Continuing a two-week trend of top city officials asking for more money in next year’s budget, leaders of both the Law and the Safety and Permits departments shook their tin cups Tuesday at a City Council budget hearing.
Sheriff Marlin Gusman would be willing to move away from being paid a daily rate by the city per inmate, he told a City Council budget hearing this afternoon.
The City Council focused on its public-safety budget today, scrutinizing the money it spends on its police and fire departments, ambulance, and emergency preparedness.
The New Orleans Police Department arrested 20,000 people needlessly on warrants last year at a cost to taxpayers of almost $2 million, said Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas at a City Council budget hearing this morning.
The City Council held the first of three budget hearings on public safety today, with Councilwoman Susan Guidry leading a charge for more openness and efficiency in the system.
Today’s City Council budget hearings focused on providing better city openness and customer service, and on the expansion of Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s “open and effective government” budget.
Fresh off a financing fight that still leaves the city without the full services to round up stray animals and address related problems, Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s budget calls for further cuts to the contract that puts private dogcatchers on the street.
Though presenters at the second day of City Council budget hearings enthusiastically outlined their funding requests for city programs aimed at children and families, most council members said the time – and the budget – isn’t right to begin new projects and urged them to find money elsewhere.
Seated on the elevated dais at City Council chambers today, Councilwoman Stacy Head rubbed her hands together and mouthed “money.”
