The proposed City Charter change that would require City Council confirmation of appointments by the Mayor or Chief Administrative Officer to head any executive branch department is shortsighted, politically motivated and superfluous. That’s what we said earlier this year when at-large council members J.P. Morrell and Helena Moreno first proposed the ordinance. We had hoped the measure would fail to make it out of Council; but if it did, we promised we would urge Orleans Parish voters to shoot this proposal down at the polls.
In New Orleans, City Council members are not elected to control the Mayor’s office, despite what Moreno and Morrell seem to think. Voting “no” on the measure not only protects the ability of the current mayor to choose top leadership for her administration, but it protects the ability of every duly elected mayor to follow. And that is vital!
That Moreno and Morrell would offer such a sweeping change to the city’s charter as a part of their political sparring with the current administration certainly forces us to question their leadership and ability to put the needs of the people of New Orleans over their own political aspirations.
There is a reason New Orleans has an elected mayor, rather than an appointed mayor. It establishes political leadership of the city.
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