As New Orleanians focus on whether the City Council will confirm Mayor LaToya Cantrell's choice for the permanent police chief position, they might also look closely at who's going to fix their streets.
As of Thursday, New Orleans didn't have a public works director. That means there's no one solely responsible for repairing city streets.
Wednesday was Sarah McLaughlin Porteous' last day as chief of staff for operations and infrastructure — and acting director of public works. She left city government for an executive position with the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority.
Porteous was the second acting director since Spring 2021, when the most recent permanent director left to take the same gig with Mandeville in St. Tammany Parish.
It's hard to get a big job done with a revolving door of supervisors.
City infrastructure chief Joe Threat had been project delivery manager with the Cantrell administration before the mayor named him deputy chief administrative officer for infrastructure and chief resilience officer.
The city's $2.2 billion street and waterline repair project excites residents with the promise of smooth-riding streets devoid of axle-breaking potholes. Sometimes the wait is just too long, though.
Threat relied on Porteous as his go-to person for day-to-day operations, supervising project managers and others who stay on top of things to get the jobs done.
During a Wednesday morning breakfast program hosted by the Bureau of Governmental Research, Threat and Porteous sat side-by-side as they gave the audience a project overview.
Sarah McLaughlin Porteous and Joseph W. Threat, Sr. speak at a Bureau of Governmental Research breakfast briefing, Sept. 27, 2023.
At one point, BGR President and CEO Rebecca Mowbray asked audience members, “Of all of you out there, how many of you live in a neighborhood where you have seen a road construction project in your neighborhood start and then sit for more than 6 months without anything happening? Show of hands.”
About half of the 85 people attending raised their hands.
Threat doesn't have Porteous anymore, and he needs someone to fill her shoes. Meanwhile, it's all on him. "You're looking at the acting public works director," he said.
His official job already requires too much of his time for him to have to be point person on the ground. He has to play point with FEMA officials to garner and manage millions of dollars dedicated to individual projects.
Threat told me after the program that there have been at least 27 people who want the public works job. One candidate would be perfect, he said, but that person isn't going to leave his job for an interim appointment, not even for $170,000 a year. The appointment requires City Council confirmation. That's not certain these days.
Last year, New Orleans voters gave the City Council the power to confirm or reject the mayor's department heads. That includes vetting the folks who lead the departments of police, fire, finance, sanitation, health, parks and parkways, property management, human services/juvenile justice, safety and permits, law — and public works.
Each department has a big slice of city government. The council now has sway over who's in charge — and making sure nominees hear clearly what council members and the public consider each department's responsibilities and challenges.
Recently, Cantrell has been fond of saying how many more days she has as mayor. Her second term ends in January 2026. As is almost always the case with elected executives in their second terms, Cantrell continues to see key appointed leaders leave her administration to take other jobs.
In supporting the City Charter change that gave the council veto power over key mayoral appointments, BGR noted last year that 80% of cities comparable to New Orleans have City Council confirmation processes for important positions.
I get the concept, and I understand the additional layer of oversight and accountability. But what Threat and the administration face today is a big reason I was concerned when the charter change was proposed.
What can we expect to get done to improve our quality of life and reduce violent crime with an interim police chief?
What can we expect to get done right now to improve our quality of life and fix our streets with an interim public works director?
Each mayor should have the right to assemble a team. But we've got immediate needs — and citizens are counting on leaders to make improvements right now.
The council wanted authority to vet key appointees, so now it must find a way to make the vetting process work smoothly. The city needs good people in permanent positions to do the important work that must get done. Now.
