Citizen engagement got its own line in the 2011 budget brought before the City Council today by Mayor Mitch Landrieu. Among the items funded within the $126 million proposed budget for the Mayor’s Office is $483,950 for the creation of an Office of Neighborhood and Citizen Engagement. If funded, the office would be the city’s […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Initial jail plan envisioned 8,000 inmates by 2020
Despite publicly committing to a “smaller, safer jail” in recent weeks, Sheriff Marlin Gusman sent architects a plan calling for 8,000 beds in his complex by 2020.
Posted inSchools
Struggling charter high school again booted from its home
By January, Priestly School of Architecture and Construction seniors Tamara Handy and Jason Lang will have attended classes at three campuses in four years, moving with the peripatetic New Orleans charter high school.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Landrieu wants city to measure up, literally, using Comstat-like metrics
In a budget address given this morning at Gallier Hall, Mayor Mitch Landrieu stressed his administration’s commitment to higher performance standards for city government. “For too long, the citizens of New Orleans have not gotten their money’s worth,” he said. “Because it’s not just about money, it’s leadership and results. I’m serious about performance, and […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Sheriff ordered to pay $650,000 to tourists who were wrongly imprisoned
A jury has awarded $649,300 to two Ohio men who spent almost six weeks in custody after Katrina, despite never being charged with a crime.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Brees needs daddy time
New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees recently tweeted a plea for help. We are looking for boy names starting with a “b” that are uncommon. Not in most baby name books. Thanks to all for any ideas Since I’m always ready to assist, here are two uncommon baby names. The first is Ballantine, an homage […]
Posted inSchools
Charter schools not required to comply with proposal to help special ed students
Without a change in policy, the state can’t require New Orleans charter schools to participate in a centralized enrollment system and other reforms proposed Tuesday to help schools better serve New Orleans’ special-needs students. Among the changes proposed by State Education Superintendent Paul Pastorek is that all schools use a common application form, and that […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Sheriff: Not my job to release uncharged Katrina inmates
Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman told a jury today that he was not to blame for failing to release uncharged inmates from his jails during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Instead, the sheriff argued that it was up to Municipal Court judges to order the release of his inmates, and nobody ever told him to […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Citizen-participation plan gets chilly reception from council
Despite years of work involving dozens of meetings with thousands of residents, a plan to create a formal system for citizen interaction with city government has run into a buzz saw of opposition, with the most objection recent coming from a city council member. The Committee for a Better New Orleans has been devising and […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Never-charged inmates describe “putrid” Katrina jail
Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman appeared in U.S. District Court today to defend his office against a civil-rights lawsuit by two Ohio men who spent weeks in custody following Hurricane Katrina, despite never being charged with a crime. The men were passing through New Orleans for a night on a road trip, but they ended […]