the ground running, with a City Hall
that is intentional, accountable and transparent, and this overview shows that
we are taking important first steps,” Mayor Cantrell said. “We are
particularly proud of the way we have listened to our people and met them where
they are, so that our solutions come from the ground up and not the top down.
But we are mindful of the fact that we are literally only days into this work,
and that we need to keep building momentum to address the serious challenges we
face.
“We must continue our work to keep our people safe and healthy, to
fix our broken infrastructure, address inequities, and to create and encourage
economic opportunity that can help our people enjoy the quality of life they
deserve,” Mayor Cantrell continued.
Much of the first quarter check-in, while revealing significant
progress, also reveals much of the work done is the laying of groundwork that
should yield more results at the next quarterly check-in toward the end of the
year. Several “next steps” are noted in the department reports.
That said, Mayor Cantrell noted that perspective is needed as the
City continues its work, which includes preparing a new budget for the next
fiscal year. This budget will seek to efficiently and effectively expand City services
where needed, streamline revenue collection, and continue oversight.
“As with any administration, we began our work knowing we would
have advantages, and we would have our challenges. Now that we have a clearer
grasp of the challenges we’ve inherited, we can put a sharper focus on how to
address those challenges effectively and move this city forward," Mayor
Cantrell continued.
You can review PDFs of these reports here.
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