Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who built a multi-billion dollar business and led the nation’s largest city for three terms, has a motto: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” The next mayor of New Orleans should tattoo those words on his or her forehead.
Unfortunately, management is not a sexy political topic. It lacks the drama and controversy of other campaign themes. However, New Orleans voters — and they want change. Much of that change is about management, which should be the main issue in the mayoral election.
None of the current major (Helena Moreno, Oliver Thomas and Arthur Hunter) are known for managing large, complex organizations. Pointing this out isn’t intended to demean the jobs they’ve held, which are all important and provide excellent experience, such as service on the City Council, in the state Legislature and as a Criminal Court judge. The point is that voters need to figure out how to pick a candidate for a job that will have much to do with management.
Regardless of his or her background, the next mayor will need plenty of help reforming and running city government — an operation with a $1.8 billion budget, about 5,000 employees and three dozen separate bureaucracies. The mayor must be the leader who sets policy and shapes the culture of City Hall. Also essential is appointing the right chief administrative officer, with top-flight professional staff and competent, responsive department heads.
Ron Faucheux
Importantly, the next city administration needs well-crafted priorities, clear goals and the right metrics to allow the public to constantly track the performance of each program and agency. That’s the only way to measure progress.
Every week, it seems, there’s another story about management gaps. State auditors recently found inadequate inspections of homeless shelters. Before that, the city hired a Boston consulting firm to show it how to spend federal dollars for street repairs, which have been plagued with delays and cost overruns. This week, the Bureau of Governmental Research slammed the city’s financial management practices which, in the event of a financial crisis, could lead to service cuts, increased taxes and fees and a lower credit rating.
Management may not be a sexy issue, but for New Orleans in 2025, it’s a vital one.
In a I proposed questions for mayoral candidates to answer. Since then, I’ve received suggestions from readers for additional questions to ask the candidates. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Let’s start with empty buildings. One reader asks: “How do we eliminate the Plaza Tower before it falls and kills someone?” and “How do we do something positive with Charity Hospital, which has been abandoned since after Katrina?”
Another question ties the overabundance of blight to the shortage of affordable housing: “How do we quickly tear down dangerous and dilapidated structures and put affordable housing in their place?”
One question compared New Orleans to its neighbor: “Why does local government work so much better in Jefferson Parish than it does in New Orleans?”
On taxes: “New Orleans has one of the highest sales taxes in the country. Will you lower it or keep raising it?”
On public employee unions: “The City Council made it easier for city employees to organize and form unions. Will this expansion of collective bargaining end up costing more money and force higher taxes?”
On climate change: “Do you think the next mayor can do anything about the effects of climate change?”
On jobs: “Will adding low-paying hotel and restaurant jobs ever reduce poverty?” And: “If Dallas, Minneapolis, Austin and even Holly Ridge, Louisiana, can attract an AI data center that creates thousands of jobs, why can’t New Orleans?”
On crime: “How do we keep the criminals in jail instead of roaming around with their ankle bracelets on, robbing and shooting people?” Also: “Do you think the police chief should be elected rather than appointed?
Here’s one that probes an appreciation of city history: “Over the past 50 years, who was the best mayor of New Orleans? Who was the worst?”
Plenty of good questions from our readers. Now we need answers from the candidates.